Hogben Becomes MD Of LimeLight Sports

James Hogben has been promoted to Managing Director of LimeLight Sports. Hogben, who has been with the agency for 13 years, will assume his new role with immediate effect. He had previously been Creative Director working across all LimeLight accounts with a focus on the Nike partnership, driving new opportunities and leading the strategy team. He will continue to report directly to Craig Dews, CEO of the LimeLight Sports Group, who will now oversee the group’s growing divisions, including LimeLight Sports Club - the Group’s portfolio of owned events, which recently acquired Virgin Sport. A third division will launch in the new year.

Hogben’s appointment is part of LimeLight’s growth strategy, which will also see LimeLight COO, Tom Kerry, move into a Group role alongside Dews with a particular focus on wider industry collaborations. Former Account Directors Gemma Marks and Ian Hayne are also promoted to Joint Client Services Director. Marks and Hayne have cultivated LimeLight’s largest and longest standing accounts and the move allows them to support Hogben’s efforts to diversify LimeLight’s offer to their existing client base and secure new work.

The sports marketing and mass participation sector was hit very hard by the pandemic with nearly all work impacted, postponed or cancelled. However, against a complex backdrop the agency has retained its full portfolio of partners and performed a number of successful pivots into the virtual space, resulting in increased awareness, engagement, fundraising and significant future opportunities. Furthermore, LimeLight successfully staged Blenheim Triathlon under Covid restrictions and is experiencing sell out demand for 2021 events giving a strong indication of an extremely positive future for the sector.

Commenting on his new role, James Hogben said, “I am really looking forward to working with so many talented people at such an exciting time for LimeLight Sports. I remain hugely proud of what we’ve achieved in 2020, despite the difficulties and am excited by the increased demand for both our proposition and participation sport. I’m delighted to be leading the agency forward and it is great to see our strategy for accelerated growth coming to life”.

CEO of LimeLight Sports Group, Craig Dews said, “I am delighted that three of our most talented and experienced “LimeLighters” will form an exciting new management team for the agency. Perversely, the pandemic and its impact on our work in 2020 has enabled us to accelerate our plans to grow LimeLight Sports Group significantly strengthening our offering to brands, partners and charities. It has also elevated the importance of our overall proposition – physical health, mental wellbeing and community have become very much more important in people’s lives and I believe major brands will increasingly be focussing on the active world and the mass participation sports sector as a key element of their marketing plans in the post pandemic world”.