The Elevation Group is a music, sports and event management and production company based in the United States. The firm started in November 2002 following the acquisition, by Steve Lindecke and Denny Young, of IMG Motorsports from Mark McCormack’s IMG. Today, the firm focuses on music artist management, concert and festival production and sports marketing. Elevation is based in Cleveland, Ohio United States with additional personnel spread across offices located in Charlotte, Detroit and New York.
Early history (2003–2006) IMG senior executives, Denny Young and Steve Lindecke, formed Elevation Management LLC in November 2002. The cornerstones of Elevation were the acquisitions of IMG Motorsports and a number of IMG-operated events. Young and Lindecke also had plans for growth in the music business and in early 2003, Elevation created a joint venue with Allen Shapiro and the Mosaic Media Group. The Elevation/MMG partnership produced the Orchestrated Concert Series featuring acts including Duran Duran, Seal, LeAnn Rimes, The Counting Crows and Jewel. Elevation/MMG also created and produced the M&M’s rebranding partnership with Dick Clark Productions and ABC-TV via the New Year’s Rockin’ Eve.
During this time, Elevation managed the racing careers of NASCAR drivers Steve Park and the late Jason Leffler and IndyCar and Indy 500 Champion Gil de Ferran. Additionally, the firm managed various marketing functions for NASCAR Cup Series Champion and Daytona 500 Winner Dale Jarrett.
Motorsports
Elevation is the long-standing motorsports consulting and activation agency for M&M's and various other Mars North America brands including Snickers, Wrigley, Pedigree and Skittles. In 2012, M&M’s was awarded the NASCAR Marketing Achievement Award. Other Elevation NASCAR activation programs have included Budweiser, UPS, General Mills, Citizen Watch, The Home Depot and Albertsons.
Elevation partnered with Bryan Herta Autosport in 2010 and 2011 to field cars in Indianapolis 500. The team won the 2011 race with the late Dan Wheldon behind the wheel of the Honda-powered race car.
In 2013, Elevation added three-time Indy 500 Champion and Dancing with the Stars winner, Helio Castroneves to its motorsports management roster.
In September 2014, Elevation purchased a 40 percent stake in the Stadium Super Trucks; the series had caught Young's attention when it participated at X Games Austin 2014.
Event production
For nearly two decades, Elevation’s Steve Lindecke has worked closely with Olympic Gold Medalist Scott Hamilton to produce all of the Scott Hamilton & Friends skating events. These important fundraising events for cancer research take place in Cleveland, Nashville and Knoxville and have featured Olympic Gold Medalists including Kristi Yamaguchi, Katia Gordeeva, Dorothy Hamill, Meryl Davis/Charlie White, Brian Boitano, Tara Lapinski and many others. Each event is choreographed to live music with the events including musical artists Styx, Michael Bolton, LeAnn Rimes, Aretha Franklin, Cheap Trick and more.
Elevation partnered with Olympic Gold Medalist Karch Kiraly to present the Corona Light Wide Open beach volleyball tour in markets including Chicago, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Cincinnati, Seaside and Santa Cruz and the largest beach volleyball events in the USA including the US Open of Beach Volleyball and the Seaside Beach Volleyball Tournament (World Record Holder for most participants).
Music of Ireland
In 2007, Elevation partnered with Maryland Public Television to produce "Celtic Origins," a national PBS music television program featuring the original Riverdance choir, Anuna. The program which aired throughout the United States, included a companion soundtrack that reached #1 on the Billboard World Music Chart. In 2008, Elevation and MPT teamed up again with Anuna to air "Christmas Memories." The Christmas Memories soundtrack reached #90 on the Billboard Top 200 Pop Albums Chart, an unprecedented feat for a medieval choral group who featured many songs in non-English languages.
In 2009-10, Elevation teamed up with WNET-TV, MPT and Grammy Award winner, Moya Brennan to produce "The Music of Ireland" – a multi-part documentary on contemporary Irish Music. The series, featuring the greatest Irish artists of our time including U2, The Chieftains, The Script, The Clancy Brothers, The Corrs, Damien Rice, Glen Hansard and others won a 2011 Emmy Award for Entertainment Program/Special.