Building an in-house studio
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Horizon Media
The brief
Horizon buys media. Creative came from freelancers, one job at a time.
The job was to build a studio inside a new division that could make the work the media was buying.
Scope of Work
Case Studies
Client
Horizon Media
Year
2021–2024
Case study // Horizon Media
Building an in-house studio
Horizon Media
2021–2024
The brief
Horizon buys media. Creative came from freelancers, one job at a time.
The job was to build a studio inside a new division that could make the work the media was buying.
The build
It started with me and two part-time freelancers. It grew to a team of 14 across design, motion, writing, and UX.
I hired and developed the team, and sold the work in the room.
The system
The freelance model was not going to work with the volume of work coming in. So I built a team and the systems to run it: briefing frameworks, approval workflows, reusable templates. I partnered with engineering where the work needed it.
Creative ops is protection, not efficiency. Decision rights were the hard part: who signs off, when, and on what.
The work
Orkin. Social Agency of Record on Meta and TikTok. Orkin went social. We were their first. See the case study →
Petco. Social video and mid-funnel advertising around Petco’s Facebook Live events, built alongside the larger Horizon team’s live productions.
UnitedHealthcare, Honda, HealthMarkets. Video, paid social, and performance creative.
thia. A conversational AI concept for Total Health, made inside the studio. See the case study →
Outcome
14. Studio size. It started as me and two part-time freelancers.
$100M. Media carrying the studio’s video and performance creative.
$2.5M. Our contribution to top-line revenue growth.
What I’d carry forward
Brief
Get the brief right and most of the rework never happens.
Decisions
Decision rights are the hard part of any system.
Protection
Creative ops protects the work, the team, and the client. Speed is a side effect.
The build
It started with me and two part-time freelancers. It grew to a team of 14 across design, motion, writing, and UX.
I hired and developed the team, and sold the work in the room.
The system
The freelance model was not going to work with the volume of work coming in. So I built a team and the systems to run it: briefing frameworks, approval workflows, reusable templates. I partnered with engineering where the work needed it.
Creative ops is protection, not efficiency. Decision rights were the hard part: who signs off, when, and on what.
The work
Orkin. Social Agency of Record on Meta and TikTok. Orkin went social. We were their first. See the case study →
Petco. Social video and mid-funnel advertising around Petco’s Facebook Live events, built alongside the larger Horizon team’s live productions.
UnitedHealthcare, Honda, HealthMarkets. Video, paid social, and performance creative.
thia. A conversational AI concept for Total Health, made inside the studio. See the case study →
Outcome
14. Studio size. It started as me and two part-time freelancers.
$100M. Media carrying the studio’s video and performance creative.
$2.5M. Our contribution to top-line revenue growth.
Key insights
Brief
Get the brief right and most of the rework never happens.
Decisions
Decision rights are the hard part of any system.
Protection
Creative ops protects the work, the team, and the client. Speed is a side effect.