Breakdowns

Film production is such a strange job. The Oakley x Meta shoot had us hauling multiple bags of cheezies up a hill… Insurance paperwork nearly derailed the whole thing before we got on location. Weather kept shifting. A couple of the bigger creative swings were “Hail Marys” going in. But some things clicked. Reflections became […]

There’s a reason some brands feel familiar the moment you see them… and it’s not the logo. As feeds get noisier and AI content floods every platform, building recall is quietly becoming a crucial game in brand building. The brands winning it aren’t necessarily the loudest or the most polished. They’re the ones that keep

Most brands think the “polish” should show up in the first frame. I keep seeing the best-performing launches start somewhere completely different. Manors Golf Apparel Golf does it at the top of their latest film. The whole opening looks like someone just pulled out their phone and hit record, handheld and slightly messy. And that’s

Mr. Beast does something in the first three seconds of his videos that brands could learn from. It’s not the crazy challenges. It’s not the budget, the stunts, or the production scale. It’s just the opening. Almost every single video starts with something unresolved… a tension, a moment that feels incomplete, and your brain immediately

Most brands are investing in the wrong thing and they don’t even know it yet. Not because they’re bad at marketing. Because the scoreboard they’re watching only shows tomorrow. A lot of teams are pouring budget into paid campaigns, transactional content, constant product pushes… and it feels smart because the numbers move. Sales spike. The

Brooklyn Coffee Shop is a social show that all brands should pay close attention to. Most brands are still treating their social feed like a bulletin board. New look every post. New message. New format. New vibe. Each one might be decent on its own, but nothing ever stacks. Nothing becomes recognizable. It peaks… and

SATISFY Running has built one of the strongest worlds on social media right now… and they’re still leaving brand awareness on the table. Not because the creative is weak. The look, the feel, the tone, all of it is premium and consistent. You scroll their Instagram and you know immediately you’re inside the “Satisfy universe”.

A lot of brands spend their energy trying to explain their product. Oakley x Meta did it in one “seamless”  camera move. No CGI.. just a frozen moment with 4 clips stitched together that became the cheat code for the whole shot. Here’s how: As Craig rides past camera, he holds position while the camera

Gap just made a hire that most brands aren’t ready to talk about yet. Not a CMO  or a Head of Content: A Chief Entertainment Officer. Here’s what I think is actually going on. The brands winning attention right now don’t look like “advertisers”. They look like studios. Red Bull cracked this decades ago and

Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri said it well: “Authenticity is becoming infinitely reproducible.” And he’s not wrong When everyone can generate flawless video content instantly, “perfect” stops meaning anything. Feeds get flooded with AI and the audience starts asking a different question Not “is this worth my time?” but “is this even real?” AI can

The Coca-Cola Company tried something that felt like a turning point. They remade their iconic Christmas ad entirely with AI, and the internet absolutely roasted them. Not polite criticism. Full backlash… People called it soulless, creepy, a betrayal of the craft that made the original stick in the first place. That reaction isn’t just noise.

Most brands are still making content that looks polished but doesn’t make people feel anything. And if it doesn’t resonate, it doesn’t work. In this conversation, I break down what actually helps content connect and perform: Why emotional resonance matters more than transactional messaging How the Content Pyramid creates a full content ecosystem from one