NerdWallet: Phang's Phinances
a 30 second jumbotron spot for the NerdWallet x Philadelphia Union
One of the highlights of my four years as Lead Creative Producer on NerdWallet’s Brand Studio Team has been being a key creative partner of the Sports Sponsorships program. Led by Fausto Toussaint (Manager, Sports Sponsorships) and Erin Albertson (Director, Brand), we collaborated with NBA, NFL and MLS to create hundreds of out of home, in stadium placements, custom events, photoshoots and branded films for social and digital.
Among our team’s favorites was “Phang’s Phinances”. We were tasked to do “a lot with very little” – a production budget of less than $10,000, to execute something that played like a 30 second tv spot, but would live on the Subaru Park jumbotron to kick off every game.
I partnered with Copywriter Morgan Eidson, Creative Director Justin Sanders, and designer Natalie Garnett to script, design, and produce Phang's Phinances completely in-house.
From a production perspective I approached this like one of my independent narrative film shoots. The strategy being to prioritize only the absolute key production resources and doing as many jobs myself as possible, to save money.
Our DP Ed Wu also handled lighting, grip and post-color. I directed, line produced and oversaw the production. We had the on the ground support of our brand partners, Fausto and Erin. It was a team effort, with Fausto holding up lights and me running back and forth grabbing lunch for the cast and crew between directing shots.
To save on production costs, I also edited and sound designed the piece - and pulled in composer Matt Orenstein to create a custom music track. Talent was Libby Baker and the Union’s mascot, Phang.
We came in at budget and the spot played on the jumbotron at Subaru Park for the entire season of the Union.