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what does the client do?’ we asked.‘Sports,’ Roger replied. Ourinstant response: ‘When can we

see them?’We’ve come to the prestigious Soho

Square to look at the new extension toWasserman Media Group’s London home.Wasserman Media Group is a sport andentertainment marketing agency founded byCasey Wasserman and headquartered in LosAngeles. The firm operates within thedisciplines of media rights, athleterepresentation, sales and sponsorship, actionsports, and consulting services.

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We don’t normally beginour case studies byrevealing how wesourced them, but we’regoing to do just that here.Long-term Mixcontributor, writer,collaborator andTechnique supremoRoger Croft gave us theheads-up about aparticularly impressiveproject he’d beeninvolved with. Rogerknows the standard of theprojects we look tofeature, and so wenaturally said that we’dbe keen to learn a littlemore about it.

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Wasserman’s Global Media experts arestrategic advisors for clients in the UK,Europe, USA and other internationalmarkets.

The athlete representation team assistsclients in numerous sports, football, cycling,boxing and rowing to name but a few. Herein the UK, the Group represents leadingsports stars including Steven Gerrard, JackWilshere, Mark Cavendish and AntonyOgogo.

We’re met by Tim Chadwick, UK CFOof Wasserman Media Group, and begin byasking him about the business itself – andwhether it is determined by, say, the footballseason (which is, as we speak, in its infancy).

‘We’re an all year round business –although football is a big part of the UKbusiness,’ Tim tells us. ‘Wasserman is anAmerican company and they wantedpresence in Europe. We were the biggestand the best (still are) at the time. At thattime the business was active across a largenumber of sports, but predominantlyfootball.

‘We moved in here in 2007 – SohoSquare fits with the business; we’re adynamic, international media company. It’salso really good for our clients – they likecoming into Soho and being part of themedia hub.’

We move on to discuss the project itself.Having already made Soho Square its home,the Group required more space – and, asTim explains, was also looking for a freshworkplace approach. ‘Wasserman waslooking to get some consistency throughoutthe offices,’ he reveals. ‘If you walk into our

office in New York, Washington or Miami,you know you’re in a Wasserman office. Wehave applied similar standards throughoutthe business.

‘When we took the space back at theend of 2006, we took both the 5th and the6th floor here, with a view to growing thebusiness. We initially sub-let the 6th floor –for three years – but once that period wasup we were definitely ready to take thatextra space.

‘The 5th floor has a completely differentlook – we’ve been there for five years nowand things move forward pretty quickly.Back then we really only had LA andLondon. There was no real comparison

between the offices back then – although Ishould say that downstairs worked well forus. Since then we have grown, we havemore offices and everything has becomemore consistent and standardised acrossthose offices.

‘The New York office was just finishingas we started this expansion. We had thesame designer – Tina Barnard – who hadalso worked on a big office in Raleigh,North Carolina for us. We also had the samearchitect – Tom Goffigon – who’s based inLA, working across these projects. Theyensured that the look and feel of everyoffice was consistent.’

To continue that consistency,Structuretone was brought in as fit-outcontractor – a role the firm had successfullyundertaken in New York.

Another of the big considerations herewas the sourcing and procurement ofproducts and materials. ‘Obviously, inAmerica we can source those products andmaterials quite easily. Here we’ve broughtpeople on board – such as Technique – tohelp us work around that.’

‘We had a relatively tight deadline. Wewere finished pretty much on the exact datethat we said. We wanted to be finished waybefore the Olympics this summer, and we’dalso acquired a business that was based inGolden Square and we wanted to integratethem into this building.

‘If you want to represent the best clients,then your office should reflect that ambitionand ours certainly does. Our clients reallylike it – they really appreciate the office andthe quality of the space here. We’ve hadpeople walk into here, who have previously

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4444444444been represented by other companies, andthey’ve said: ‘Wow, this is in a differentleague!’ This sets a different standard andreally reflects the overall service we as abusiness provide to all of our clients.

There’s more than a hint as to the natureof the business here, with Sky Sports TVand a series of impressive photos offootballers and other sports stars catchingthe eye – whilst ‘showing off ’ the Group’simpressive client roster and adding even

greater legitimacy and confidence toprospective new clients.

‘The overall look is much cleaner andthe artwork and the photographythroughout is all about our clients,’ Timexplains.

‘Our owner himself takes a very keeninterest in every aspect of the business – andcertainly takes a keen interest in ourproperty, our offices and the look and feelof our spaces and our branding. He has

worked with a paint brand in the US todevelop a special Wasserman White paintshade. We now have Wasserman Whitethroughout the whole building!’

Bright and brilliant – and we’re not justtalking about the paint. The results here arecertainly bright. ‘I can probably count, onthe fingers of both hands, the people whohave left this business over the past 10 years,’Tim proudly tells us. ‘We now have over 60people in here – and if you like sports thisis a great, great place to work. It’s fair to saythat everybody up here is pretty happy!’

And that is as good a result as anyWasserman could hope for on any sportingpitch. Speaking of which, are we likely tobump into any stars on our way backthrough the space? ‘We do get clientswandering in and out, but we’re notoverrun by football players and athletes,’Tim smiles. ‘Compared to ‘normal’ offices, itis exciting – in fact it’s magnificent. Oftenthough, we’re dealing with the individualagents.’

As we say our goodbyes to Tim wenotice that our Editor has sat himself backdown. We don’t think it’s because he doesn’tbelieve Tim about bumping into footballers,it’s just that, as a Liverpool fan, he has tohave that blind hope! We might be sometime

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essential ingredients | Client • Wasserman Media Group | Design • Tina Barnard Designs LLC www.tbdnc.com

Furniture Procurement & PM • Technique Resolutions www.techniqueresolutions.co.uk | PM • TGPMLA www.tgplma.com

Main Contractor • StructureTone www.structuretone.com

Systems Furniture • Teknion www.teknion.com

Task Seating Supply • Spacecraft www.spacecraftint.com Task

Seating • Knoll International www.knoll.com

Bespoke Joinery • Clarke Rendall www.clarkerendall.com