Briefing that aligned upfront
Creative ambition met production reality before we went to camera. Fewer surprises. Less rework. More room for agencies to push ideas within realistic parameters.
50+ Campaigns.
One Year. Every Year.
How we kept Wendy’s moving fast without breaking.
The Brief
Wendy's doesn't do slow. The brand moves fast, takes creative risks, and expects production to keep up. My role: lead production for all national broadcast. 50+ campaigns a year. General and Hispanic markets. $40 million budget. Four years straight. The challenge wasn't delivering one great campaign. It was delivering 50 great campaigns every year while the brand kept raising the bar
My Role: Production Leadership
The Work
Delivering 50+ campaigns every year changes the nature of the work. Every inefficiency compounds. A delay on one spot cascades into three others. Relationships become critical. Stakeholder alignment is constant. And all of it happens while the creative bar keeps rising.
My role was not to be the hero on every shoot. It was to build the machine that made everyone else’s job easier. One that protected creative ambition while keeping pace, budgets, and teams intact.
That meant shifting focus away from individual moments and toward repeatable systems. Decisions needed to happen earlier. Problems had to surface in process, not in post. Production had to be designed to absorb chaos without slowing the brand down.
What follows is the operating system behind that scale.
Why It Hits
Scale requires systems, not heroics.
Great production at this volume isn’t about individual effort. It’s about processes that free creative teams to do their best work. Relationships built on trust. Stakeholder alignment that happens early.
Leadership is clearing the path.
My job wasn’t to be the smartest person in the room. It was to coordinate the smartest people in every room and remove friction so they could focus on making great work.
Consistency is underrated.
One great campaign is impressive. Delivering 50+ every year, for four years, while maintaining creative quality and budget discipline is what builds a reputation. It’s what lets a brand move fast and take risks,
because the infrastructure can support it.
How It Worked
The operating system behind 50+ campaigns a year. Built to protect quality, pace, and people.
Relationships built on trust, not transactions
We worked with partners who understood Wendy’s pace and creative ambition. When timelines compressed or problems surfaced, teams knew how we worked and stayed invested in solving for the brand.
Budget discipline without killing momentum
Overages were flagged in process, not after the fact. Quarterly reviews found efficiencies across the portfolio, from vendor negotiations to timeline optimization, returning real dollars back to the business.
Timelines built for chaos
Schedules assumed revisions, feedback, and pivots. When we had to compress for cultural moments, we knew exactly where time could be pulled without sacrificing quality.
On set when it mattered
For critical shoots, I provided creative oversight and solved real-time challenges while keeping budgets and timelines intact. Weather delays, talent changes, technical issues, the work stayed protected.
General + Hispanic, built in parallel
Not translated spots. Parallel creative development with unique casting, union considerations, and cultural nuance, operating inside shared timelines, budgets, and infrastructure.
Stakeholder alignment continuously
Marketing, legal, brand, media, and finance stayed coordinated throughout. Decisions happened early and often, so problems were solved in process, not in post.
By the Numbers
50+
National campaigns annually
$40M
Annual production budget managed
Multiple $M
Returned through continuous optimization
4 years
2017–2021
Production in Action
Seven moments from the machine: creative in motion, decisions in real time, and production built to scale.
Creative Boards: Multiple campaigns in development simultaneously, aligning creative vision with production reality.
Built Environments: Building branded sets for sports partnerships and seasonal activations.
On Set: On set at X Games, directing content with real-time creative decisions.
Talent Direction: Directing talent for national campaigns, from NBA Hall of Famers to everyday brand ambassadors.
Video Village: From brief to broadcast, maintaining creative quality at scale.
Portfolio Throughput: Product-focused campaigns across general and Hispanic markets.
Sports Partnerships: Coordinating productions for major moments, including FOX Sports and X Games.
The Lesson
Process enables creativity.
The best creative teams don’t want chaos. They want clarity. Clear briefs. Realistic timelines. Responsive partners. When systems remove friction,
creative teams can take bigger risks and do better work.
Relationships matter as much as budgets.
Partners who understand the brand and trust the process will move mountains when timelines compress or challenges arise.
Transactional relationships get transactional results. Partnership earns excellence.
Leadership is about removing roadblocks.
My job wasn’t to make the work. It was to make the work possible. That meant building consensus, managing up, coordinating laterally,
and making sure teams had what they needed to do their best.
Sustained excellence beats one-off brilliance.
Anyone can execute one great campaign. Building a system that delivers 50+ great campaigns every year, for years, is what separates good production leadership from great.