Juliet has recruited a new president who brings nearly a decade of brand-side experience to his new role – which the agency is hoping to draw from as it looks to deepen its client relationships.

“As a former CMO and president, I believe I understand some of the common responsibilities keeping marketing and brand leads up at night. That’s because some of those challenges are what kept me up at night,” says Ryan Bullock, who has joined Juliet as partner and president. “I understand that advertising is just one part of a marketing team’s day, and the role an agency needs to play within it.”

Ryan Bullock has spent more than nine years working in senior leadership roles for Recipe Unlimited, including almost eight years leading marketing for The Keg before transitioning to president of QSR chain The Burger’s Priest. In those roles he had worked with Juliet directly – first experiencing the agency’s work ethic as it pitched for The Keg’s business in a review that was ultimately won by Rethink. Juliet impressed during that process, however, and was awarded work with a second Recipe brand, Milestones, which Bullock also oversaw.

When he shifted into the role with The Burger’s Priest, Bullock says he was contacted by Juliet’s founder and CCO, Ryan Spelliscy, with a mouth-watering proposal: “Let’s make Burger’s Priest the Shake Shack of Canada.” The simple pitch was enough to fire Bullock up, and he tapped Juliet for a campaign, “Have Faith,” designed to encourage potential new franchisees while reminding consumers about the brand’s core values – specifically its quality relative to other QSR burgers.

Bullock says that while working with Juliet from the client side, he saw an agency that wasn’t afraid to get invested in its clients or even prospective clients, one that was “upstart” and “seemed to have a lot of passion.” What’s more, he befriended Spelliscy, and over a number of conversations in the intervening years, he begin to miss the agency business where he cut his teeth – Bullock had worked in account services for both MacLaren McCann and Kbs+ before moving to Recipe.

And so when he decided to return to the agency world, his first choice for a destination was a no-brainer.

“As their client, I was really impressed with how they approached my business. It’s really a partnership mindset,” says Bullock, who is quick to point out the cliché. “There’s a lot of great agencies in Canada and the U.S. that produce great creative, but to me what’s missing is the great relationship. For me, coming from the Keg, this is a good fit, because Juliet wants a hospitality-first approach to our current clients, and I’ll hopefully strengthen that approach for them and our new, potential clients.”