Dare Vancouver has been converted into Camp Pacific, a new agency under Vision7 International.
The new shop will retain all of Dare’s clients (which include the BC Children’s Hospital Foundation, BC Lottery Corporation, GoAuto, and the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation), and all Dare employees will remain on-board.
Although Dare continues as an agency brand in the U.K, it is no longer part of Vision7, which sold its North American assets to Blue Focus International late last year. As a result, Vision7 has been slowly phasing out the Dare name in Canada, beginning with Dare Toronto in April.
Derek Shorkey, senior vice-president and managing partner at Camp Pacific (pictured), called the new agency “an evolution of Dare,” and said the move represents more than just a name change.
The Camp Pacific team, he said, are busy planning a “re-deployment and re-positioning” based on a “different approach to work, and what clients are asking for.
“We’ve got senior clients literally asking for a different type of thinking to help guide and lead them,” Shorkey said. “We’re trying to focus on putting work out there that, as we say, doesn’t pollute. There’s lots more platforms and lots more emerging media and more ways to communicate and articulate brands. But that doesn’t mean people are putting out better work, just because there’s more of it. In fact it’s just creating more pollution. One of the commitments or operating principles we’re making both to ourselves and to the clients is, we’re not going to pollute, and we’re not going to add to that.
“The name Camp Pacific just thematically plays into that whole intrepid explorer, bush pilot, taking people into that unchartered territory idea, where amazing things happen.”
In early August, Camp Pacific will move into a new, open-concept office space, specifically designed to reflect the shop’s collaborative approach, Shorkey added.
