PEACEFEST AT SDCC
HBO MAX
Creative Director
I developed the core concept and led Creative from pitch through production.
☞ 2025 BizBash Event Experience Awards: Winner (Best Pop-Up Experience)
☞ 2026 Campaign Experience Awards: Shortlist (Creative Event of the Year)
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CHALLENGE:
San Diego Comic-Con is the biggest fan festival in the country. With hundreds of activations and hundreds of thousands of fans, HBO Max knew there would be little buzz for a niche, R-rated underdog like Peacemaker.
INSIGHT:
Peacemaker has something the blockbuster heroes don’t: an iconic, hair metal soundtrack. Hair metal turns outcasts into rockstars. It makes everyone feel like a hero.
IDEA:
Welcome to Peacefest: the first-ever music festival inside the festival.
Most SDCC activations are a quick walkthrough after a two-hour wait. We subverted that model with the first Comic-Con activation that actually worked as a music festival.
Fans rocked out to 45-minute concerts with live bands like Foxy Shazam (revealed as the Season 2 title track band). More than a show promotion, we gave under-appreciated hair metal bands the epic spotlight they’ve always deserved.
Around the mainstage, we reimagined music festival-style brand activations as immersive character zones that rewarded exploration, including Harcourt's Knockout bar, a biker bar with free drinks, punching bags and dartboards where fans took aim at Season 1 villains, and Economos' Ops Station, where fans played Mortal Kombat as Peacemaker to win prizes.
Exclusive video content from star John Cena in full costume welcomed fans with Peacemaker’s irreverent humor.
Select fans were even invited to a sought-after meet-and-greet with Peacemaker’s sidekick, Eagly: a real, live eagle in partnership with the American Eagle Foundation.
The SDCC Unofficial Blog named it “Unofficial Champion of SDCC.” The highest compliment came from Peacemaker creator and DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn, who said, “I think we should bring Peacefest all around the world. I don’t think we should end it here.”
Peacefest redefined what San Diego Comic-Con can be. After 55 years, the Con finally got its headliner.
RESULTS:1.19 billion impressions from 296 earned media mentions
4,000+ attendees over three days
45-minute average dwell time (nearly unprecedented for Comic-Con off-sites)
41.6K social engagements reaching 19.6 million views
