Wendy's
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Wendy's 🍔
The Personification of a Brand: A Six-Year Transformation
Over six years, I served as the production throughline for Wendy’s transformation from a social presence into a persistent, multi-channel narrative brand. I architected the creative systems that allowed us to scale elite craft across diverse frontiers—from launching new business ventures to orchestrating high-stakes celebrity partnerships and gaming platforms. These highlights represent a collection of cultural touchpoints across tech, sports, and parody that demonstrate our ability to keep the Wendy’s story at the forefront through world-class execution and a flawless personification of the brand identity.
The Architecture of Fandom: Feast of Legends
As an original project architect, I systematized a speculative prototype into a strategic framework to secure the funding needed for our expansion into the tabletop gaming space. I researched and curated legacy artists from Wizards of the Coast to develop the original character art and maps, ensuring the project carried the aesthetic authenticity to resonate. The project debuted at New York Comic-Con to significant fanfare, driving social engagement and scaling the experience into in-person gameplay within Wendy's restaurants nationwide. This execution served as a primary proof of concept for our broader strategy: personifying the brand through elite-level craft and intentional world-building.
We produced a theatrical movie trailer, a 97-page RPG game book, custom dice, a poster & sticker packs.
The Personification of an Icon:
Real-Time Character Scaling
I led the production evolution of the Wendy’s persona, transitioning the brand from text-based social engagement into a living, vocal digital character. To bring "National Roast Day" to TikTok and Cameo, I architected a long-term production system designed for real-time scalability. Working directly with Wendy’s CMO to pitch and secure funding for this vision, I championed the development of a proprietary app with facial-tracking capabilities. This system allowed our voice talent to respond to fan content and Cameo requests instantaneously, bypassing the logistical hurdles of traditional studio environments.
By building this technical infrastructure, I ensured that the brand’s personification remained both authentic and agile, enabling Wendy to function as a reactive participant in digital culture at a global scale. This project served as a definitive throughline between high-level character work and the disciplined systems required to maintain a brand’s distinct edge across thousands of individual, real-time interactions.
The Wendyverse: Wendy’s Enters The Metaverse
As one of the first brands to build within Meta’s virtual ecosystem, I led the Meta partnerships & production of Wendy’s entry into the metaverse. I managed the creative collaboration with the artists at Nspire, navigating early-stage VR hardware constraints to build interactive gaming moments that pushed the platform's limits.
The world consisted of five distinct environments—including Sunrise City and Spicy Nug Island—each engineered to highlight specific product categories through spatial storytelling and immersive gameplay. To ground the virtual experience, I oversaw the design and fabrication of custom-branded hardware for live activations, ensuring the brand’s throughline of craft remained consistent across both digital and physical realities.
Wendy’s Breakfast Launch: Architecting the Creative System
The 2019 breakfast launch represented the most ambitious business expansion in Wendy’s recent history. Working directly with VML executive stakeholders & Wendy’s CMO, I helped transition the project from message testing to national launch, navigating the high-stakes pressure of establishing a new business day-part. To meet this moment, I spearheaded a comprehensive audit of the brand’s visual style, researching and curating new partners—including Eben Mears (Psyop), Shawn Z (Tool) & Whitehouse Post —to elevate our tabletop and live-action aesthetics for a new era of competition.
I focused on building a scalable creative system that could anchor nine broadcast spots and a wide array of high-fidelity social series, including a cinematic "Chef’s Table" satire. My role involved managing every sensory touchpoint of the brand’s new voice, from overseeing a rigorous 14-day production across simultaneous sets to curating the new celebrity voice-over talent that defined the campaign's tone. This launch served as a definitive proof of concept for our ability to introduce an entirely new business vertical while maintaining the brand's signature through-line of craft and cultural relevance.
Episodic Narrative: Scaling across the NCAA & NFL
To solidify Wendy’s breakfast dominance, I led the production of a multi-year series featuring Reggie Miller and Reggie Bush, leveraging high-stakes partnerships celebrities, NCAA and NFL. I steered the strategic pivot of the campaign during the 2020 lockdowns, reimagining the creative as “Reggie’s Bubble” to maintain brand momentum despite the cancellation of live sports.
By curating world-class directors—including Clay Weiner (Biscuit) and Fatal Farm (Picrow)— we established a premium aesthetic for the episodic narrative universe.
Hallowendy’s: Cinematic Curation against soggy fries
To address the high-stakes relaunch of Wendy’s French Fries—a core product transformation designed to challenge industry rivals Leveraging the Halloween season, we personified the "soggy fry" as a classic horror villain. Each film parodies a distinct visual languages of Poltergeist, Halloween, and The Birds.
I focused on maintaining the aesthetic pedigree of these genres by committing to a strictly practical production approach. Working with director Vince Peone (ArtClass), we eschewed digital shortcuts for practical effects to ensure each film felt like a true artifact of its era.
