The Brief (The Problem)
The agency (St. John) came to me with a massive creative paradox. They were scaling their active "What Are You Running?" campaign for a heavy 2025 media push to expand E3 into the mainstream DIY market. This was a highly visible, national multichannel campaign spanning Connected TV (CTV), YouTube, pre-roll, social, and broadcast television in key markets. They needed a fresh, massive, premium asset library to feed this media machine for the new year, but they were operating on a highly constrained budget. The client didn't just need pretty pictures; they needed hard, undeniable retail sales.
The agency (St. John) came to me with a massive creative paradox. They were scaling their active "What Are You Running?" campaign for a heavy 2025 media push to expand E3 into the mainstream DIY market. This was a highly visible, national multichannel campaign spanning Connected TV (CTV), YouTube, pre-roll, social, and broadcast television in key markets. They needed a fresh, massive, premium asset library to feed this media machine for the new year, but they were operating on a highly constrained budget. The client didn't just need pretty pictures; they needed hard, undeniable retail sales.
The Strategy
When your creative has to hold its own on a 65-inch television screen next to billion-dollar automotive brands, you can't cut corners. I pitched shooting exclusively on anamorphic lenses to force a premium, cinematic standard right out of the gate. I architected a multi-day, multi-location production plan—moving from private garages to backroads to a dynamic brick alleyway in Durham. The goal was to build a highly modular, high-fidelity content ecosystem that the agency could seamlessly scale across both national broadcast and targeted digital media buys.
When your creative has to hold its own on a 65-inch television screen next to billion-dollar automotive brands, you can't cut corners. I pitched shooting exclusively on anamorphic lenses to force a premium, cinematic standard right out of the gate. I architected a multi-day, multi-location production plan—moving from private garages to backroads to a dynamic brick alleyway in Durham. The goal was to build a highly modular, high-fidelity content ecosystem that the agency could seamlessly scale across both national broadcast and targeted digital media buys.
The Execution (The Reality)
I’m not going to sugarcoat it—when you run a production of this scale, you don't have the luxury of just sitting in the director's chair. You have to bridge the gap between creative vision and on-the-ground reality.
I’m not going to sugarcoat it—when you run a production of this scale, you don't have the luxury of just sitting in the director's chair. You have to bridge the gap between creative vision and on-the-ground reality.
The Logistics: Entering pre-production in late 2024, I architected the estimates, managed the complex administrative load, navigated specialized stunt insurance for the picture cars, and locked down the locations to keep us moving fast and in the black.
The Floor: When you're managing a 30-person crew across multiple company lines and locations, bottlenecks happen. When the schedule got tight and we needed to move faster, I stepped in directly to run the floor, wrangle the crew, and keep momentum high.
The Save: When our post-production pipeline hit a technical wall on the hero "lightning cloud" shot for the finale, I didn't let it derail the timeline. I jumped into After Effects myself, rebuilt the hero VFX shot in 45 minutes, and secured the final national broadcast deliverable.
The ROI (Retail Sales & Media Valuation)
We delivered the entire package on time for the 2025 rollout, feeding a massive national media buy. But the only thing that actually matters in this business is the bottom line. Per client-reported retail data, this campaign acted as a massive growth engine for E3:
We delivered the entire package on time for the 2025 rollout, feeding a massive national media buy. But the only thing that actually matters in this business is the bottom line. Per client-reported retail data, this campaign acted as a massive growth engine for E3:
76% increase in overall retail sales revenue.
24% increase in eCommerce sales.
60% unit sales jump at Advanced Auto Parts.
22% unit sales jump at O’Reilly Auto Parts.
The Bottom Line: The agency handed me a massive national broadcast footprint and a highly specific vision. I managed the chaos, protected the brand's visual identity, and turned that creative into measurable, client-verified ROI.
Broadcast Analytics & Media Valuation
While the exact media buy is proprietary to the agency, the distribution footprint points to a massive capital investment, requiring creative that could guarantee conversion.
While the exact media buy is proprietary to the agency, the distribution footprint points to a massive capital investment, requiring creative that could guarantee conversion.
• Digital Footprint: The hero 15-second spot generated 6.8 million views on YouTube alone. Based on standard automotive CPV (Cost Per View) metrics, the media spend for that single digital placement is estimated between $350,000 and $700,000.
• Omnichannel Scale: Factoring in the broader Connected TV (Hulu/Roku), Meta, and linear broadcast placements required to move physical units at national retailers like Advanced Auto Parts and O'Reilly, the total campaign media buy is estimated conservatively between $2.5 million and $5 million.
• The Takeaway: Delivering an asset library that can successfully carry a multi-million-dollar media buy and drive a 76% national revenue surge proves the creative was both premium and highly convertible.
Campaign Scale Verification: View the Ads of Brands feature detailing the campaign's massive multichannel broadcast and CTV rollout across key national markets.