EXCLUSIVE: Shannon Dix takes on HTC global marketing role

Dix left SapientNitro in September after working for the company for almost eight years (including three years with Nitro before the merger of Sapient and Nitro), and moved to the HTC home market in Taipei to report for duty in October. He replaces Gavin Gibson, who left the company in early October.

Dix (pictured) is responsible for global advertising and brand-building engagements and reports to Ben Ho (何永生), the brand’s global CMO, who came on board in November 2012.

HTC, founded in 1997, began as an ODM manufacturer, but as a mobile handset brand is only seven years old, making it one of the youngest challenger brands in the mobile category.

In a telephone interview from California with Campaign Asia-Pacific, Dix explained why he joined the client side for the first time after almost 13 years with various agencies in Australia and Greater China.

“While not without its challenges, HTC is a brand on the rise, and with the mobile marketing category being the most dynamic and fastest growing, it is a chance to chase a dream to reshape and rebuild a global brand from Asia," Dix said. "With my integrated brand and digital experiences, this was too great an opportunity to not jump at it.”

As reported in August, HTC hired Iron Man Robert Downey Jr to front a global integrated campaign to reposition the brand under its own “Here to Change” platform.