As it continues to carve a niche for itself in a difficult market that has taken a heavy toll on its business once already, Vancouver agency Station X has hired Josh Budd as creative director.
Budd was most recently associate creative director at Cossette Toronto where he worked on accounts such as McDonald’s, Bank of Montreal, Future Shop and PlayStation.
“There is a tremendous opportunity at Station X,” said Budd. “[Station X’s] software background puts us in a unique position to build a very different type of agency. The industry has changed and we are changing our behaviours, structure, environment and offering.”
Budd takes over from Brent Wheeler, who until 2007 was a creative director with the agency’s previous incarnation, TBWA\Vancouver. He was brought back on contract by chief strategic officer Jim Southcott to oversee the agency’s May 2011 relaunch as Station X after the old business filed for creditor protection in February, 2011.
The agency ran as Trees and Rocks for a few months before emerging as Station X after local content management software firm Marqui Solutions bought the assets. Station X no longer does media planning or buying, but it has gained a digital team and has 36 employees across Station X and Marqui, including about a dozen former TBWA employees.
Southcott said that Station X spent its first six months focussing on existing clients (including the BC Children’s Hospital Foundation, 7-Eleven and Pacific Blue Cross, among others), but is now starting to pursue new business.
The focus at TBWA was to “create amazing work that would leap borders,” said Southcott. “We found that very difficult to replicate. Now it’s B.C. first and from there we’ll move outward.”
The agency has notched up several new business wins in recent months: the Mark Anthony Group’s Hell’s Gate Beer brand, Nesters, a chain of grocery stores owned by the Overwaitea Group and a social marketing campaign for Metro Vancouver.
Southcott said that, nearly a year after relaunching the business, Station X appears to have shaken off the stigma of creditor protection; debts have been cleared and the new agency is on solid ground.
“That was part of the appeal of putting this merger together,” he said. “The holding company is very well funded by local investors, and that was a key thing for the clients and staff that came over.”
