McDonald’s Star Sticks
As Executive Producer, I led the end-to-end production of the Star Sticks campaign for McDonald's Canada in partnership with the NHL, bringing together top-tier talent including Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews. Over a nine-month timeline, I worked closely with an incredibly talented team of partners and collaborators to guide the project from concept through to final delivery, shaping both the creative approach and production strategy to deliver a fully integrated, high-impact campaign.
A core strength of the work was the seamless blend of practical shooting with elite NHL athletes and a highly stylized animation pipeline. Capturing authentic, high-performance moments on set while building a dynamic CG world required tight orchestration across production, editorial, and animation teams, ensuring that live-action performances translated effortlessly into the final environments.
I also worked directly with athlete representatives on talent negotiations, managing budgets, usage, and the legal back-and-forth to secure participation while aligning with campaign scope and timelines. This required balancing high-profile talent expectations with production realities, ensuring all agreements supported both the creative ambition and the broader rollout.
One of the biggest challenges was managing complexity at scale. We were integrating athletes and product into tight runtimes while maintaining clarity across :30, :15, and :06 formats, all within a visually ambitious execution. Working hand-in-hand with our partners, we ran a highly iterative process between edit and animation, refining timing, camera movement, and performance to ensure every moment was both impactful and easy to read, while also managing a high volume of deliverables across broadcast, digital, and social under continuous client feedback.
Beyond production, I collaborated with vendors across both creative and manufacturing to align timelines, budgets, and outputs, ensuring the physical collectible program landed seamlessly alongside the campaign rollout. This coordination was key to delivering a true 360 execution, where the in-restaurant experience and advertising worked together cohesively.
We were also involved in developing all supporting social assets, working with the team to extend the campaign into platform-specific content while maintaining a consistent visual and storytelling language across every touchpoint.
Through a collaborative, fast-moving production model, we aligned multiple partners and disciplines to deliver a campaign that balanced creative ambition with precision execution, ultimately transforming a collectible promotion into a cohesive, multi-platform brand experience that reinforced McDonald’s connection to hockey culture in Canada. To see the full scope of the work, including the depth of the visual effects, watch the making-of film below—VFX was led by Freefolk, who were incredible partners throughout.
Credit List
CLIENT
McDonalds Canada
Francesca Cardarelli Chief Marketing Officer
Rebecca Smart Director of Marketing, Brand Content & Category Strategy
Jeevan Grewal Senior Marketing Manager
Mélissa Hains Marketing Director, Regional Marketing
Andreanne Gilbert Manager, French National Campaigns
Clémence Commissaire Marketing Specialist – French National Campaigns
Brenda Surminski Claire-Randall Consulting
Nezariel Scott Social Lead & Brand Manager
Abby Rigonan Supervisor, Social & Brand
Kristen Hunter Canada Impact Team
AGENCY
Cossette
Bryden McDonald SVP, General Manager
Andrew Chisholm Executive Creative Director
Darya Klymenko Creative Director
Stefan D’Aversa Creative Director
Lindsay Hann Executive Producer
Juan Exposito Design Director
Angel Chun Senior Digital Designer
Max Crame Senior Art Director
Gemma Manangan Senior Copywriter
Dan Cameron VP, Managing Director, Head of Strategy
Nico Vasarevic Senior Digital Strategist
Wendy Doan VP, Business Lead
Laryssa Li Business Director
Santana Symeonides Account Supervisor
Jess Zujko Account Supervisor
Sarah Brooks Account Executive
Melo Griffith Senior Content Creator
Panny Charoensuk Content Creator
Krista Shepard Community Manager
Cossette Montreal
Marc-André Vigneault Creative Director
Étienne LeBourdais Copywriter
François Hiron Art Director
Étienne Chayer-Leclerc Art Director
Pierre-Antoine Brochu Content Creator
Natalie Azoulay Director, Business Lead
Maria-Laura Laubenthal Senior Account Supervisor
Claire Robert Account Supervisor
Sandra Corbeil Producer
Farah Chaou Strategic Planner and Social Analyst
Martin Lemay Production Manager
Éric Verrier Computer Graphic Designer
TALENT/CELEBRITY MANAGEMENT
WME
Jessica Thomas Head of Brand Partnerships
Devin Duran Senior Account Manager // Entertainment Marketing
PRODUCTION
CIRCLE PRODUCTIONS
Chris Balmond Director
William Bex Director of Photography
Karen Tameanko Partner/Exec Producer
Amanda Field Producer
Jesson Moen Production Designer
Kate Day Wardrobe Stylist
Shasta Lutz Casting Director
Noah Witenoff Key Food Stylist
ENGLISH OFFLINE
Nimiopere
Steve Puhach – Editor
Shalini Menon - Assistant Editor
Jack Considine - Assistant Editor
Nicole Hann - Producer
FRENCH OFFLINE
Septième Production
Delphine Legault – Offline Editor
Camille Thibault-Giguère – Post-Producer
Isaac Baulne, Marika Charpentier – Assistant Editor
ENGLISH AUDIO MIX AND RECORD
Berkeley Inc.
FRENCH AUDIO MIX AND RECORD
La Majeure
Donevan Adams – Sound Engineer
Donevan Adams – Sound Designer
Émilie Choquette – Audio Producer
ORIGINAL MUSIC
Madplanet
Sam Morris - Creative director
Dan Rodgers - Creative director
ANIMATION/COLOUR/FINISHING
Freefolk
Laura Ricketts - Executive Producer
Robyn Guthrie - Producer
Jason Watts - Creative Director
Harin Hirani - CG Supervisor
Jansen McCord - CG Lead
Andy Copping, Vinny David - Flame Artist
Marty McMullan - Colourist
Sarp Serter, Oleksiy Popov, Gang Trinh, Murat Tahan - Animator
Rob Sheridan - Lead Nuke
Leo Meggle, Cerys Steenhuis, William Woods, Valerie Wöllner - Nuke Compositors
Rohit Kottamasu, Oliver Ward - Generalist
Fadjr Mehiris, Peter Dravecky - FX
Anthony Le - Motion Graphics Artist