Zulu Alpha Kilo Continues Canadian Jury Partnership at The Immortal Awards

The Immortal Awards has announced that Zulu Alpha Kilo is returning to support this year’s Canadian competition as jury partner.

It’s the third consecutive year that the independent agency has supported the jury day, demonstrating both parties' commitment to celebrating Canadian creativity on the global stage.

The partnership means that The Immortal Awards will head to Toronto to host this year’s Canadian jury day in person, at Zulu Alpha Kilo, on November 5th. A jury made up of the market’s best brand, agency, production and post leaders will decide which work is Canada’s best of the last year, sending those projects through to the regional North American round of judging.

Last year, two projects from Canada went on to win globally at The Immortal Awards. The projects, which both came from Rethink, were Kraft Heinz ‘Ketchup Fraud’ which won an Immortal, and Decathlon ‘Ability Signs’ which received a Commendation.

Zak Mroueh, founder and creative chairman of Zulu Alpha Kilo, says, “I appreciate the simple and singular focus of the show. We hosted our first year of judging at the tail end of the pandemic, partly fuelled by the desire to see people again. We had so much fun with all the local judges that we decided to do it again. It’s now become an annual tradition to host the judging at our office. Hearing the judges debate the work, including your own, is always fascinating and humbling.”

Paul Monan, awards director of The Immortal Awards, says, “It’s an honour and a privilege to have Zulu Alpha Kilo supporting our Canadian jury once again this year. Zak and his team are true champions of their market and want to see Canada excel on a global stage. The standard of work we are seeing from the country is consistently world-leading and we are thrilled to be able to give it a platform to an international audience. We can’t wait to be back in Toronto later this year to find this year’s cream of the Canadian crop.”

On his favourite aspects of The Immortal Awards, Zak adds, “Well, for starters, our CFO is always pleased that there are no entry fees. Kidding aside, it’s also a great barometer and kick-off to the awards season. You can use it as a testing ground to see if a newer piece of creative is worth investing in. If it doesn’t even get shortlisted at the Immortals, is it worth wasting your awards budget entering the piece in shows with exorbitant entry fees?”

Having now supported the Canadian jury day for three years, as well as judging at the show himself, Zak also knows how it differs from other competitions, adding, “We like the format of submitting your five best pieces with no categories. It really forces you to home in on your best work. When a show has too many categories, it’s easy to fall into the trap of being seduced into entering lesser work in the hopes it might win in a weaker category. And we all know the reason for these often confusing categories is revenue, so I really appreciate the purity of The Immortals. Matt and team, don’t ever change!”