The Vancouver office of Cossette has been split into two separate agencies: Cossette West, which will be led by Nadine Wilson, and Dare, a U.K. agency brand acquired by Cossette in 2007.
This marks Dare’s first full-service operation in North America. It will be led by John Hall, formerly general manager at Cossette West and now senior vice-president and managing partner.
Dare’s other key executives include Sandy Fleischer, former general manager of Fjord Interactive and now senior VP and managing partner, and co-executive creative directors Rob Sweetman and Bryan Collins.
The announcement follows Cossette Inc.’s decision to form a holding company called Vision7 International to house two divisions–Cossette, which consolidates and integrates many of the home-grown brands such as Fjord and Koo Creative, and Esprit de Corps, which holds most of the acquired international operations.
“This is something that’s been in the works for quite some time, we’ve taken a business model from the UK and taking the best of the Fjord group and the good strong elements of the agency and brought them together,” said Hall.
About half of Dare’s 75 staff are digital professionals while the other half has a traditional advertising agency background, said Fleischer, adding that the agency has a focus on international growth.
Cossette West and Dare will work on different floors of its existing office and operate entirely separately. It’s possible that they could even pitch against each other for the same piece of business, said Hall.
The existing western client base is being split, with Dare getting Tourism BC, BC Lottery Corporation, Manitoba Telecom, BMW, Virgin, Sony and Vodaphone.
McDonald’s Restaurants, Future Shop, the Aboriginal Television Network and General Mills will stay with Cossette West.
