A Vancouver digital shop proving it’s ready to be a strategic powerhouse on the world stage
In June, during the International Festival of Creativity in Cannes, Blast Radius rented an apartment along the famed Promenade de la Croisette.
It draped a banner over the balcony so that everyone who walked by on their way to the festival would see the Blast Radius logo. The agency wanted to make its presence known.
Over the past few years, the Vancouver-born shop has grown into a truly world-class digital agency brand with offices in New York, London and Paris, doing work for clients like Starbucks, Levi’s and BMW. But in 2012 founder and CEO Gurval Caer had a plan to expand marketer perceptions of what Blast Radius can do.
Caer had long been pushing clients to see Blast Radius as not only a digital agency, but also one capable of assisting in brand building work from the concept stage. He wanted a bigger chunk of client’s business and knew a stronger presence at Cannes would help put Blast Radius on the radar of chief marketing officers. He sent his largest delegation ever, made a dozen submissions and twice during the week hosted “The Cure”—breakfast and smoothies for those overserved the night before.
His plan worked.
The agency enjoyed more strong growth, winning clients and for the first time had a real impact on the awards scene – including two Lions in Cannes for #RiseAbove, a Nike Jordan campaign led by its global headquarters in Vancouver – an important development for an agency getting serious about its own brand. More importantly, Blast Radius was winning more branding and strategy work.
The Nike campaign is a prime example of the type of business Caer is after. Blast Radius came up with the concept and filmed a series of short documentary spots in China it then promoted through a contest on Instagram. After the campaign was underway, Nike Jordan’s traditional agency, Wieden+Kennedy, followed up with an Olympic-themed TV spot.
Award-winning creative isn’t always enough, though. After 12 years as Nike Jordan’s digital agency of record, the brand ended the relationship this year. Despite the loss, Blast Radius continues to work on several Nike accounts, including Nike Canada and Nike Golf. It also more than made up for the setback by bringing in new clients like Sony, Chanel, Disney and Dr Pepper.
The agency proved its capabilities again when it filmed its first TV spot, for Nike Canada and Foot Locker. Initially Nike Canada asked its traditional agency, Wieden+Kennedy, to create a TV spot but after declining the agency’s proposal due to budget restraints, it asked Blast to produce the commercial instead.
According to Caer, the final product pleased the client and both Foot Locker and Nike Canada attributed a 20% retail sales increase to the ad. “We were thrilled to show we can be an agency that can carry your brand across multiple media, digital and even TV,” he says.
Other clients, including Starbucks and Disney, an account it won this year, have increasingly been turning to Blast Radius for branding and to come up with solutions to their business problems.
Much of the agency’s current growth is driven by its offices in New York and Toronto, which hired three senior executives this year to service Nike Canada and land new business. The agency lured David Jones from Proximity BBDO to serve as vice-president of social strategy as well as Steve Di Lorenzo, formerly of the Hive and Taxi, now a senior creative. Steve Harmer also returned to fill a new general manager position in Toronto after a two year sabbatical.
Globally Caer says he still has eye on China, though the Shanghai office, originally planned for this year, is still on hold. Instead it’s partnering with another Wunderman agency, a local Shanghai shop called Agenda that it’s collaborated with on projects for Starbucks, Nivea and Nike Jordan.
“We don’t believe we’re going to be credible by saying that we have three people in Shanghai,” he says. “We think we’ll be credible by partnering and amalgamating with an agency that shares our perspective on marketing and digital that we’ve been working with for years.”
Though Blast Radius is expanding into Asia and has solidified its presence in the U.S. and Europe, Caer says its roots remain firmly Canadian.
“The brand lives in many parts of the world. It lives in Canada, America, Europe,” he says. “We’re becoming more global and we’re reaching out to more markets, but I think there is going to be very little doubt as you interact with Blast that you’re in fact interacting with a Canadian brand.”
