TL;DR: Liquid Lemon's production team handled full-service production of a JBL advertisement featuring Aaron Judge: direction, filming, and editing. JBL's VP of Marketing reported a 35% sales increase after the ad rolled, rated the engagement 5.0 across quality, schedule, cost, and willingness to refer, and answered the value question in three words: "We received an ROI."
Who is JBL and what was the brief?
JBL is one of the largest audio equipment brands in the world. In the summer of 2018, JBL signed Aaron Judge as a global brand ambassador. That June, JBL hired Liquid Lemon's production team, then operating as Big Baby Films, as a full-service production company to direct, film, and edit an advertisement featuring the MLB superstar.
The engagement sits in the $50,000 to $199,999 band on Clutch, with the relationship listed as June 2018 to ongoing. A Fortune-scale marketing organization, a budget at that level, and a lean team running it. No production bloat, no layers between the client and the people making the work.
How did the production process work?
Zoom call, itemized bid, pre-production in New York, shoot day. That was the whole process.
JBL gave the budget on the first call. The team came back with an itemized bid, then met JBL and the crew in New York City to plan the shoot. JBL chose the team on the strength of that preparation and the portfolio behind it. In the words of Christopher Dragon, JBL's VP of Marketing, in his verified Clutch review: "Their preparation was very impressive. During the day of the shoot, it went flawlessly."
Nick Scott ran the engagement as executive producer alongside Brennan, and feedback ran as open-floor conversations from start to finish. Per the same review: "They're open-minded, but also have very creative ideas of their own." On the project management: "He makes the process less stressful by the way he openly communicates and responds."
Watch the ad
The finished ad is published on JBL's official YouTube channel.
What were the results?
JBL reported a 35% sales increase after the advertisement rolled.
From the Clutch review: "The outcome of the project was great. When we rolled the advertisement, sales increased 35%."
Clutch asks reviewers to rate cost and value separately from quality. JBL's VP of Marketing scored it 5.0 and explained why in three words: "We received an ROI." A Fortune-scale marketing leader saying a production engagement paid for itself is a rarer claim than any award, and it is the whole argument for treating creative as a growth line rather than a brand expense.
The engagement scored 5.0 in every category Clutch measures: quality, schedule, cost, and willingness to refer. On the team itself: "They're a young team that executes at a high level."
Why this creative aged better than anyone could plan
When the ad was filmed, Aaron Judge was one season removed from AL Rookie of the Year. He is now a three-time AL MVP.
Since that 2018 shoot, Judge set the American League single-season home run record with 62 in 2022, won AL MVP in 2022, 2024, and 2025, was named captain of the Yankees, and signed a nine-year $360 million contract. Creative built around him in 2018 has compounded in value every season since. That is the quiet lesson in celebrity creative: the brands that win are the ones that commit early and make work strong enough to stay in rotation while the athlete's story grows.
What this means for DTC brands
Ad creative is a growth lever, and most brands treat it as an afterthought. A great storefront converts the traffic. The creative is what earns the traffic in the first place, and the gap between average creative and creative that moves revenue is measured in real percentage points. For JBL, it was 35.
Creative is also the largest lever on paid performance, ahead of targeting and bidding, and it is the one most brands hand to whoever is cheapest. The math JBL's VP described is the same math on a DTC media plan: production is a cost until the work performs, at which point it is the highest-return line in the budget.
The same operators behind that ad run Liquid Lemon's growth side today, alongside production work like the RBC and OVO film that held 95% of viewers to the last frame and the official Rolling Loud aftermovies. Storefront, creative, and growth under one roof is the model behind Triangl's climb from six figures to eight over a five-year engagement. Different medium, same principle: small team, senior judgment, direct communication, measurable outcome.
If your brand is spending on paid social and the creative isn't pulling its weight, reach out. Email hello@liquidlemon.co.
Written by Andrew Zam, co-founder of Liquid Lemon, a Shopify design studio and DTC growth agency. The team behind Liquid Lemon has driven over $1B in attributed growth across $350M+ in managed ad spend, for brands including Poppi, Olipop, Hero Cosmetics, Crumbl, and Beats by Dre.