Say hi :)
chrisgertz@gmail.com
ASPIRE GLOBAL MARKETING
Role
Creative Director and Fractional CMO for over 120 clients
Scope
Advisor and partner leading brand, content, film, and performance campaigns across 120+ businesses in music, tech, hospitality, and consumer goods
Impact
$6M+ in managed media at 2–7x ROAS on most campaigns
Recognition
15M+ views across directed video work; multi-year retainers with clients with significant growth and backed by VC firms like Y Combinator
Challenge: Most brands aren't actually struggling with growth, they struggle to figure out what they actually stand for and say it clearly, and then execute on that vision strategically. Aspire existed to solve that, over and over, for 120+ companies over 7 years.
Idea: Relentless clarity, at volume. Across one-person startups and national names in music, tech, hospitality, and consumer goods, my job was always the same: find what's true about a brand fast, then turn it into work that actually moves the numbers.
Result: $6M+ in managed media at 2–7x ROAS on most campaigns, 15M+ views on directed videos, and several multi-year client retainers. Aspire also helped me build the single most useful muscle I have: seeing what a brand needs quickly the moment I look at it.
Premium films, minimal spend
Although Aspire was focused on everything from campaign direction to marketing consulting to website development, the work I most enjoyed during this time was directing and producing videos (and the photography alongside them). I planned and storyboarded every shoot, coordinated the crew and talent, as well as the lighting and framing for a genuinely cinematic look, often shot on an ARRI Alexa. The goal never changed: take a local restaurant or a mid-size brand and deliver them a powerful film that feels like it belongs on a much bigger stage. I believe that great storytelling doesn't need a Hollywood budget, it just needs knowing exactly what story you're telling, then obsessing over every frame that tells it.
Soraa: "A Perfect Light"
Soraa makes some of the best light in the world: full-spectrum LED bulbs built on Nobel Prize-winning technology, with color rendering so accurate they're used in galleries, museums, and luxury retail. The challenge was almost funny: how do you sell light quality in a video? We built the film around their SVP of global sales and channel marketing walking through the science and the promise of near-perfect, natural light, then took it to the show floor and captured real people at Soraa's conference booth reacting to the difference the second they saw it. I produced and coordinated the shoot and worked hand in hand with their internal team on the edit, so the story of "simply perfect light" actually looked as good as the product claims.
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71Above: "The Crown Jewel of LA"
This might be my proudest work. 71Above is a fine-dining restaurant 71 floors up in one of downtown LA's tallest towers, with a 360-degree view of the entire city. I directed and produced a film that told two stories at once: the restaurant, and its relationship to Los Angeles. Having lived in LA for almost twenty years, this one was personal, so I interviewed the owner and GM, storyboarded the shoot around both the food and the skyline, and chased the right light for the interiors and the city below. Shot on an Alexa in the spirit of Chef's Table, cinematic, intimate, and unhurried, it let a restaurant with an unbeatable view feel like a place with a soul. They loved it, and I still do.
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Geoffrey's Malibu: The Story of Jeff Peterson
This was the very first film I directed, produced, and edited for Aspire back when it was still called Aspire Restaurant Marketing (it became Aspire Global Marketing later, as I grew beyond restaurants into bigger brands, ecommerce, and entertainment). Geoffrey's is a Malibu institution perched right over the Pacific, and its best story was its owner, Jeff Peterson, who started there as a busboy and worked his way all the way up to owning the place. I built the film around his journey, weaving his humble-beginnings story through the beauty of the restaurant, the food, and the staff, so you fell for the place and the person at the same time. It's where I learned that a great brand film isn't about the location, it's about the human at the center of it.
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Morris, Sullivan & Lemkul LLP: "Committed To Excellence"
Morris, Sullivan & Lemkul is a high-end San Diego firm with a serious trial record, two decades of complex litigation and hundreds of cases won, the kind of place you call when the stakes are real. They asked me to direct and produce a film that would earn a prospective client's trust before they ever walked in. The move was to shoot the partners like documentary subjects: warm, close, and personal, lit and framed to feel intimate without ever feeling intimidating. I planned and storyboarded the interviews, directed each partner to get past the lawyer and to the human, and cut it so the firm landed exactly how they wanted, formidable in the courtroom, and someone you'd actually want in your corner.
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