20 Years In: Favorite Projects From the TVGla Long-Timers
As we count down to 20 years in business, we're turning the spotlight on the people who've been here for almost all of it. Six long-tenured TVGla-ers share how they got here, the projects that stuck with them, and what they're most excited to build next.
You'll hear about a pet emoji app nobody knew how to build, a Myspace takeover page that somehow got approved, and years behind the scenes with Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune.
We'll admit it, we're getting a little sentimental. Twenty years is a long time in an industry that reinvents itself every few months. Platforms have come and gone, and the tools look nothing like they did when we started. But the thing that's kept us going hasn't changed, a team that loves figuring out how to make the impossible work.
How long have you been at TVGla, and what do you do here?
JULIE, VP, Executive Creative Director: I've been at TVGla since the beginning. Let's not do that math and just say it's been more than a couple of years.
AMY, Executive Producer: I started in January 2014 as a Senior Producer. Today I'm an Executive Producer on the WNBA and American Heart Association accounts.
CAR, Creative Director: Officially since summer 2007, but I'd been freelancing with Dimitry [Ioffe] (CEO & Founder) since 2003. For the first three years, I didn't even know what the people I worked with looked like. There was no Zoom back then, just faceless transactions over chat and email. Right before going full-time, I'd actually taken a job at another studio. Dimitry and Brian [Pettigrew] (President) called to convince me to stay. It didn't take much coaxing, and based on how long I've been here, I think it worked out for both of us.
TRACY, Executive Producer: I've been here 10 years, and I'm an Executive Digital Producer. I work with clients and our creative and development teams to plan projects, spot roadblocks early, keep everyone aligned, and make sure the process feels smooth for both the client and the team.
MAT, Executive Producer: Almost 15 years. I'm the Executive Producer leading our more tech- and dev-heavy projects, bridging big creative ideas with real technical execution. My teams figure out how to turn wild, ambitious ideas, like XR experiences, interactive games, or physical devices, into working realities.
FRAN, Creative Director: I joined on January 5, 2009. As a Creative Director, I lead a team focused on emerging media and R&D. The part I love most is exploring what's next: testing new tools early, understanding what they can realistically do, and turning them into experiences people can actually step into. Whether it's HBO Max or another brand, the goal is always the same: connect fans more deeply to the stories they already love.
What project stands out as your most memorable, or the one you’re most proud of?
JULIE: It's difficult to pick just one. Over the years, we've done work that stood out in the market, like an ad that took over the New York Times homepage with a person jumping across the page, syncing ads from banner to banner. And we've done work that pushed technology forward, like a website that let you explore the rooms of the Bates Motel using your phone as a flashlight. But if I had to narrow it down, I'd say the Petmoji app for Universal's The Secret Life of Pets is the one that stands out to me the most. Mainly because, if I'm being 100% honest, in the beginning we had no idea how we were going to build it, and yet not only did we get it done, but it became one of our most successful projects at the time.
When we were brought in, the Bitmoji app was new and getting a lot of attention. We were asked, "How can we build that, but for pets?" We quickly realized that building a tool to auto-generate hundreds of illustrations, while allowing people to customize them to look like a pet as big as a Great Dane or as tiny as a pug (or anything in between), was going to be a huge undertaking. These days, AI could do the heavy lifting on something like that, but back then it involved a lot of planning, creativity, strategy, organization, and more than a little math (and thousands of specialized illustrations). We buckled down, figured out how to make it work, and created an incredibly fun app that promoted the film, landed in the top 10 on the Apple App Store, and was featured on the Today Show. I'm very proud of what we made, but even more proud of how we figured it all out along the way. As someone who doesn’t like to live in the uncertain, it really taught me to trust the process, trust the creative, and trust the people on this team to get things done.
AMY: There have been so many special projects, but I'm most proud of our work with Jeopardy! We helped bring the iconic show into the digital age, from overhauling their website and influencing the first step of the contestant search to creating viral social moments with Alex and the Clue Crew. We were completely integrated with their marketing team as true partners, which made the relationship truly special.
CAR: Sorry, but I have to give you a three-part answer for this one.
Most memorable: TVGla projects have taken me to Hawaii, Germany, and Hong Kong, but the most memorable ones happened right in the office, shoulder to shoulder with the team. One is the Bruno Myspace takeover page. Working mainly with Armando [Llendado] (former Executive Creative Director), we came up with the wildest designs, animations, and videos, befitting such a bizarre movie, not knowing if we'd pushed the envelope too far. Unbelievably, so much of it got approved and released exactly as intended. What I remember most is cracking up in brainstorms, getting excited about a button that flopped around like a limp sausage, and the nostalgia of the company's early days.
