After a few years at LaMarque Keijzer co-founded Combat, a communications agency that focuses on adolescents. Nevertheless, he needed to satisfy his passion for sailing and in 1997 he accepted an invitation of the Dutch team on the Whitbread Round The World Race, Brunel/Sunergy, to participate. As back-up crew Simon Keijzer was also responsible for communication and sponsorship logistics. In 1999 and 2000 he was part of the media team that covered the Louis Vuitton Cup and the America’s Cup in New Zealand. During the Olympic Games in Sydney (2000) he handled the media and sponsorship logistics of the Dutch Olympic sailing team. Keijzer also worked during the Volvo Ocean Race (2001-2002) as communications and content manager for the Swedish team Assa Abloy.
In 2002, after acquiring extensive experience at the specific junction between sponsorship management, sports communication and media relations, Simon Keijzer decided to extend his work field to other kind of sports and took a job for NOC*NSF (the Dutch Olympic Federation) as manager press relations and communication advisor. In 2004 this lead to a position as manager media relations and publications with the Amsterdam Football Club Ajax. Keijzer worked for Ajax for a few years until in 2007 he and Arnold Mensinga decided to found Miles, a company that specialises in emotional branding.
Miles: Linking brands > content > people