Tom Van Daele

March 7, 2008: TBWA\Chiat\Day has hired Tom Van Daele as a creative director to work on Nissan, said agency ecd Rob Schwartz. Van Daele joins the Playa del Rey, Calif., shop from Duval Guillaume in New York, an extension of the Belgium-based agency. Brand experience includes Coca-Cola, Alessi, Le Pain Quotidien and Lonsdale. Prior to that, he worked at 10 Advertising in Belgium as a cd, partner, and earlier in his career at Ogilvy & Mather. In New York, Van Daele recently helped shepherd the Bazooka Bubble Gum dance and user-generated content effort. "He created the dance by finding a song in the archive, building a Web site, and literally engineered millions of hits on the site. [He] did a fantastic job of increasing sales and brand awareness," said Schwartz. "If he can do that with a little piece of gum, what could he do with a car or a bank?" Schwartz said that Van Daele would be instrumental in continuing Nissan's momentum: "The best part about Tom is that he's a 21st-century creative person. And his book shows that he was practicing disruption and media arts before he even got to Chiat\Day."