• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, December 21, 2017

Independent creative agency Zambezi is planning to stay open during the Christmas holiday season. 

As everybody in the industry knows, pretty much all of Adland takes off the week between Christmas and New Year. But not Zambezi. They’ll be open both of those days and the week in between. 

The shop posits that somebody has to take charge to help brands in the case of some unforeseen marketing emergency during the busiest time of year for many clients. 

The agency is alerting clients of competitors (who will be closed) that Zambezi will be open to offer help if needed. To be in effect, the marketing industry’s “holiday AOR.” 

“We can’t abandon our clients, or your clients,” stated Jean Freeman, CEO of Zambezi. “Not when brands need to be firing on all touchpoints, marketing core values, driving brand impact and affinity, creating compelling narratives and brand storytelling, and most importantly marking down prices.” 

No, there’s nothing gimmicky about this announcement (ho, ho, ho).

Funny, I don’t remember Zambezi holding down Adland’s fort last year. Or the year before that. Or any year up to now. Wonder what’s changed? Oh well, at this time of year, it’s the thought that counts, right? 

And just in case you think this is some kind of cheap, publicity grabbing trick during a slow news period in Adland, the shop is streaming live footage of the holiday staff “hard at work” in real time. You can catch all the action here. 

Hope they are getting quadruple overtime for being such good sports.