Most proud of: The cinemagraphs for the Letters to India website for the movie Stoker. People think cinemagraphs are easy, but pulling them from a film means scouring the whole movie for the perfect clips and adjusting them into seamless loops. The site won multiple awards, the GIFs got press for their creepiness and innovation, and the studio even used them in on-air commercials, something never done before. Even now, I get hypnotized looking at them.
Most special: Working on Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! for Sony Pictures Television. Embedded in their ecosystem, we had a real say in what was being done digitally and got to be part of television history. Meeting and working with heroes like Alex Trebek, Pat Sajak, and Vanna White, plus guests like Gene Simmons and current host Ken Jennings, was an honor. From TV commercials to web series to a remix of the Jeopardy! theme song, it was a synergistic relationship I'll cherish for life.
TRACY: Choosing one is really hard. Bates Motel banner campaign, the Sochi Winter Olympics banner campaign, Make Your Case custom shoot and social campaign, and any of our HBO Max Partner Marketing work all come to mind. What makes them memorable is the relationships behind them: getting to know how a client works, building trust over time, and creating a process that feels collaborative and seamless. There's something very rewarding about a great project leading to another project, and then another.
MAT: Choosing just one is almost impossible, but both of my favorites come down to what I love most: creating fun experiences for brands and their fans. The How to Train Your Dragon franchise website and digital collectible card game was one of my most memorable. As a huge CCG fan, getting to build one for a franchise my kids loved was incredible. The project I'm most proud of right now is currently in production and confidential. Let’s just say we’re using 3D printers, precision cutters, and programmed microcontrollers to craft a physical object. It’s already been a super rewarding challenge. And I can’t wait to see it come to life. At the end of the day, I just love making cool $#!%.
FRAN: The series premiere of House of the Dragon. We built a WebAR experience that recreated the throne room (spoiler alert: yes, the same one from Game of Thrones) so people could explore it right from their phone's browser, no app required. Every turn was a technical challenge. We were working with an extremely dense LiDAR scan of the set, and at the time we didn't know if something that heavy could run smoothly on a mobile browser. We kept optimizing until it felt right without losing the detail that made the space feel real. Visitors spent real time exploring it, and we saw really strong retention numbers. The team pushed past what we thought we could do, and that's always the most rewarding part for me.
What are you most excited about next?
JULIE: I can't really talk about it yet, but we have something coming out in a couple of months that will be truly… magical. It's another project that started as a "what if" question from a client, where the team dug in and figured out how to make it possible. I can't wait for people to see it.
AMY: Honestly, the thing that hasn't been created yet! The digital marketing landscape has changed so much over the past 20 years, and I've been lucky to work on so many different platforms. I'm excited to see what we cook up with our clients when it gets here.
CAR: I don't crave the latest tools and technology as much as I look forward to the fun I'll have on the projects themselves. I've been blessed to work on projects that keep me moving forward and give me genuinely enjoyable memories. That's what I'll keep chasing for however long I'm with TVGla.
TRACY: I'm excited about how AI can help us thoughtfully rethink and streamline parts of the production process, whether that's removing friction from a workflow, helping us make smarter decisions earlier, or creating more space for the team to focus on what really matters. It's not about using AI just because we can. It's about knowing where it adds real value, improves the client experience, and elevates the work.
MAT: New tech like AI is changing the whole digital landscape, from how people find content to how they experience it. It's already disrupting search and SEO. At the same time, we're building on years of XR and immersive web work to create new ways for people to interact with brands. Behind the scenes, AI handles some of the mundane tasks, which gives us more bandwidth to test wild ideas and push our creative boundaries.
FRAN: At my core, I'm an artist. I started my career out of love for art and the graffiti culture of the '90s and early 2000s. AI has been dominating the conversation, for better or worse, but these tools are being shaped right now, and they're making it possible for one person to create things that used to be out of reach. As a natural-born human (for the record), I've been experimenting with locally run AI models since the early days of Stable Diffusion. What excites me isn't the output itself. It's how these tools extend creativity through spatial visualization and speed. You can rough in a 3D scene, guide it with a prompt, and generate a fully textured, high-quality result. As the tech advances, artists will have more control over their visuals than ever, and that's what gets the artist in me excited.
Here's to the next 20.