Xero, a leading cloud-based small business financial platform in the UK and parts of Asia Pacific with ambitious expansion plans in North America has named San Francisco-based Argonaut as lead creative agency for a global brand ad campaign. The agency was selected over several undisclosed contenders.    

Argonaut in collaboration with the client is developing a massive data- and AI-driven global campaign that will include its largest marketing effort to date in the U.S. while also targeting the UK, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Malaysia, Ireland, and Singapore.  

The publicly traded company reported spending roughly $217 million on advertising and marketing in its fiscal year 2026, up from about $181 million during the prior year, according to financial documents. (The firm is based in New Zealand while the company’s stock is traded on the Australian Securities Exchange.)  

The budget for the new campaign was not disclosed. Key channels include YouTube, Reddit, linear TV, Amazon, and more.  

Argonaut landed the account to spearhead Xero's global brand refresh and roll out a distinct visual and strategic identity tailored for small business owners. Under CEO Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, Xero is executing its "Win the 3x3" growth strategy, which focuses on dominating three core functions (accounting, payroll, and payments) across Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and now, North America.   

The company’s plan includes expanded investments and M&A activity—like last year’s $2.5 billion deal for New York-based B2B bill paying platform Melio—to directly challenge QuickBooks.  

A major part of Xero’s strategy in North America consists of bringing key financial workflows - including payments, payroll and expenses - into one platform. 

At the Xerocon US conference this week the company announced a series of capabilities designed to help bring these key financial workflows together: Xero Payroll, Xero Bill Payments, Melio Expense Management, Melio API and Casper, an AI-powered client manager for accounting firms.  

Argonaut and Xero collaborated on the research that led to the insight that small business owners thrive when they embrace every part of their business, including accounting, which is often perceived as a somewhat thankless chore.  

The partners used that insight to reframe finances as something that can fuel passion just like other parts of a business that entrepreneurs pour their hearts into. That became the foundation for the campaign theme, “Love Changes Everything.”  

To execute the global campaign, the Xero and Argonaut teams had to account for nuances in language and culture across five continents. AI-driven production helped generate 600 varied campaign assets in eight weeks with specific hyper-localization for the U.S. regions.  

Argonaut developed the creative blueprint from visual development through delivery and worked with outside production house ArtClass and its post-production unit Overture to develop the assets.   

The campaign is inspired by actual small business success stories. And the companies say that using an AI production platform made the campaign feel local and personal with distinct industry contexts, and localized product details across regions. And at scale and speed that traditional production models couldn’t match.  

"This was a bold swing for us,” says Shahin Edalati, general manager, global head of creative at Xero. “Eight markets, real local nuance in each one, on a budget and timeline that wouldn't have worked a few years ago.”  

Working with Argonaut and the ArtClass team, Edalati added, “we used AI throughout production so the storytelling could stay specific, accents, shopfronts, product details, rather than flattening everything into one global version. We're still testing and learning as we go, but it's already changing what we think a brand our size can pull off.”  

"AI gave us the ability to imagine and produce this world in ways that simply wouldn’t have been possible before,” noted Hunter Hindman, Argonaut founder, CEO and Chief Creative Officer. “But the technology was never the idea. The idea (and the judgment behind every creative choice) remained deeply human. What’s exciting about this moment is that AI can remove some of the traditional constraints of production and give creative teams a much bigger canvas.” 

Sample the work here, here and here.