Zulu Alpha Kilo wants to make American political advertising – regardless of party affiliation – great again.
In the wake of its recent win in Advertising Age’s annual Small Agency of the Year Awards, the Toronto shop has launched a tongue-in-cheek campaign showcasing its “Declaration of agency of record assignment proposal” (DOAORAP) for both the Clinton and Trump campaigns.
The two-and-half minute video was written by the Zulu team of creative director/writer Jon Webber and art director Allan Mah, and directed by the agency’s founder and chief creative officer Zak Mroueh.
It features the agency’s fictional chief executive executive (sic) officer and founder Frank Zulu – played by Canadian actor Doug Murray (Spotlight,) – as a prototypical agency president looking to capitalize on Zulu’s recent U.S. recognition.
Zulu tells viewers that the recent award win has left the agency keen to pursue some “juicy” U.S. assignments – not “small-time” clients like P&G or Nike, but the two U.S. presidential candidates.
“We are willing to work on both your campaigns at once,” says Zulu, noting that his interns have stopped playing Pokemon Go long enough to send a “proprietary, single-bid” DOAORAP package to both candidates.
The spot riffs on key aspects of the U.S. election, such as Trump’s promise to build a wall (“We can build ‘em high and we can build ‘em strong” says Zulu) and Hillary Clinton’s e-mail scandal (Zulu says that his agency’s expertise also includes building firewalls).
The spot was shot and edited in-house by Zulu’s content division Zulubot, with Mroueh saying that it left another two-and-a-half minutes on the cutting-room floor that could surface later depending on the reaction to the first spot.
Mroueh said that the slick, vacuous and suspender-clad Frank Zulu character is intended to represent the head of a typical network agency, which is something his agency is rebelling against.
Mroueh said that the agency has already received several calls in the wake of the victory in the Small Agency of the Year competition, and wanted to capitalize on the recent wave of publicity.
“We’ve had so many calls from the U.S. since the win, but instead of doing something very typical we decided to do this just to show our creativity in a different way,” said Mroueh. “It sends a signal to clients that we are interested in entering the U.S. market, but doing it in a very tongue-in-cheek way.”
Zulu does not currently have any U.S. clients, although it is gearing up to launch a U.S. campaign for Toronto client Whoosh, which specializes in cleaning solutions for tech products.
Mroueh said that the agency is just “kicking the tires” on attracting more U.S. clients. While the eight-year-old agency has no immediate plans to open a U.S. office, Mroueh said that U.S. clients are important to its business in the long-term.
“We have global aspirations as an agency,” he said. “A lot of agencies have global aspirations of opening up multiple offices around the world, but from day one our vision was ‘Wouldn’t it be great if global clients came to Canada, regardless of where we’re located, just because they like the work that’s being done here?’”
Mroueh said that one of the main challenges in pitching U.S. clients is that many of them involve spec work, something Zulu has taken a firm stance against over the years.
“We’ve had to turn down some of the opportunities that have already come our way because of our stance, but this was a way for [U.S. clients] to get a sense of what we’re about,” he said. “We’ve had a great reaction to our website, which is a bit refreshing compared to what clients are usually exposed to.”
