PARIS — W Communications has opened an office in Paris, after winning a global brief for sports fashion retailer Lids.

The Paris office will be led by the agency’s global chief marketing officer, Ash Black, who joined the firm in September. It will provide local support for Lids’ French operations and sports and entertainment briefs from existing clients, including upcoming activities around the Paris 2024 Olympics.

W kicked off the retained account for Lids – co-owned by US rapper Meek Mill — this week with the first of a series of activations with major sports brands: the National Basketball Association (NBA) launch of the collectable ‘NBA Paris’ sneaker for influencers and media at Lids’ Paris store.

The partnership will also involve working with the Paris Saint Germain football team and the National Football League (NFL). W Communications’ specialist teams across experiential (WXP), sports (W Sports & Entertainment) and content creation (W Studio) will work on the Lids account throughout 2024.

W first worked with Lids in October last year, when it launched Paris St Germain’s first global store in London, including experiential production and media relations.

The Paris operation joins London, Singapore and New York in W’s network. Founder and CEO Warren Johnson said its expansion in EMEA would enable more local market PR, experiential, and influencer work for its clients in the consumer tech, spirits and travel sectors.

“It is in W’s DNA to solve our client’s challenges wherever that takes us, creatively or physically, and upcoming campaign work makes Paris a no-brainer as part of our global expansion,” he said. “We have seen a huge appetite from our clients to invest in the region, including the Paris 2024 games, and having a local base of creativity and connectivity as part of our package will pay dividends for our clients and the ongoing growth of W.”

Black added: “Lids are the perfect client for W, matching our own strategy to authentically connect brands with sub-cultures with local expertise at its heart. The upcoming NBA project in Paris is the type of work that allows us to showcase WXP’s world-class brand experience offering and W Sports’ sector expertise.”

W Communications co-CEO Frankie Cory confirmed last week she was leaving the agency.