Wander Films has appointed Liam Dawson, former MD of Leeds digital marketing agency Grapple, as head of marketing.
The role is a new one for the award-winning Middlesbrough video marketing agency, and one which director Chloë Clover and partner Lou Tonner hopes will move them to the next level.
“The huge organic growth of Wander in the past few years has blown us all away, and we realised that we needed someone with tons of agency experience to come in to lead and develop our marketing team. Liam is just that person. He’s not only ran his own successful agencies, but as former MD of Grapple, he’s worked with some of the biggest brands on the planet.”
Dawson joins Wander as it embarks on a five-year plan to grow a number of brands within Wander and expand globally.
Teesside born and bred, Dawson graduated from Teesside University with a degree in media, technology and production. He launched Yuzu after a stint as a graphic designer and courseware developer for Royal Sun Alliance. After seven years of success with Yuzu, Liam decided to expand his knowledge across marketing and in 2007 became an Account Director at Leeds full-service agency, england, which had a team of 60 in the North and 30 in Kent.
For the last 12 months of his three-year tenure, Liam ran the agency before being headhunted by Digital Welly, which later rebranded as Grapple with Liam as MD, creating memorable digital experiences for some of the biggest brands in the world, including Danone, Sony Music and Crabbie’s.
After 10 years, Liam felt it was the right time to exit, and he returned to his Teesside roots, setting up a consultancy firm in the same Boho 5 space as Wander. Consultancy work followed, ultimately leading to the new full-time post.
“They’re a standout Teesside brand, memorable and refreshing, and that’s really important in this industry,” Dawson said. “Having worked alongside Clover and Lou as a consultant, I have a real understanding of their ambitions and I have seen the sheer amount of talent within the Wander team. There’s nothing holding them back, Wander will be world leading and of course I want to be part of their ongoing success.”
