Park City agency wins Nike, U.S. Ski clients, takes on big shops

Highlanders Creative landed Nike, Hennessy, the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Team, the U.S. Army and ACT, giving the Park City agency a client list that looks more at home in New York or Los Angeles than in Summit County. The roster has quickly become the clearest proof point for a shop trying to show that big-brand creative work can come from the Wasatch Back.

The agency was founded by Ed McCulloch and Michael Mendieta, whose backgrounds were built in different corners of the business. McCulloch spent years directing global campaigns in more than 20 countries, while Mendieta worked in brand strategy at major New York agencies including Ogilvy before moving to Park City several years ago. Highlanders says its name reflects both McCulloch’s Scottish background and Mendieta’s Basque and Spanish roots, while also nodding to the mountains around their adopted home.

Nike was the agency’s first client, after Highlanders launched with a cold pitch that led to produced work for the brand. That first major assignment centered on Salt Lake Valley distance runner Jane Hedengren, whom Nike asked the agency to help introduce while she was still in high school. Highlanders’ case study says Hedengren had already run a 4:23 mile, a 14:57 5K and set nine national records in a single season when the work began. Nike later described her as one of the most accomplished high school distance runners of all time, saying she broke nine high school records in 2024 across the mile to the 5K.

Highlanders has used that project to sell a broader model. The company describes itself as a strategy-grounded creative house based in Park City that keeps strategy, creative and production under one roof instead of sending work to separate vendors. Its website says that approach is built to move campaigns out in weeks rather than months, and to cover branding, strategy, filmmaking, art direction, photography, video, social media campaigns and experiential events from one team. The agency’s news page says that model later extended to a national Olympic campaign with the U.S. Army and U.S. Ski & Snowboard that aired exclusively on NBC.

For Park City, the rise of Highlanders points to a local economy that is not limited to resorts and real estate. The Park Record has served the Wasatch Back since 1880, and Highlanders’ client list shows how quickly a Summit County firm can reach far beyond it when national brands are willing to hire a mountain-town agency for work that has to travel.