50+
Campaigns Annually
Case Study / Wendy’s Production Leadership
50+ campaigns.
One year.
Every year.
How production infrastructure helped Wendy’s protect creative ambition while shipping national work at relentless volume.
$40M
Annual Budget
4
Years at Scale
2
Markets / General + Hispanic
The Brief
Wendy’s does not do slow. The brand moves fast, takes creative risks, and expects production to keep pace.
I led national broadcast production for 50+ campaigns per year across General and Hispanic markets, managing a $40M annual production budget.
The challenge was not one great campaign. It was sustaining the machine every year.
The Tension
At this scale, small mistakes are not small.
One delayed approval becomes a missed talent window.
One missed window becomes a reshoot.
One reshoot becomes a six-figure problem.
The tension was never speed versus quality.
It was protecting creative ambition while operating at relentless volume.
The Insight
Scale requires systems,
not heroics.
The best creative teams do not want chaos. They want clarity.
Clear briefs, realistic timelines, responsive partners, and trust-based vendor relationships gave the work room to move without letting production spin out.
When systems remove friction, creative teams take bigger risks and do better work.
The Machine
We treated production as infrastructure, not support. The goal was to remove friction early, protect creative quality, and keep national work moving.
01 / Align
Briefing that aligned upfront
Creative ambition met production reality before teams went to camera.
02 / Absorb
Timelines built for chaos
Schedules assumed revisions, feedback, and pivots instead of pretending everything would go smoothly.
03 / Protect
Budget discipline without killing momentum
Overages were flagged in process, not after the fact.
04 / Decide
On set when it mattered
Creative was protected in real time through decisive calls when time, talent, and budget were all in motion.
Production in Action
Four 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.
The Result
Production became
creative infrastructure.
The work shipped at scale because the system supported it: earlier alignment, better partner relationships, disciplined budgets, and real-time judgment when it mattered.
Anyone can execute one great campaign. Sustaining 50+ national campaigns every year, across markets, while protecting quality and budget discipline, is what builds trust.
