Zulu Alpha Kilo has opened a new content creation studio, called Zulubot, which will create both branded content for the agency’s clients and original programming for Canadian publishers. The 6,000 sq.ft. studio in Toronto will be led by production veteran Shaam Makan, who has produced more than 500 hours of programming for HGTV, Slice, YTV and others.
“We did our own research and found that most agencies that were starting content divisions went with people from within the advertising industry. We didn’t think that really made sense,” said ZAK president Mike Sutton. “We thought, if we’re going to bring a different perspective to our clients and innovate in this space, we’re going to need someone outside the advertising world.”
Zulubot won’t just produce content for Zulu clients, Sutton stressed. A big focus will be on producing original content that can be pitched to networks, with or without advertisers on board.
“A lot of the branded content will be born out of ideas that we create for Zulu clients,” he said. “On the original programming side, that’s where we’re going to be tapping into what Shaam has been doing for the last 10-plus years — working with publishers, working with networks that are hungry for original programming.
“Those ideas will be born originally — maybe with clients in mind, maybe without clients in mind.”
For example, Zulubot plans to take over a project that Makan already has on the go — a reality competition series for Omni called Bollywood Star, which is in its second season. The team plans to keep producing the show for Omni, regardless of whether Zulu’s brand clients eventually take an interest.
Makan, who was EVP at Tricon Films & Television before launching his own business in 2012, said he’s not leaving the media business behind, but folding it into the agency.
“It’s not abandoning one side that I’ve been doing forever — it’s bringing it in to a different world, it’s merging the worlds together,” he said.
In addition to Makan, Zulubot has three permanent staff, and will bring in contract staff depending on project allotments. Though the studio has sound recording booths and editing suites, Zulubot won’t just be limited to video production. It will build each project team based on the concept and the format they’ll be working on. Bollywood Star, for instance, has 30 team members on set, plus contract editors and producers.
The last thing Zulubot wants to do, said ZAK CEO and founder Zak Mroueh, is try to compete with production companies. “To us content isn’t just production, and it isn’t just TV shows and visual formats — it’s everything from digital platforms to social platforms, to gaming, to apps. It’s about finding interesting ways to tell stories.
It’s not all just visual production — it can be all these things as well,” he said.
“We didn’t want to be an advertising design/digital firm that goes in trying to sell original programming. We wanted to create a distinctive thing,” he said.
