5 Minutes with… Brian Murray
Brian Murray is a chief creative officer at Zulu Alpha Kilo in Toronto, which was recently named Ad Age International Small Agency of the Year, Epica Agency of the Year, Creative Pool Independent Agency of the Year and The Drum UK Agency of the Year.
Ranked the number one creative in Canada in the 2022 and 2021 One Show rankings, and the number two CCO in Canada on the 2022 Strategy Magazine Creative Report Card, he has worked in both Toronto, Canada, and London, UK, alongside many talented people - being a part of over 500 industry awards. As one of the only creative directors in the country to have ever won multiple Cannes Lions Grand Prix trophies, Brian was a key contributor to a Grand Clio in Creative Effectiveness, a One Show Best in Discipline in Creative Effectiveness and a Penta Pencil, and has helped create platforms and campaigns for many of the world’s most respected brands.
LBB’s Josh Neufeldt sat down with Brian to discuss all this and more, looking at his journey into the industry, the leadership style he employs, and what this new position means to him.
LBB> How did you get started in advertising? Tell us about your story!
Brian> Like many copywriters, I graduated from university with a BA in English, and had no idea what I was going to do with it. But, my friend’s older brother was a copywriter. He told me about his job, and it sounded perfect for me. He suggested I attend the one-year post graduate media copywriting program at Humber College. I visited the registrar’s office that September on the second day of school and said, ‘I’d like to enrol in the program’. They looked at me a little confused and said, ‘You realise you were supposed to apply in February?’. But, perhaps the most valuable thing I had learned in university is that people often go in on the first day of school, realise it’s not for them, and immediately drop out while they can still get a full tuition refund. Two people had dropped out that morning, so I filled one of the spots.
LBB> How did you feel about advertising while growing up? Was this industry something you always felt destined for?
Brian> My parents both grew up on farms in Ireland. After they moved to Canada, my father got a job for City of Toronto in the property department. So, I grew up surrounded by all his friends who were electricians, plumbers and firemen. I had never met an ad person and had no idea there even was an advertising industry in Toronto until I was about 20. It wasn’t on my radar at all.
LBB> You have an MBA from the Rotman School of Business. How does this background impact your approach to advertising? Does it lend you perspectives others might not have?
Brian> The campaigns I am most proud of have been for big clients, and have had real business impact. I think part of the reason I’ve been able to sell those ideas is that I understand and can explain how our solution is answering our clients’ business problem. In a presentation, it’s not enough to explain what you want to make - you always need to be reinforcing the ‘why’.
I also found that many of the soft skill courses in the MBA program equipped me to transition into management. Being a great art director, designer or copywriter doesn’t necessarily prepare you to become a creative director. It’s too often a case of ‘Congratulations! You’ve really mastered your craft. As a reward, you’re going to be promoted into a totally different job that requires a completely unrelated skillset and you’re not going to get any training’.
LBB> You’ve been in advertising for nearly 20 years. What’s inspired you to stay in the business, and how has the work changed throughout that time period?
Brian> Until I heard this question, I hadn’t realised it has been almost 20 years. I’ve always felt like I’m just getting started. I really enjoy my job, and I am not sure what else I’d be any good at.
The tools and media channels may have changed, but I think the core of what we do hasn’t changed a lot. I do worry sometimes that people entering the industry don’t seem to be enjoying it as much as juniors did when I started. So, I try to do my best to give juniors good opportunities to keep them engaged and to ensure they are learning and growing.
LBB> In 2021, you moved from Ogilvy Canada to Zulu Alpha Kilo. What inspired the switch?
Brian> This month, I am celebrating two years at Zulu Alpha Kilo (thanks for the notifications, LinkedIn) – and it’s been amazing. When I was considering my next move, I was looking for a place where I could do good work right away, and a place where I could keep learning and growing. Zulu Alpha Kilo had such a deep, talented creative department, and clients who wanted great work. And, I knew that I could learn a lot working for our agency founder Zak Mroueh. It was the perfect situation.
LBB> And now, two years later, you’re CCO. Congratulations! Can you tell us more about what this means to you, as well as the agency?
Brian> Zak Mroueh had been the chief creative officer of Zulu Alpha Kilo since founding the agency 15 years ago. So, personally, I took it as a tremendous vote of confidence that he moved up into the role of creative chairman and promoted his senior creative leaders to oversee the Toronto office’s creative team. I’m already working closely with Stephanie Yung, our chief design officer. And this week, we announced that Jenny Glover will be joining us as our other chief creative officer, which is very exciting.
LBB> Before becoming CCO, you were ECD. How has the swap been? Was it everything you expected it to be?
Brian> Over the past six months, Zak has been focusing his time on spreading the Zulu Alpha Kilo brand to new markets like Vancouver and New York City. He has empowered me to operate with a pretty high level of autonomy, so it hasn’t been a big adjustment. Our clients do seem marginally more impressed by me now, though.
