Cossette Boosts Creative Strength with Senior-Level Hires on McDonald’s Canada Account

Cossette is maximising its award-winning creative capabilities with new senior-level hires on the agency’s McDonald’s Canada account.

Multiple award-winning creative Jason Hill joins Cossette as executive creative director. With over 25 years of experience, Jason spent the last few years freelancing at John St., Zulu Alpha Kilo and Edelman, where he leveraged his marketing expertise to create highly innovative campaigns for major brands, including IKEA, Adidas, Newfoundland & Labrador Tourism, Virgin, Molson, Nissan/Infiniti, and Axe.

“Working on one of the world’s largest brands, at an agency that has such a strong culture of creativity and collaboration, is an amazing opportunity that doesn’t come around very often,” says Jason. “I can’t wait to continue to dive into the McDonald’s brand and lead the team to build on the great work that Cossette has produced over the years.” 

In this role, Jason will oversee the creative team on the McDonald’s Canada account and work alongside Anthony Atkinson, who was promoted to executive creative director in March and oversees creative output for all other Cossette clients. One of Jason’s first moves at Cossette was hiring a new senior-level creative trio to work with him on the McDonald’s Canada account.

Leilah Ambrose is joining Cossette on October 19th, 2022, as group creative director. Her 15+ year career includes time at Bruce Mau Design, Tribal DDB, Grip Limited, TAXI, and most recently at the world’s largest PR firm, Edelman, as VP, creative director. At Edelman, she led creative concept development and content strategy for clients like Dove, KFC, Skittles, Kraft (PB & KD), HP, Tylenol, PayPal, Go RVing, Sanofi, Janssen, and Ontario Association of Optometrists. Leilah was also recently named one of 2022’s top 50 Women Leaders of Toronto by Women We Admire. 

“I like to hit the ground running and immerse myself in a client’s culture and creative process at every opportunity, and working on the McDonald’s brand will be no different,” says Leilah. “My background as a creative and storyteller allows me to step into this new role with confidence and have an understanding on how to amplify brand visibility in an integrated and holistic way. I’m looking forward to working with this amazing team that’s responsible for developing world-class creative.”  

“Creativity is at the heart of everything we do at Cossette, and we’re so excited to have Jason and Leilah on board to build on the great work we’ve produced for McDonald’s over the years,” says Kathy McGuire, SVP, general manager at Cossette in Toronto. “What excites me the most is seeing how their individual strengths and expertise will come together. Their different backgrounds and unique creative POVs will help us continue to produce work that stands out globally and better engages consumers across multiple touchpoints.”

Cossette is also welcoming Lorne Heller and Justin Luu to the McDonald’s Canada team as creative directors. Both Lorne and Justin join the agency from Droga5 on October 3rd, 2022. As well, Zuheir Kotob and Jason Soy from Cossette have been promoted to associate creative directors on the McDonald’s Canada account.