Courageous Brand Studio
WarnerMedia’s Brand Studio (Now Warner Bros. Discovery)
Creative Director and Director of Special Projects, 2017–2021
Courageous Identity and Growth Film
I was recruited to build Special Projects — an agile, cross-functional team responsible for defining Courageous’ voice in the marketplace, developing and managing relationships with partner agencies, and executing complex high-profile projects at speed. Madison Avenue creative capabilities, client management, and top-tier production value for the branded content and modern media company universe.
As a senior leader, I hired and mentored Writers, Directors, Editors, Producers, and Artists, supervised vendors and budgets, and was privileged to help Courageous grow from a start-up to a full-time staff of over seventy with over $100 million in annual revenue contributions.
Special Projects also supported the Ad Sales and Content Partnerships teams in Ad Product innovation, marketplace image, and pre-sale creative solutions and pitch.
Additionally, Special Projects led Courageous Events and Live Activations, and participated in the development of annual Upfronts presentations.
Courageous is the state-of-the-art brand studio of WarnerBros. Discovery. Drafting off the journalistic heritage of CNN and the bold vision of founder Ted Turner, Courageous specializes in captivating audiences through authentic, culturally-relevant creative and documentary-style premium storytelling. Our team of award-winning directors, producers, editors, developers, designers, animators and strategists creates authentic, emotionally-resonant and, often, purpose-driven stories on behalf of brands, all adhering to CNN/Turner’s strict editorial standards
As we grew, so did our partnerships and capabilities. Through repeated successes and the evolution of Turner to WarnerMedia, what began with a focus on News and Sports (CNN, Great Big Story, Bleacher Report, Turner Sports), evolved to portfolio wide integrations including TNT, TBS, Adult Swim, as well as HBO, WarnerBros. and DC Comics.
Courageous “Creativity Takes Courage”
Courageous Video Directory (Project Repository)
Link: cvd.courageousstudios.com
300+ sourced practitioner stories across healthcare, finance, climate, biotech, defense, education, retail, hospitality, science, and government. Indexed by partner and vertical. Queryable. Produced to broadcast standard. Sustained across years.
The artifact itself is straightforward to build. The discipline that makes it useful is not. Almost every “use case library” in tech is a marketing page: twelve flagship examples, polished quotes, no working depth, no sustained cadence. The CVD is the operational form: every entry is a real practitioner inside a real organization, produced to the standard that earned the right to carry the CNN name, maintained as a working library not a one-time campaign.
The medium is video instead of code. The architecture, sourcing discipline, and editorial bar translate directly to a builder repository for working demos and linked repos.
Courageous Products and Capabilities
Capabilities
Short-Form Documentaries, Long-Form Documentaries, Live Video & Streaming, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality & 360° Video, On-the-Ground Events, Experiential Stunts, Scripted Video, Animation, Digital & Video Interactives, Multimedia Web Experiences, Podcasts, Articles, Photography, Polling & Data Capture, Quizzes, Sweepstakes & Contests, Data Visualization, Environmental Space Design, Gaming, Native Ads, High-Impact Ads
Courageous Magazine
The Quarterly Magazine
Courageous, the magazine, was a GTM tactic disguised as a publication. Beautiful full color, oversized format, thick paper stock with silk in-lays and foil treatments. Double size fold outs.
Working with our design director and lead designer, every decision reinforced the studio’s positioning as a premium creative house, and every piece of content inside it reinforced the editorial credibility that made the positioning real. Thoughtful typography— Courageous Conduit for headlines, Parkinson Electra Pro for body, Seravek for supporting text — all set on a 16-point baseline grid.
The magazine featured editorial articles, photo essays, proprietary research, and field reports from branded content productions.
We left copies in the waiting rooms and lobby coffee tables of agencies and companies we were about to pitch. Sent them to major clients.
Five issues from Fall 2017 through 2019. It won a Promax BDA Global Excellence Award. Joe Dugen, SVP of Sales, called it “one of the best things to come out from CNN. And I have been here for 25 years.”
Awards: 140+ Industry Awards since 2016 // Cannes Lions // Edward R. Murrow Award, Excellence in Innovation — Television, Network (RTDNA) // One Show // D&AD // Digiday Content Marketing // ProMax // AdWeek ARC // OMMA’s // Digiday Video // EventEx // MediaPost Creative Media // Webby’s // SABRE Innovation Awards // MMA Smarties // Muse Awards 2022 // GLAAD
Link: http://www.courageousstudios.com
http://www.warnermediaforbrands.com
Role: Creative Director, Director of Special Projects, Courageous Studio / WarnerMedia
