The Problem
American Express needed a standout fan activation at Wimbledon to make their sponsorship tangible to the ~500K annual attendees — not just visible. The original concept (a bespoke VR game built from scratch) risked blowing the budget and timeline before a ball was hit. The challenge was delivering an ambitious, credible fan experience featuring Andy Murray within a fixed window, without overspending on custom development.

My Role
Build vs buy strategy: identified and recommended adapting an existing AR game (Super Rally) into a VR Champions Rally experience rather than building from scratch — saving ~$50K in production costs and ~10 working days, while retaining the creative ambition of the original concept.

VR game production: collaborated with the Momentum CTO, 3D design leads, and production vendors (Flight School, Unity/Unreal Engine) to define technical requirements, game mechanics, CGI assets, Andy Murray onboarding script, and UI look and feel — documented in a Game Design Document across Discovery, Alpha, Beta, and Gold Master milestones.

Fan experience and physical production: oversaw design and construction of the hospitality and fan experience area — including gaming bay layout, HTC Vive hardware logistics, attract loop, queue area, print signage, branded merchandise, and catering — for a $3M+ activation at the All England Lawn Tennis Club.

Cross-functional leadership: led daily stand-ups across account managers, 3D designers, and events producers. Monitored P&L, tracked variance, and forecasted resource requirements throughout. Delivered onboarding and training on project management tooling for junior team members.

The Outcome
~$50k saved vs custom build through build vs buy pivot.
~10 days production time saved on game development.
~12k estimated players through the VR experience.
500k annual Wimbledon attendees reached by activation.