LBB> What are your main aims and ambitions – both long term and short term – for your work at Zulu Alpha Kilo, and the agency as a whole?
Brian> My aim is always the same: I want to create work for our clients that has real business impact and becomes part of culture. I want people outside of our industry bubble to be talking about it. When work achieves all that, then it’s just a bonus if it happens to go on to industry acclaim and to win awards.
LBB> How would you define your leadership style, and what factors have played the biggest influence on this style?
Brian> I’ve been lucky enough to work for many talented, successful creative directors who all had very different styles. This helped me realise that I could succeed by being me. I think my role is to set clear expectations for the level of work we want to achieve, and then do whatever I can to support everyone in getting there. Sometimes, that means I need to roll up my sleeves and get in the weeds.
Also, I need to know when to give more experienced teams a lot of space. Occasionally, the best creative direction is to change nothing. I don’t take for granted how fortunate I am to be working with so many smart and talented people across all the disciplines within our agency.
LBB> What are some of the biggest projects you’ve worked on? Please tell us about those!
Brian> My most famous campaign is ‘Courage is Beautiful’ for Dove. At the start of the pandemic lockdown, we got a simple one-line brief from Dove Canada: ‘What can we do to help?’. We started working on the campaign, and then found out that Dove global had just issued the same brief. So, we shared our ideas with the team in London and then started working together. In the campaign, Dove celebrated healthcare workers on the front line of the battle against covid-19 and donated millions of dollars in badly needed supplies. The campaign was conceived, executed and launched in Canada, and then was rolled out in 15 other countries.
During the World Wars, millions of letters were sent home to Canada from soldiers fighting overseas. Last Remembrance Day, for HomeEquity Bank and The Legion, we connected current homeowners to the sacrifices of the past by resending replicas of many of these letters to their original addresses in 29 cities across Canada. Canadians could also find letters delivered near their home at Letters-Home.ca.
For Hellmann’s, we started the ‘Real Food Rescue’ food recovery program, and launched it by feeding a stadium full of people… and then at halftime revealing it was food waste.
During lockdown, ‘Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ was the most popular game in the world. But, we noticed that it had a big food waste problem. So, for Hellmann's Canada, we used this virtual problem to raise awareness of real-world food waste. For each spoiled turnip a player dropped off on Hellmann’s Island, Hellmann's gave a real meal to people in need.
LBB> More recently, your work on the ‘Fixed-Rate Pizza’ campaign caught a lot of eyes. Tell us more about this! What was your role in the project, what was the creative process like, and to what do you attribute this success?
Brian> Pizza Pizza is Canada's biggest pizza chain. We had just developed a new creative platform, ‘Everyone Deserves Pizza’, and had a campaign ready to go. But, we wanted to launch with something that would get more PR and earned media.
We had a few teams working on ideas. Jonah Flynn and Michael Siegers came up with the idea. Inflation was raging out of control, and the Bank of Canada was about to raise interest rates. As they were showing me all their ideas, they had one slide in the deck that said ‘Fixed-Rate Pizza’. The idea didn’t need any more set up or explanation - it was brilliant. So, we presented it to the clients the next day, along with two other ideas, but stipulated that ‘Fixed-Rate Pizza’ was the best idea on the table and they’d be crazy not to go with it.
We got the green light, made a campaign video, social posts and OOH, and got it to market as soon as Pizza Pizza could update their site. It was an instant success. By December, Pizza Pizza had sold over 500,000 fixed-rate pizzas, so they decided to extend their fixed-price commitment until the end of 2023 and invested some money into a television commercial.
LBB> In both 2021 and 2022, you were ranked the number one creative in Canada in the One Show rankings. What do you attribute this recognition to, what does it mean to you, and will you be trying to claim the title for a third year running?
Brian> I’ve been fortunate to work with great people! Awards and lists and rankings are all something I can’t control, so I don’t stress too much about them anymore. To use a sports metaphor, I am always just working on my swing. I am always trying to improve my approach and get more hits more often. Sometimes, you hit home runs. Sometimes, it’s a double. Sometimes, the hits come in batches. I just want to keep honing my skills.
LBB> What are your thoughts on the Canadian ad industry in general at the moment? What are the main factors affecting conversations with clients?
Brian> Canada is an interesting market. On one hand, our budgets are smaller, and a lot of brands just adapt global work to run here. On the other hand, we learn to do more with less. We can seldom rely on the power of spectacle or huge productions to earn attention. We need to do it with breakthrough ideas. Fortunately, Zulu Alpha Kilo is an agency that attracts clients who want to do breakthrough work. They know if they work with us, we will encourage them to expand their comfort zone.
LBB> What helps you de-stress after a long day at work?
Brian> I enjoy spending time with my family, petting my cat, playing video games, and watching a wide range of television shows, such as ‘The Bachelor’, ‘The Bachelorette’, and ‘Bachelor in Paradise’. Oh, and ‘Bachelor in Paradise Canada’.
