How does the story of Zeal begin?

Zeal was co-founded by myself and Robert White in 2014, though we met back as junior account execs back in 1994. My interests have always leaned towards the creative side, while Rob focuses on strategy and client services. Together, we specialise in brand activation, which essentially involves helping brands create impact. So rather than slowly shifting consumer perceptions over years, like a traditional advertising agency might, we specialise in creating campaigns that prompt immediate action and an on-going engagement. This approach is particularly effective in the attention economy, where capturing and keeping consumer attention is more challenging than ever. We now find ourselves in a great position working alongside some of the world’s biggest grocery brands. 

What sets Zeal apart in its approach to brand activation?

What makes us stand out as an agency is helping our clients identify their real moments of impact and then giving them the courage to double down on these opportunities. As opposed to what we call the ‘matching luggage’ approach, where you take a budget and divert it everywhere, so it just becomes wallpaper that nobody really pays any attention to. 

It’s our belief that you’re far better off identifying who it is that you’re speaking to, locating the optimal place to reach them, and finding relevant human truths and cultural stories to tune into. This is especially relevant in a media landscape where traditional advertising methods are becoming less effective. My son’s 17, my daughter’s 14. Neither of them even understand the concept of scheduled TV. They stream everything and skip the adverts. They don’t go to the cinema that much. Where do you build an emotional connection with those guys? One of our clients is Kit Kat. And I’ve said to my kids “Have a break, have a…” and neither of them could complete one of the world’s oldest advertising statements. It’s clear we need new ways to build brands now and that’s where Zeal comes in. 

How does Zeal measure success?

I’ve never worked in traditional advertising, but I have seen the metrics and they are often based on sentiment and how people feel about things over a long period of time. And so they should be. But our campaigns are usually judged on more tangible results. When I first started it was how many ovals from a tissue box you got sent within 48 hours of a campaign hitting a supermarket shelf. These days, it’s how many e-mails or text messages or entries you receive within minutes. The market mix modelling looks immediately at sales and penetration. We’ve always been in that world of creating an engagement that you can measure. 

What marketing trends would we expect to hear at the watercooler in Zeal HQ?

At Zeal, we’re particularly interested in understanding the brands that are achieving rapid growth without relying on traditional media channels. Brands like Liquid Death or Prime have demonstrated that it’s possible to build huge businesses in very short spaces of time by truly understanding your audience. 

Take Liquid Death, which is now a multibillion-dollar water business from the United States. The brand was started by creatives who got fed up with clients not being brave. After looking at gaps in the market they invented a water brand that looks more like an energy drink.  The pack design looks more like a tattoo, uncompromising humour underpins everything they do, the slogan is “Death to Your Thirst” and they’re sold in cans as part of a wider sustainability narrative. 

In terms of Prime it was all much more about leveraging the existing audiences of Logan Paul and KSI.  This gave the brand a massive launch but it’s now in the bargain buckets as they probably don’t have the same distinctive assets as Liquid Death. Creating engaging content with your audiences is very much a key to success these days, but Prime shows us that this has to be part of a long-term play not just a flash in the pan. 

One thing that is always on our mind at Zeal, is how can we as a business continue to help our clients take advantage of these changing landscapes. This includes obsessing about the brands we work on. So if you went to the water cooler, if I’m honest, we’re probably going to be talking about some exciting thing we’ve seen for Carlsberg or something a competitor brand has launched. That’s what our WhatsApp group’s full of right now. 

What qualities do you look for when hiring new talent?

Well, the first one is ‘ZEAL’. We choose not to work with freelancers and even clients who lack passion, energy, and enthusiasm for what they do. This doesn’t mean you have to be an extrovert. We’ve got some extremely passionate, introverted people who are smashing it at zeal. But the key for us is having that hunger and energy about them. 

The second value we recruit to is ‘Excellence’. We look for people who are on their own personal missions to be the best in the world at what they do. But before we give the training we look for a show of proactivity: “What books should I be reading? Which lunch and learns can I come to?” We have a gamified Zeal Academy, whereby if you attend a lunch and learn, you get points. If you read a book and do a book report, you get points. If you teach others to do something, you get lots of points… and then every quarter we give away prizes as if it’s a game show. 

Our final qualities are ‘Ambition’ and ‘Leadership’. We need people who embrace and even drive change, In our recruitment process we prize people who’ve got a proven track record of showing ambition and taking leadership after being dissatisfied with the status quo. It’s having people like this that help us to deliver change and impact for our clients. 

The biggest challenge Rob and I have probably now have as a business is taking the spirit of zeal and making it scalable. We recognise that at 100 people, we need better processes. We’re never been anti-process, we’re not a pirate ship, but we have in the past described ourselves like a Tea-Clipper. The wind is in our sails and we’re off to the new world at speed but as the waves crash over the deck the galley is a bit dis-organised, but we’re on it.  We’ve just hired a brilliant Ops director for the first time and an industry leading Executive Creative Director. This is our ambition, we don’t just want to participate in our industry, we want to lead and shape it. 

Congratulations, Stewart, on this well-deserved achievement!

I’d be happy to take a bit of credit, but honestly, the real credit goes to the team. Rob and I often joke now that if the ship went down, we could no longer go and man a post. Zeal covers so many new and different areas now, from in-store to on-pack, brand experiences to content creation, not to mention pioneering entirely new ways of engaging with shoppers. Recently for instance the team created milk-dispensing cow posters, but that’s another story. No, Rob and I can take no credit other than finding some brilliant people, giving them the tools they need to succeed and getting out of their way. Hopefully they’ll continue to find more great people and Zeal will continue to be a virtuous cycle going forward.