NEW YORK Top British interactive agency Dare still wants to crack the U.S. market, but it's going to take a bit longer than initially expected.
The Cossette Communications shop lost James Cooper, the creative director it tapped to lead its foray into New York, after just three months. Cooper, who defected from Anomaly to rejoin Dare to pursue its U.S. expansion, has signed on with Saatchi & Saatchi as interactive creative director.
Dare never officially launched in the U.S. Instead, it hired Cooper in January as an "advance guard" to explore the opportunities here and did not take office space.
In the end, Cooper decided that while Dare can thrive here, it would take longer than expected.
"We've spent a very productive few months working with him and he has helped us gather insight into what U.S. clients might want from Dare," agency planning partner John Owen said in an e-mail. "We are now pretty clear about this. We're also clear that it's going to take time and [it] is going to require a lot of hard work."
Dare is among the top agencies in London, winning agency of the year honors there four out of the last five years. Its clients include Sony, BMW and Vodafone.
Cooper and Dare recently worked with Anomaly on the launch of a brand of cosmetics for YouTube star Lauren Luke. Cooper had worked on the project while at Anomaly and saw it through at Dare. He spent two years at Dare following stints at Agency Republic, Ogilvy & Mather and D'Arcy. He relocated to New York to join Anomaly in November 2007.
"There's still an opportunity there, but for me it would probably take a while," he said.
Saatchi creative chief Gerry Graf wooed Cooper with the promise of making digital an integral part of integrated campaigns for big brands, something that i-shops are often unable to do in their role as specialists, Cooper said.
"The idea is to get everyone to do everything rather than in silos," he said. "I don't think digital will exist as a category in two years time."
A few U.K. digital shops have expanded into the New York, a historically difficult market to crack. Profero, Poke and Steak Digital have all set up operations here in recent years.
Dare still aims to open in New York and Cooper's departure won't affect its plans, according to Owen. "He's been offered a big job in a great agency and we wish him all the best," he wrote. "His decision does not affect our thinking or lessen our ambition. We are continuing to explore client opportunities. But as we have said all along, we will only launch if and when the time is right."
