Circus Picnic Studio
CASE STUDY
BUILDING A CREATIVE STUDIO
Circus Picnic is a creative agency based in Austin, Texas specializing in lifestyle content in the entertainment, live events, and health & wellness spaces. As Director of Content, I oversaw all aspects of video production from creative to delivery for hundreds of projects across dozens of brand clients, leading a company-wide revenue increase of 300% over 3 years. During my time here, I directed content teams at some of the biggest live events in the world, ran content campaigns for three of the largest VOD platforms in the health & wellness space, and worked with dozens of organizations to tell their brand story through elevated content. A magically creative place to work, Circus Picnic is where I cut my teeth in the production world, creating and producing web commercials, short docs, and social campaigns of all stripes. Here I learned how to craft unforgettable experiences, to harness the power of play, and to lead from the heart.
Select Clients: Charles Schwab, ACL Music Festival, Holland America, SXSW, HID Global, Yoga with Adriene, and Freethink Media
Awards: 3 Gold Austin Addy Awards, a National ILEA Award, and the Texas Star Award for Best Event Filmmaking.
“Let me be very frank with you: wherever Dustin goes, whatever he does, it will be a success. I think of him as a future General, a leader who will have an outsized impact on any organization lucky enough to bring him into the fold.”
— Jefe Greenheart, Creative Director
I wrote and directed this comedic short to give clients & partners a glimpse into the company culture in the early days.
Roles & Responsibilities
Day-to-day, I was responsible for coordinating productions, allocating workload, briefing creatives, presenting work, and maintaining & improving workflows, and communicating the vision and values of the agency.
Developed concepts, pitched new work, built budgets, negotiating contracts, resourced talent, and managed projects to completion.
Led client relationships and drove new business opportunities, ultimately managing accounts of $750k in cumulative annual billing.
A big part of my role involved leading, mentoring, and motivating creative teams. I managed the performance & development of three direct reports with 100% retention and high satisfaction ratings.
Devised and executed many of Circus Picnic’s own marketing campaigns for brand awareness & social media, directing a brand refresh & website redesign.
As a member of the leadership team, I enhanced the agency’s processes and production workflows, introducing tools & systems to streamline delivery across every project and dramatically increase our teams’ creative throughput.
