Shari Walczak and Shane Ogilvie, former Zulu Alpha Kilo (ZAK) executives, have left their posts at the agency to open up creative company The Garden.
Ogilvie, previously ZAK’s executive creative director, and Walczak, formerly its executive planning director, promise a holistic approach to The Garden’s creative offering, which includes making marketers a part of the entire process and working with all divisions of a company to design and deliver the best possible brand experience.
“It can no longer be just about buying impressions; it has to be about making them,” said Walczak. “The customer now controls the conversation, which means the experience has to align with the promise at every point of contact.”
Ogilvie and Walczak said The Garden will employ a unique model wherein teams of experts will be custom built and brought in to address specific problems. They could include technologists, interior designers or even hospitality consultants. It’s not just about writers and art directors anymore.
“The problem to be solved drives the decision on who’s brought in,” said Ogilvie.
“Of course, everyone is asking ‘will you still make advertising’ and the answer is yes, if that’s what the solution dictates, but we’re also happy to partner with a company’s AOR, in-house creative department or a third-party content creator to bring an idea to life,” added Walczak.
The Garden is currently working with several companies who have shown interest in the new model and hope to announce some formal partnerships in the coming weeks.
Ogilvie has over 15 years of industry experience at some of the most creative agencies in both in Canada and the US and has worked on some of North America’s biggest brands, including Bell, Coca-Cola, Corona, Tabasco, Capital One, Audi and Budweiser. Ogilvie’s work has been awarded both at home and around the world, including Cannes Lions, The Clios, The New York Festivals and London International, among others.
Walczak has over 20 years of industry experience, and has applied creative problem solving techniques to the business challenges of some of the country’s biggest brands including Interac, Corona, Cineplex Entertainment, ING Direct (now Tangerine), Kraft Foods, Coca-Cola and ParticipACTION.
After 20 Years of Acting, Megan Park Finds Her Groove In The Director’s Chair On “My Old Ass”
Megan Park feels a little bad that her movie is making so many people cry. It's not just a single tear either — more like full body sobs.
She didn't set out to make a tearjerker with "My Old Ass," now streaming on Prime Video. She just wanted to tell a story about a young woman in conversation with her older self. The film is quite funny (the dialogue between 18-year-old and almost 40-year-old Elliott happens because of a mushroom trip that includes a Justin Bieber cover), but it packs an emotional punch, too.
Writing, Park said, is often her way of working through things. When she put pen to paper on "My Old Ass," she was a new mom and staying in her childhood bedroom during the pandemic. One night, she and her whole nuclear family slept under the same roof. She didn't know it then, but it would be the last time, and she started wondering what it would be like to have known that.
In the film, older Elliott ( Aubrey Plaza ) advises younger Elliott ( Maisy Stella ) to not be so eager to leave her provincial town, her younger brothers and her parents and to slow down and appreciate things as they are. She also tells her to stay away from a guy named Chad who she meets the next day and discovers that, unfortunately, he's quite cute.
At 38, Park is just getting started as a filmmaker. Her first, "The Fallout," in which Jenna Ortega plays a teen in the aftermath of a school shooting, had one of those pandemic releases that didn't even feel real. But it did get the attention of Margot Robbie 's production company LuckyChap Entertainment, who reached out to Park to see what other ideas she had brewing.
"They were very instrumental in encouraging me to go with it," Park said. "They're just really even-keeled, good people, which makes... Read More