Independent agency Zulu Alpha Kilo’s New York office has made multiple key creative hires–Cannes Lion-winning creative director teams Vic Bath and Dan Cummings, and Nikki Garrett and Jeff Tyser–as well as creative team Lizzie Cox and Tilden Lincoln.
The hires come at a time where the agency has continued momentum with Booking.com, OperaGX, Gas Leaks, and active new business opportunities.
During their four years at Zulu Alpha Kilo’s Toronto office, Bath and Cummings developed multi-award-winning campaigns together, including the Harley Davidson Tough Turban activation, which won a Gold Cannes Lion. Additionally, their work together has won a Grand Clio, Best in Discipline ADC Cube, Gold at the Andys, and several One Show and D&AD Pencils, among other accolades. Prior to joining forces at Zulu Alpha Kilo, they spent several years separately at many of Canada’s top agencies.
South Africans Garrett and Tyser join Zulu Alpha Kilo New York as a creative director team, coming from Hill Holiday in Boston, their first U.S.-based role. They bring a wealth of experience, gained over 16 years working on brands. The pair got together several years ago at TBWA Hunt Lascaris. Their work has been recognized around the world–notably, winning South Africa’s first ever Glass Lion at Cannes, and the country’s first ever Gold at the Webby Awards.
Cox and Lincoln are also joining the agency as a Creative Team. Before joining ZAK NY, Cox was an art director and designer, respectively, with Fact & Fiction and Moxie Sozo, both creative agencies based in Boulder, CO after completing her Masters in Communications Design at Pratt in New York. Prior to becoming a writer, Lincoln got his Masters in Education and attended the Denver Ad School in Colorado.
“They say you are only as good as the people you surround yourself with. Lucky for us and our clients we are encircled with some of the brightest, warmest, hilarious and talented people in the business. It’s only up from here,” said CCO and partner, Tim Gordon.
The New York office launched a year-long brand campaign for Booking.com in this year’s Super Bowl, including a 2-minute musical featuring Melissa McCarthy that ran during the Oscars. The :30 version was this year’s most watched Super Bowl spot, racking up over 118M views. Zulu Alpha Kilo NY followed it up with additional global campaign extensions using McCarthy and launched Booking’s first MLB sponsorship campaign. The agency also recently launched Splash Spots, transforming New York City fire hydrants into mini water parks during summer’s hottest months, designed for maximum fun and water efficiency.
Zulu Alpha Kilo maintains offices in Toronto, Vancouver and New York City.
From Restoring To Hopefully Preserving Multi-Camera Categories At The Emmys
When Gary Baum, ASC won his fourth career Emmy Award earlier this month, it was especially gratifying in that the honor came in a category--Outstanding Cinematography for a Multi-Camera Half-Hour Series--that had been restored thanks in part to a grass-roots initiative among cinematographers to drum up entries. Last year the category fell by the wayside when not enough multi-camera entries materialized.
In his acceptance speech, Baum appealed to the Television Academy to keep multi-camera categories alive. He later noted to SHOOT that editors also got their multi-camera recognition back in the Emmy competition this year. Baum hopes that after resurrecting multi-camera categories in 2024, such recognition will be preserved for 2025 and beyond.
A major factor in the decline of multi-camera submissions in 2023 was the move of certain children’s and family programming from the primetime Emmy competition to the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ (NATAS) Emmy ceremony. For DPs this meant that multi-camera programs last year were reduced to vying for just one primetime nomination slot in the more general Outstanding Cinematography for a Series (Half-Hour) category. It turned out that this single slot was filled in ‘23 by a Baum-lensed episode of How I Met Your Father (Hulu).
Fast forward to this year’s competition and Baum won for another installment of How I Met Your Father--”Okay Fine, It’s A Hurricane,” which turned out to be the series finale. Two of Baum’s Emmy wins over the years have been for How I Met Your Father, and there’s a certain symmetry to them. His initial win for How I Met Your Father was for the pilot in 2022. So he won Emmys for the very first and last... Read More