The Brief
A short film, then a 55-person newsroom. Both had to find the human inside the biggest brand on earth.
Two different jobs, same impossible question: how do you make the world’s most famous brand feel human? First, a short film for Coke x Carmike Cinemas about the raw awkwardness of a first date at the movies. Then, a 55-person real-time newsroom covering Coke, Diet Coke, Fanta, and Sprite across every major platform.
The Insight
The bigger the brand, the more the smallest details matter.
Coke doesn’t sell a beverage. It sells the feeling in the room. The bigger the brand, the more craft matters in the smallest places — a food pairing post at 7 AM, a Spanish-language reply during a football game, a film about the armrest at a first date.
The Work
A film about first dates. A newsroom that never sleeps.
The Date Night film ran in Carmike theaters nationwide. On the social side, we built content around food pairings and cultural moments — college football Saturdays with real-time responses, Spanish-language fan replies, daily rhythm that turned social from a broadcast megaphone into a conversation. Every post had to earn its spot in the feed.
The hardest creative job isn’t a Super Bowl spot. It’s making something worth stopping for at 7 AM on a Tuesday.
The Results
Platforms
Brands
The Date Night film ran in Carmike theaters nationwide — a genuine short about the raw awkwardness of a first date at the movies. On the social side, a 55-person newsroom covered Coke, Diet Coke, Fanta, and Sprite across five platforms daily. Food pairings, college football Saturdays, real-time responses in English and Spanish. Every post had to earn its spot in the feed.
My Take
At Coke I led the social newsroom side — 55 people, five platforms, daily. “Creative Lead” is what they call it in-house. Same job a CD does at an agency — just run inside the company instead of for it.
The bigger the brand, the more craft matters in the smallest places. Two chapters, same lesson: the brand isn’t the story. The brand is what’s in the room when the story happens. That’s the difference between content people scroll past and content people feel.
The newsroom taught me that speed kills perfectionism — in a good way. Five platforms, daily deadlines, no time to overthink. Some of the best work I’ve ever been part of happened because there was no room to second-guess it.