[Interview] Frank Carvalho, Managing Director, Brand New Galaxy, Amsterdam

Brand New Galaxy, with over 500 employees worldwide, specializes in e-commerce, creation and content production and automation and performance optimization for top 500 brands such as COTY (including Adidas, Gucci, and Burberry), Netflix, Philips, and P&G.

Brand New Galaxy now launches their Western European Operation in Amsterdam. The group’s mission is to provide integrated and data-optimized solutions in E-commerce, Creative & Content Production, and Automation & Performance Improvement from the Dutch capital.

Global marketing and advertising leader, Frank Carvalho, is driving the growth of the new operation as Managing Director.

Frank Carvalho is an award-winning business leader focusing on marketing innovations that make a difference with more than 25 years of genuinely global experience. 

We sat down with Frank and asked him about Brand New Galaxy and the opening of the Amsterdam office.

Brand New Galaxy has a clear focus on e-commerce. How did that come about?

E-commerce is in our DNA. Over 15 years ago the founders of the company believed that E-commerce was going to change the world. The team has worked in different structures over the years, but their focus on delivering highly specialized E-commerce solutions remained the same. Brand New Galaxy was born upon the recognition that there is a better way to serve clients than the traditional agency holding environment by offering highly specialized and scalable services.

The platform was built to deliver rapid growth for clients, and it has been growing rapidly itself. In the last couple of years, the company has expanded geographically, acquired new capabilities, and developed proprietary technologies that allow Brand New Galaxy to the one point of contact for all E-commerce needs.

Now, from Amsterdam, we can bring this entire e-commerce ecosystem to clients in Western Europe.

The agency is growing very fast. What’s the ultimate goal for Brand New Galaxy?

Our mission is growth.

Brand New Galaxy has been growing rapidly in the last couple of years by opening new offices and acquiring new companies. Just in 2020 the group launched three offices on three continents, including the United States, the Middle East and Europe.

Last year our workforce increased by almost 35 percent to more than 500 employees, with 80 percent of the professionals are working on global and regional levels. We supply global and local services to over 200 clients in 29 languages, from Fortune 500 companies to E-commerce players from small-to-medium-sized businesses.

We rapidly grow our clients’ businesses too, by using our unique digital offerings and our global network of companies specialized in E-commerce, Creative & Content Production, and Automation & Performance Improvement.

The key to our growth is being proud to be different. In the coming years - as we have done before - we are committed to developing solutions and an architecture of customer service models that are not replicas of those already existing on the market.

 This pioneering approach, combined with geographic expansion, outstanding specialists and new startup ideas, will help us achieve our goal to become the leading independent marketing and technology service provider.

How will you, and the new focus on Western-Europe, contribute to this?

As an end-to-end E-commerce player founded on global-to-local method we see closer cooperation with our clients in Western Europe as a must have. Our Amsterdam office is a natural consequence of building convenient hubs for well-developed clients and those who are at the early stage of their E-commerce journey.

We are not only getting closer to our clients geographically, but we are also building a Pan-European team of high-performing members with diverse professional and cultural backgrounds. I can certainly lead by my own example in this regard too, being someone who has lived and worked in almost ten European countries and who has had clients and colleagues from all over Europe.

And now you’re opening an office in Amsterdam, why?

As a rapidly growing company it was essential for us to open our Western European hub in a city where we can be close to our current and future clients, and to be able to build our company with high-performing talent.

In the last couple of years, the Netherlands and Amsterdam itself have managed to create one of the most business and expat friendly environments in the European Union. As a result of this commitment, the Dutch capital is becoming the commercial capital of Europe.

In 2020 alone, more than 100 international companies opened offices in the Amsterdam area.

The city also has a thriving start-up and scale-up scene where hundreds of new companies are being launched every year. The city already offers a highly qualified and global talent pool, but the due to the favorable regulations and the high-quality of life, it is also easy to attract high-performing talent from other parts of Europe and the World.

For us Amsterdam has formed the perfect constellation for growing our business and for igniting growth for our clients.

Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and Western-Europe as a whole are highly competitive markets. What has Brand New Galaxy that other agencies don’t have?

Brand New Galaxy has a lot to offer that goes beyond that of other agencies.

We can quickly build customized solutions for our clients using specialists from our global network of companies and world-class proprietary technology in E-commerce.

Being a flatter organization also means that we can quickly and efficiently build and adjust to the client’s needs. This is truly unique and something I have not experienced in other companies I have worked for before.

Besides our streamlined structure we provide several unique methodologies, including Robonauts Pictures’ E-commerce Real Feel, using production twists that makes online consumers’ product experience comparable to a physical one.

Another specialized solution is our FMCC - Fast Moving Consumer Communications method that delivers a quick and scalable content production solution. Part of Brand New Galaxy’s proprietary tools is Synthrone, a modular and flexible ecosystem of automated services for content storage, creation, localization, publishing, tracking, and reporting.

It is our game-changing combination of know-how and technology that makes managing the end-to-end process easy and effective. Using these solutions gives a cutting-edge advantage to our Global clients like Coty, 3M and P&G too.

You will be moving from New York to Amsterdam. What are you, besides setting up a new office, looking forward to? Is there anything specific to Amsterdam that you want to experience?

I’m not a stranger to Amsterdam and my move is more like a return to the Netherlands. My long history with this country goes back thirty years: I first visited Amsterdam after I graduated college.

 I returned to the Netherlands a few years later, being a participant of a Rotary Exchange Program for young professionals. During this program, I spent 6 weeks exploring the North of the country, moving each week to a new host family in a different city. It was a wonderful cultural experience.

Also, working as a European and Global leader I have had day-to-day contacts with my Dutch clients and colleagues too. During these years I learnt a lot about doing business in the Netherlands.

Thanks to my decades-long history with this country and its people I can rely on my network of friends and professional connections not only for business related topics, but also questions like what is the real meaning of "gezellig".

You have extensive marketing and advertising experience, won several Cannes Lions awards, and traveled the world. What’s your personal ambition?

I have galactic ambitions personally and for our Amsterdam office. Personally, I am driven by a deep desire to experiment, innovate and create something brand new. With this approach, I plan to expand our already international team to reflect the best of global and Dutch specialized talents.

These teams will answer real-time clients' needs in a flexible and scalable way having game-changing e-commerce in mind at every turn. I see us as the preferred end-to-end e-commerce and content partner that clients will think of first because of detailed attention to their business and the advantage we provide to drive their business into the future.

www.brandnewgalaxy.com