Dave Contreras
Marketing & creative lead · Phoenix, AZ

Dave Contreras

Ten years turning live events, brands and people into stories, from arena tours to trade show floors. Broad across marketing, deep in photo and video.

Start here Heritage Promo Video Touring Videos Wedding Reel Keeva Organics Commercial

A performer mid-flip on an arena stage, crowd lit in red behind him
Dude Perfect arena tour, San Diego · 2019
Clients & tours Dude PerfectHillsongMusic FestivalsPremier Productions

The years

Film and photography, in the order I made them. Tap any photo to see it large.

2012–16

First stages

I love Phoenix, and nobody was making time-lapses of the beautiful desert and landscape we live in. So my first project was personal and local: downtown Phoenix, frame by frame, and a crash course in patience. Then came weddings, 20 to 30 a year, and the many stages after that.

Downtown Phoenix 2012

My first passion project · 2012

Outcry Tour 2016 – Promotional Video

Tour promo · 2016
2017–19

Luxium Creative

Luxium Creative, my studio, went on tour. A tour bus, 40+ states, a new city every day, and a day on the USS Nimitz. This is where I learned sharp editing, quick turnaround and timing: on the arena floor in front of 15,000+ people, I waited for the one moment that mattered, cut it fast, and watched it play back to the whole room.

“How Deep” by RNW Music

Music video. Led the crew and captured live audio; every performance was one take · 2017

Keeva Organics – 1 Minute TV Commercial

Talent, scripts, storyboards and budget · 2017

Rock The South – Country Music Festival

Country festival · photo and video for social · 2017

OUTCRY LA Recap Video

Tour social promo, delivered in four hours · 2019

Arena Tour quick-capture social media moments

Tour content · 2019

Luxium Weddings – Promotional Video

Luxium Creative
2020–24

The classroom

Four years teaching digital media and shooting school sports. My students ran a broadcast desk, a switcher and a sideline camera, put out a weekly show, and we put together the yearbook. Watching their creativity grow surprised me. I learned from them as much as they learned from me.

Cactus Shadows Weekly School Announcements

Student broadcast from my Digital Media class · 2021
2024–26

On the show floor

Photo, video and drone for a nationwide events company, 400+ events a year. Every stage before this led here. I shot the build and the people, not just the finished booth, and now I'm taking all of it to what's next.

Heritage Services – Promotional Videos

Company summit · August 2026

Heritage Employee Spotlight Video

March 2026

Dot Foods Event Recap Video

May 2026

SelectUSA Event Recap Video

June 2026

Selected work

In-house at a nationwide trade show and events company, 2024 to 2026.

468videos, 6 competitors, one research tool

Does more video get more views?

The question
The company wanted to scale video. Nobody knew what worked in trade show video.
What I did
Used Claude Code to build a research tool that pulled every video from six competitors.
What it showed
Median 55 views; 68% under 100. One competitor posted 200 videos for a median of 40. Volume isn't the lever, so I built the video plan around quality, search and first-time exhibitors.
4people, one publishing system

Running a marketing team

The question
Four people handled marketing without lanes, a cadence or a shared plan. Posts looked like "seven different companies."
What I did
Set lanes, publish dates, edit rounds and export specs for every platform, and planned campaigns month by month.
What it showed
One publishing system the team could run on its own, built so sales could plug in. The first sales conversation produced five concrete asks.
493of 547 files given an owner

An SOP library nobody owned

The question
Procedures lived in three competing filing systems. Unfollowed SOPs had already cost one team about $10K in rework.
What I did
Audited and triaged all 547 files, proposed one folder structure, and mapped every file to the new org chart.
What it showed
493 files went from no owner to a named one.
36→5hand-built pages to templates

A website rebuilt to bring in leads

The question
A 36-page brochure site, hand-built page by page, hard to update and hard to measure.
What I did
Planned a five-template system aimed at lead generation, and audited the analytics before anything was torn out.
What it showed
Two GA4 properties were double-counting every pageview. The fix became consolidate-and-claim, not start over.
Status
In development through 2026; paused when the company changed its marketing direction. The live site is the older version. Below: the unpublished build.

What I bring

T-shaped: broad across the marketing function, deep in the craft most teams hire out.

01

Shoot

10+ years · 4-hour turnarounds

Photo, video, drone and interviews under live-event deadlines. Final Cut, Premiere (Adobe certified), Lightroom Classic.

02

Lead

4 people · one publishing system

Lanes, cadence and plans a small team can actually run. Social, paid, email, web and analytics (GA4, Tag Manager).

03

Organize

493 of 547 files given an owner

Systems that keep assets, ideas and decisions findable. AI handles the work around the craft; the footage stays real.

Phoenix, AZ · Available now

Let's make something worth watching.

Open to marketing, content and creative production roles. Resume and references on request.

Emailcontreras.m.dave@gmail.com
Phone480.721.5765