Stefan Hawes is the new general manager for Blast Radius in Amsterdam. Hawes, who was most recently managing director at the now defunct TBWA\Vancouver, has worked on the client side as vice-president marketing at Coastal Contacts, and prior to that he set up and ran the Tribal DDB office in San Francisco.
Hawes said more than 80 people work out of the Amsterdam office and clients include Michelin, Nivea and Tommy Hilfiger. Globally, Blast Radius has a blue chip client list that includes Starbucks, Nike and Microsoft.
“Blast Radius has had huge growth in Europe over the last couple of years,” said Hawes, adding that the company has offices in London, Paris and plans to open another in Germany.
WPP bought the Vancouver-based interactive marketing agency in 2007 and it is closely aligned with Wunderman
Hawes said that he wasn’t tempted to join Station X, the company formed from the ashes of the former Bryant, Fulton & Shee, which operated as TBWA\Vancouver for the last few years.
“It’s so difficult to build something successful in the [Vancouver] market without killing yourself,” he said. “When you are a small agency you are fighting for a $50,000 project and you are up against Dare and DDB and everybody else because they are just as desperate for a little $50,000 project–it’s ridiculous.
“I would argue that there is more creative talent in Vancouver per capita or per dollar of advertising business then anywhere in the world. All these people who want to live here and there isn’t the agency economy to support it.”
