Strategically Brave, Creatively Bold, Business Strong: Inside Full Punch’s Winning Formula

Historically, Canada’s advertising industry has grown out of publishing and broadcast media, both of which have long been centred in Toronto and Montreal. Over the last decade, however, Vancouver has emerged as a creative hub, attracting global production, gaming, digital marketing, and design talent. Offering a unique work-life balance that locals rave about and newcomers quickly adopt, Vancouver frequently ranks among the top 10 most liveable cities in the world.

Launched in 2019, Full Punch is proud to be part of the West Coast’s creative wave. The Vancouver and Edmonton based agency is built on the belief that great work doesn’t just come from creative talent, but from integrating three essential disciplines: strategy, creativity, and brand management. Rather than operating in silos, Full Punch has built a model where these pillars function as a collaborative ecosystem: a fluid, feedback-rich environment that breaks down departmental barriers, inviting clients into the process.

LBB’s April Summers sits down with co-founders Mike Leslie and Chris Zawada to get the full story.

The Process Behind the Punch

At Full Punch, collaboration lies at the heart of the agency’s operating system, with every aspect of the business designed to support a free flow of ideas across disciplines. The team believes that when strategy, creativity, and business thinking are brought together from the outset, the results are more powerful, relevant, and long-lasting.

"The two of us bring together unique skills, backgrounds, and experiences that form the essence of Full Punch, beyond just our titles," CEO Mike Leslie tells me. "It’s these unique experiences that create a culture that truly values strategic thinking as much as creative ideas, and work that makes an impact for our clients."

Mike’s background includes leading national accounts like TELUS, serving as president of TAXI, and spending time client-side. With expertise spanning industries from CPG to telco and retail to automotive, he is deeply business-savvy. Quick to reject the term “suit”, Mike sees himself as a creative thinker first and foremost, championing brave strategic insights whenever possible.

Chris Zawada, meanwhile, brings a design-first perspective to the table, having built his creative career at some of Canada’s most lauded agencies. In 2008, on top of his full-time career, he launched Lovely Package, one of the world’s first packaging design inspiration sites. Raised by creative and craftsman parents, Chris is known for his innate attention to detail and a passion for work that’s not only beautiful but meaningful.

The culmination of their unique experiences is a culture that truly values strategic thinking as much as creative ideas, and work that makes an impact for clients.

Philosophy as More Than Just a Mantra

Speaking with Chris and Mike it’s clear Full Punch’s mantra – ‘Strategically Brave. Creatively Bold. Business Strong.’ – is an imperative aspect of how the agency operates.

"This trifecta is the foundation of every great piece of creative, but not every agency places equal emphasis on these three pillars," says Mike. "Strategically Brave, Creatively Bold, and Business Strong represents a holistic and effective approach to problem-solving and concept creation.”

Committed to practicing this philosophy on a day-to-day basis, the tagline is a true reflection of Full Punch’s approach to every brief. Each project is grounded in strategic rigour, brought to life with bold creative, and evaluated through the lens of tangible business impact.

“It's not enough to have brilliant ideas if they don't serve a purpose, and strong strategies fall flat without compelling execution,” Mike continues. “We’ve built our agency model and designed specific tools and processes to ensure we can deliver on this approach repeatedly."

"Strategically Brave is a willingness to have a brand foundation that stands out from the competition. It means looking beyond the obvious, challenging assumptions, and having the courage for unconventional ideas. Creatively Bold is about pushing boundaries and developing breakthrough ideas that make people feel something. Being Business Strong means we’re driving the business forward in ways that our clients couldn't do without us.”

This philosophy was powerfully demonstrated in Full Punch’s recent work for the Alberta Cancer Foundation (ACF). The campaign was built on a courageous strategic insight: if ACF could give cancer patients more time to spend with the people they love, imagine what those patients could give back to the people they love. More time to teach their child to skate, more birthday celebrations, more time together in the kitchen.

The creative execution focused not just on patients, but on their families and caregivers, showing real Albertans in intimate moments of joy. Scenes of treatment and recovery were juxtaposed with scenes of celebration and togetherness; a father and son skating, a family gathered at Christmas. Understandably, the campaign struck a chord across the province.

The emotional resonance of the work was elevated by a soundtrack partnership with Canadian band The Arkells, whose song "Strong" captured the campaign’s message of resilience and hope.

“More than creating a heart-warming campaign, we delivered business results,” Chris reveals. “Donations poured in shattering previous donation records, generating nearly $200,000 CAD. It’s a great illustration of how a brave strategy can lead to bold creativity to deliver strong business results.”

Collaboration as a Generous Act

The agency’s collaborative approach isn’t limited to internal teams either. Clients are invited into the process early and often, but you won’t find Chris and Mike bragging about that aspect so much.

“Collaboration is probably the biggest buzzword in advertising outside of the word ‘purpose’,” Mike quips. “Every agency preaches collaboration, but what kind of culture, tools and processes are in place to foster it?”

At Full Punch, these leaders have thrown out the rulebook on creative briefs and briefings – in a bid to be as intuitive as possible when it comes to working with clients. “As an example, rather than playing baton, passing the brief back and forth between clients and the accounts team, we use a template to co-create the creative brief with our clients and creative teams through a process called The Warmup,” explains Mike. “The results align with goals, objectives, and the initial hypothesis regarding the audience and the competitive category. We then jump ahead into the creative process, working alongside the client, creatives, strategists, and account and media teams through creative exercises to tackle the problem, as we call it The Workout.”

These two leaders believe a good idea can come from anyone, so bringing all stakeholders together to unlock insights, consider brave and bold paths forward, creates enormous efficiencies, fosters better understanding, sets expectations, and turns over numerous rocks for the creative teams. “It puts the creative way down the field through creative collaboration in ways that the traditional brief and briefing could never deliver. Additionally, it enhances levels of client trust and fosters long-lasting relationships.”

Eager to share this approach with their peers, the co-founders presented the unique process at The One Club’s closed-door Executive Creative Summit in Barcelona, hoping to “break down walls, truly collaborate and have intelligent conversations as a group.”​

Evolving with Intention

Uninterested in chasing trends for the sake of it, Full Punch is focused on deliberate evolution: scaling sustainably, refining their tools, and reinforcing the values that set them apart. "We look in the mirror every year and ask: what stays, what changes, what goes?" Mike explains. "What’s working today may not work tomorrow, so we need to be as agile for ourselves as we are for our clients.”

As the agency continues to grow, Chris and Mike remain focused on prioritising quality over quantity in both the work and the kinds of clients they take on. Through it all, Full Punch’s North Star remains unchanged: deliver high-quality, strategically grounded creative that drives business outcomes. And by staying attuned to shifts in technology, consumer behaviour, and culture, the team’s output remains relevant, resonant, and results-driven.

In a landscape often dominated by legacy networks and East Coast agencies, Full Punch is showing what West Coast creativity can look like: collaborative, courageous, and commercially effective. By putting people, process, and purpose at the centre of everything they do, the agency is not only reshaping expectations for Canadian advertising but helping define where it’s going next.

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Find out what else Full Punch is up to here​

Read more from LBB's April Summers here