Zulu Alpha Kilo (ZAK) is beefing up its senior ranks with the hire of a creative duo.
On Tuesday the agency announced it had hired Ian Simpson and Catherine Allen as associate creative directors from Ogilvy & Mather. The creative team met during their time at Grip, where they conceived the Cannes-winning The Movie Out Here feature film for Kokanee.
The pair’s experience in long-format branded content is a boon for ZAK, which launched a content creation arm called Zulubot late last year. In addition to digital content for brands, Zulubot creates and produces original TV shows such as Omni’s Bollywood Star. As the agency explores the long-form possibilities for brands, it will no doubt put Simpson and Allen’s experience with Kokanee to use.
“Their experience conceiving the first-ever feature film by a brand was what attracted us to them,” ZAK founder Zak Mroueh told Marketing. “They’ve done some brilliant work throughout their careers.”
He said the pair would be working across all of the agency’s accounts.
This has been a year of significant hires for ZAK, which is growing based on a string of new assignments from existing clients. Between May and July, the agency brought on a total of 17 new staffers, the most senior of which was associate creative director Gail Pak.
More recently, ZAK hired its first-ever chief strategy officer, Heidi Philip, who worked on the hit #LikeAGirl campaign for Always while at Leo Burnett.
While some of the new hires have been prompted by new assignments, Mroueh insisted the main driver of the hiring spree has been the desire to build a stellar team.
“Our reasons for hiring has been mostly driven by our ambition to build the best strategic and creative offering in the country,” Mroueh said. “We don’t pitch spec, so [that] limits our ability to pitch new business. The biggest driver has really been our belief in investing in talent.”
