As the Branded Content & Design Lead at Stareable, the premier independent TV and web series festival in America (a position I worked up to from Visual Designer, then a marketing role), I secured a branded content deal with Dell Technologies and NVIDIA to develop and create a short-form series, Creator School.

This involved collaborating, coordinating, and curating bite-sized lessons about TV development, showrunning, and content creation from Stareable’s roster of industry professional guests, including;

Emmy-winning/nominated producers, Bernie Su (The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, Artificial), Michael Melamedoff (The Problem with Apu, Partner at CowboyBearNinja), Lily Ladewig (Director of Development at Vox Media Studios), Sonja O'Hara (Doomsday, Vial), and acclaimed celebrity portrait photographer, Mark Mann.

Locking in Dell/NVIDIA required cutting together and pitching sample episodes, with fully branded intro/outro cards. Once in business, the relationship consisted of producing episodes and presenting them to Dell/NVIDIA’s marketing team for approval, and integrating marketing initiatives, including a Dell Precision 3470 Workstation giveaway.

Prior to my joining Stareable, there was no short form content push — I built out our video operation and initial library that attracted Dell/NVIDIA to expand their partnership with us.

This is one of the stand out examples of how my skillset and proactive nature resulted in a new revenue/funding stream for my company.

See all filmmaking and video work here!

During my time leading Branded Content/Marketing & Design for Stareable Festival, I worked closely with AMC Networks on programming and marketing a sponsored award:

The AMC Networks Best Female Creator Award.

We built a pipeline for underrepresented creators to meet with executives at AMC Networks-owned studios/networks (AMC, IFC, SundanceTV) and discuss potential development options. Centering raw, triumphant LGBTQIA+ stories, mental health awareness, and more, in a variety of fresh genre spins from women-led teams.

This has been one of the more meaningful and impactful projects I’ve been a part of over the last 3 years as we showcased a ton of awesome up-and-coming women in film, including innovative series, It's Fine, I'm Fine, and Black Kung Fu Chick.

I was responsible for ideating the initial visual direction and coordinating the rollout with AMC’s team, helping create the marketing assets seen on the left, and curating projects for nomination.

Best Female Creator Winner, Elvira Ibragimova

All graphics designed and animated by me. Property of Stareable.

Over the course of my company journey from Visual Designer to Branded Content Lead at Stareable (Top 100 Best Reviewed Festivals on FilmFreeway), I created both physical and digital elements such as interstitials, step-and-repeats, banners, and displays to curate a high-energy, fun vibe that features, celebrates, and inspires creators, while communicating value, encouraging future project submissions, and visually representing partner brands at our festivals and sponsored after-parties.

More graphics here!

(See full Stareable portfolio.)

I was instrumental in several brand activations leading up to and during our events/festivals.

VIZIO

Several partnerships with VIZIO that involved me editing video content and creating sizzles for integration into the “VIZIO Tour Bus” and various displays. Creating marketing graphics for VIZIO’s sponsored award: Best Culinary Adventure Show.

Dell Technologies & NVIDIA

Working with Dell/NVIDIA to create visuals, marketing, and curate nominations for a sponsored award and giveaway: Best Virtual Filmmaking Award. Highlighting independent series using the latest CGI/VFX techniques.

Creating marketing materials for Dell-sponsored workshops, including a Photography Lighting Workshop by prolific photographer Mark Mann and an Adobe AI Editing Workshop by Vashi Nedomansky (editorial consultant on DEADPOOL).

Disney TV Animation

Producing marketing materials for Disney TV Animation-sponsored talks, including AMA with Lisa Fragner, Vice President at Disney Television Animation.

Sony TriStar Pictures

Integrating brand’s visuals and creating marketing materials for their sponsored 90-Second Pitch Competition at our New York festival. Festival Official Selections pitched their series idea to Sony TriStar Pictures Vice President, Dr. Jennifer Turner.

Sony Pictures Television

Created early marketing for First Look Deal.

Just For Laughs

Coordinating cross-promotion with Just For Laughs MONTRÉAL Festival, producing design assets.

Visually represented the above brands, as well as Intel, XRM Media, Pano, WriterDuet, Liquid Death, and more. Shot video for events.

UTA

Stareable is represented by UTA, one of the largest entertainment agencies in the world. I created a sizzle reel of Stareable Studios projects (Official Selections signed with Stareable to package/shop around) for Upfronts. Upfronts is a TV industry event where advertisers buy space on promising, soon-to-be-released TV shows.

Attendees ask questions via the live stream chat.

One of our earlier Dell Technologies/NVIDIA/Intel partnerships with Stareable, was hosting a virtual workshop series taught by large creators pushing the boundaries of innovation in virtual and digital production. I worked closely with creators to develop the marketing materials for their workshops. Creators included:

SoKrispy Media is a production house and YouTube channel with 2 million subscribers and over 700 million views. They are known for their visual effects work on HBO's The Last of Us, Mr. Beast's Squid Game, and their popular series Chalk Warfare.

SavageGeese is a YouTube channel with 700k subscribers and 200 million views, producing high quality coverage of technology, life, cars, and trucks.

Virtual Pass I Made for SoKrispy Media’s Virtual Production Workshop

During my time at Stareable, I worked with the team on packaging and distributing 35 original series on The Roku Channel.

These were independent series developed by diverse creators and curated through our festivals, establishing a pipeline from festival selection and screening to streaming distribution on a major streaming service.

My primary role was creating graphics for thumbnails/key art and social media marketing announcements.

I write sponsored content for Recreyo! A Dungeons & Dragons-style (Choose Your Own Adventure) animated show placing a cast of large internet personalities in bizarre and challenging role-playing scenarios where they'll need to work together and make a series of tricky path-altering decisions to survive.

My episodes have generated millions of views, and have been partnered with:

AT&T, HBO Max, ExpressVPN, Audible, Raycon.

See full documentation for scope of my role, process, etc.

Get Your Golden Nuggets of Wisdom, Listen Below:

I spoke with Holly Zheng, the CEO, President, and Board Member at one of the largest ad agencies, BlueFocus International. We spoke about how their Travis Scott x McDonald’s partnership came together, social data, AI press robots, and how to build up your self-belief as a leader.

My thorough research and conversational approach here allowed for a great, in-depth and honest look at BlueFocus as an agency. I emphasized key corporate lessons in my edit.

This is a must-listen for anyone in branding and marketing.