Ryan Bowling has spent his three-decade career working in marketing and public relations, whether in-house at large companies like Sony or Mars, at an agency like FleishmanHillard, or working for his own company, Thrill Communications. 

“Through all of these experiences, I’m always looking at how we weave entertainment and sports through all different mediums,” Bowling said.

Ahead of upcoming major global sporting events in Los Angeles, Bowling has assembled a new kind of agency, built to scale up and scale down as needed, and offering international companies and organizations all the support they might need to activate in L.A. around these events. These include the upcoming FIFA World Cup, Super Bowl LXI in 2027, the 2028 Summer Olympics and, looking down the road, the 2034 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

“I appreciate the power of sport as a way to tell impactful stories,” he said.

Bowling chatted with Spotlight about the launch of Local Action Marketing, and its specialized and flexible approach to serving clients.

‍Spotlight: How did you come up with the idea for Local Action Marketing, as well as the idea for the structure of it?

‍Ryan Bowling: It's an exciting time to be in L.A. We're in the golden decade of sport that started last year. Here in LA, we have the World Cup  and the NBA All-Star game. Then we have Super Bowl LXI in 2027, and the summer Olympics and Paralympics in 2028. Further out, we’re looking at Salt Lake City, with the Winter Games in 2034 but just in L.A., it's an exciting time with all sports coming here. 

That brings a lot of visiting countries who want to activate. My experience is whether you’re going out of town or halfway around the world, you always need that go-to on-the-ground trusted source. We saw that as an opportunity to establish Local Action Marketing. With all these sporting events coming up, it was a unique time to launch a firm that’s dedicated to that.

‍Spotlight: I know you have people all over the world. Are you going to be focused mostly in L.A. or is it more like wherever the event is, we can help? 

Bowling: Local Action Marketing is universal, and it's a model that can be applied globally. We have affiliates around the world. We have an affiliate in the Pacific, managing Australia and New Zealand. We have one in South Africa, managing Sub-Saharan Africa. We have an affiliate in the UAE, managing  North Africa and the Middle East, along with Europe, the U.K., and China. 

Each of them has a couple of roles. First and foremost is to be a local resource to help connect sporting bodies and companies that want to activate around L.A. sporting events. Our overall mission  is about how we help entities navigate, stand out and thrive around L.A. sporting events. If we do that successfully, international organizations will have a positive experience. 

Our affiliates are there so if potential clients are halfway around the world, they may not speak English well and they might never have been to L.A., but having someone available that speaks their language and that they can go meet for coffee or lunch locally, that creates a more seamless and pleasant experience. We’re finding that through these discussions, people are saying, ‘we know what you do in L.A., but could you do this in this market?’ And we can because all of our affiliate leads have at least 20-plus years experience where they’ve worked in-house or held leadership roles at an agency or been entrepreneurial as business owners.

‍Spotlight: How did you recruit your team members?

‍Bowling: When we came up with the idea for Local Action Marketing, we wanted it to be full-service-plus marketing. It's very scalable. We can be ad hoc, or we can provide full soup to nuts, and that can be location scouting and fact-finding missions to PR and media buying to experiential production, video, graphic design, photography and also legal services. 

As we put together those services, we realized we needed specialized leads in certain areas so I went to my network. I have worked with many of these people throughout my career. They’ve been my teammates so it’s been great to get back together with those folks.

‍Spotlight: So everyone on your team handles the function in which they specialize? 

 Bowling: That's what's unique about what we do. We have highly specialized leads for those services. But the value of our team is that these people are not only highly specialized, they're also business leaders. So they can also not just do video and photography, for example, they can also lead projects and assemble teams.

We also have a lawyer on the team. For international organizations that are coming to LA and want to activate, there are permitting and local regulations. We can help make that a seamless, pleasant experience by having local legal support that we offer. That's being led by a woman on our team named Veronica Besmer. She has an extensive history of working with international companies setting up here in the U.S.. 

We're also being asked about security, transportation and accommodation. That's something we can also provide so as we're talking with Olympic and Paralympic committees and sporting organizations, they are asking, ‘can you help with transportation?’ Because the perception of coming to L.A. is that it may be difficult to get around. 

‍Spotlight: Are you planning on contracting your team members in and out as needed?

‍Bowling: Yes, they’re all contracting in and out on a per-event basis. That's a big value-add for our clients because we have very low overhead so we can be very competitive in our pricing and ensure senior level expertise at all times. 

‍Spotlight: You mention in the release that you are planning on activating around the 2028 summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Is that true for the Paralympics as well? 

‍Bowling: Yes, we support athletes with disabilities. The disability community is very important for us. Being a go-to resource for the community, I've worked in Paralympic sports with my other business. 

I have a client that's a U.S. Olympic and Paralympic training site. We launched a campaign for them earlier this year. There are also multiple members on my team that have worked in the Paralympic space. We have an affiliate in Europe, Alexis Schäfer, who’s the former marketing and commercial director of the International Paralympic Committee. Our affiliate in the Pacific, Rachel Froggatt, was the commercial and marketing director for Paralympics New Zealand. We also have a decorated swimmer, Anna Johannes, who won the bronze medal at the Paralympic Games in London in 2012.

We want to ensure that we can be a resource for the disability community and for athletes with disabilities, ensuring that for all events we’re providing accessible and inclusive programming.

We have a really unique opportunity here in L.A. to elevate those athletes and their incredible stories, and integrate them into the culture. 

It hits on a very deep level for me as an Angelino. We've been through a lot in the past year, from the fires to the geopolitical. Sports are such an incredible force to bring out the best of humanity and bridge global communities closer together. That brings a lot of purpose and meaning for what we can do to leverage these moments to bridge communities closer together, particularly international organizations, and to make it a seamless experience for them to come here and create stories with enduring impact.

‍Spotlight: What’s the first big event that will send Local Action Marketing off and running? 

‍Bowling: The first big moment is December 5, which is the draw for the World Cup. We’ll have 48 qualified countries and at that point, we'll find out who's playing where. After that, it will be a dash to be a local marketing resource for teams, brands and agencies from those countries to help them get things set up before the event starts in June. Matches are being played in cities in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, and L.A. is hosting eight matches. We’re a local marketing resource for other host cities in the U.S. and Canada. 

These are more than sporting matches. They’re big pop culture and business moments. That’s what we’re set up for. We are primarily focused on being a local trusted source on the ground to help international organizations navigate, stand out, and thrive.