Booking.com brought star power and playfulness to the Super Bowl with Miss Piggy, showcasing Z.A.K.’s ability to create high-impact campaigns with global reach.
“Most brands aren’t losing to the competition – they’re losing to irrelevance and indifference,” explains Zulu Alpha Kilo president and CEO Mike Sutton.
That insight is the foundation of the agency’s philosophy – a fight against “sameness” that’s become its platform, cultural lens and the driving force behind its recent expansion.
With its “Man, That Feels Good” campaign for Harry’s, Z.A.K. used playful honesty to challenge tired grooming clichés and celebrate what real men actually care about.
Z.A.K.’s 2022 growth – including the launch of an integrated media buying and planning arm and new offices in Vancouver and New York – wasn’t about chasing scale. It was about creating the right conditions for bolder ideas and broader impact. Just over two years later, that groundwork is powering standout campaigns, strong brand platforms and a pipeline of culturally sharp, business-savvy work.
Z.A.K. was never built to grow for growth’s sake, Sutton explains – “our creative ambitions are what drives us. Sure, growth has followed, but always deliberately and in support of the work and the culture behind it.” The agency’s expanded footprint, for example, has helped deepen its bench of creative talent. It’s also created room for new kinds of opportunities, including three Super Bowl campaigns for Booking.com. Ambitious work like this reflects how far the agency has come, and how its foundation continues to support what comes next.
Z.A.K. developed a unified brand platform for President’s Choice, turning a complex business challenge into a seamless, multi-channel campaign that boosted awareness, engagement and customer growth.
“We’ve been fighting ‘sameness’ since 2008,” says CCO Brian Murray. “It’s about connecting creativity and impact. That mindset is ingrained in everything we do.”
The agency is focused on growing that creative impact while staying grounded in what’s made it successful: a clear purpose, a vibrant creative culture and a commitment to attracting top-tier talent.
To cut through the noise of screen addiction for ParticipAction, Z.A.K. dramatized the message with time-wasting devices crashing off a cliff – urging Canadian to move more and sit less.
“Everything we do starts and ends with the creative,” says Murray. “That’s what draws people here – clients and talent alike. We’re trying to be the best place to make the best work.”
Z.A.K.’s Subaru campaign focused on authenticity and emotional connection, positioning the brand as a trusted companion in life’s unpredictable journeys – with creative that felt both human and bold.
That intention extends to its leadership. “It’s important for us to constantly set new goals and push the bar higher,” says Sutton. “That’s what galvanizes teams – when you’re collectively chasing something bold, maybe even a little out of reach. Our job as leaders is to set that bar and then put the conditions in place to make it happen.”That same mindset carries into how the agency works with its clients. We like to think of our clients as co- conspirators,” he says. “When they bring us in close, share the real challenges, and let us get inside the business problem – that’s when we create our most impactful work.
Launched during the Canada-USA hockey game, the Reverse Tariffs campaign used timely humour and a 25% discount to deliver a 20% sales boost.
You see it in long-standing client relationships like Pizza Pizza. The dynamic was clear in the recent “Reverse Tariffs” campaign, for example, which offered a 25% discount in response to proposed US tariffs and built on the brand’s successful “Everyone Deserves Pizza” platform. Blending timely humour with real value during a period of economic uncertainty, the campaign launched the same day as the Canada-USA hockey game in the Four Nations Face-Off – a rapid turnaround that boosted its cultural relevance and amplified its impact. The impact was immediate: Sales jumped 20% that weekend, prompting a campaign extension.
On the other end of the spectrum, the agency recently delivered a masterbrand platform for President’s Choice – uniting all of PC’s consumer-facing business units under one strategy for the first time. The platform underlines how PC helps Canadians navigate daily life with greater ease and value, built in response to research that showed that Canadians are often overwhelmed by daily stressors and mundane tasks. What started as a complex business challenge uniting muliple business units turned into “Possible Lives Here,” a creative and design system that spans food, delivery, loyalty, finance and health. With TV, digital and in-store components, it reinforces the brand’s role in making everyday moments more rewarding. The campaign has exceeded all projections, resulting in increased awareness, engagement, and a positive brand impact, as well as bringing new customers into the PC ecosystem.
For Destination BC, Z.A.K. uncovered deep, international insights identifying German car washes as great, unexpected forums for captive audiences.
Sutton says the work reflects what Z.A.K. is built for, spanning everything from fast, culturally relevant ideas to enduring brand platforms, all driven by creativity and made to move the needle.
“More than anything, they prove that bold, business- moving creativity still wins,” he says. “That originality matters. And that fighting sameness is as important as ever.”
CONTACT:
Christine McNab
Chief operating officer
christine.mcnab@zulualphakilo.com
The 2025 A-Listers:
Mosaic: An era where anything’s possible
Agnostic: Rewriting narratives in service of the work
Weber Shandwick: Where culture, creativity and tech collide
VML: Creating something entirely new
Dentsu: Humanity in the age of algorithms
Lifelong Crush: Sparking long-term devotion
C&B Advertising: Leading with emotion
PHD Canada: An intelligent transformation
The Hive: Doubling down on beating boring
