“It was wild,” she said. “I remember in the bus on the way shot-listing [the ad] out on a piece of paper and a notepad, sketching out frame by frame each of the shots that I needed.”
But, in many ways, Fernandez had been training for that pressure for years.
You can’t just Tumbl’ into a win
The marketer’s journey to On Brand began in the early 2010s in high school, when she created a Tumblr all about preppy fashion. Fernandez built a following, met like-minded friends on the pre-influencer internet, and even scored a brand deal with Vineyard Vines. “It was my first taste of what would eventually become my career,” she said.
Though Fernandez had gone pre-law in college and even interned in politics in D.C., she eventually pivoted back to marketing, landing at TikTok in its early days to convince brands of the platform’s merits before running social at Tarte Cosmetics. Today, she serves as the head of brand engagement at actor Lili Reinhart’s beauty brand, Personal Day.
Besides her family group chat coming to life since the show’s release, Fernandez said there have been “a lot more” inbound requests for work collaborations. But she still has her day job, which requires interacting with marketers in the industry—and they have questions.
How to keep pitches On Brand
Firstly, yes, there is a ton of material that understandably didn’t make it to the screen, as pitches that could be around 5 minutes or more were cut down to seconds. Because of that, not everything translated, with Fernandez even speaking up for fellow contestant BT Hale’s out-of-this-world, alien-infused “Take Me to Your Dunkin’” pitch.
“I thought that’s genius,” she said. “That would take a lot more world-building, but I still think that’s one of my favorite ideas from the show.”
Fernandez also noted that since her day job focuses on strategy and facts, she tried to ground her campaign ideas in insights. But success on the show also required contestants to pitch more of their personal stories, as well as what they thought would play well for broad audiences and look good on television.
Actually executing their ideas also brought certain challenges. For instance, Fernandez pitched an ASMR activation for Pillsbury, complete with sensory deprivation domes, but those had to be replaced with clear structures for filming purposes, she said. That also created an emergency air conditioning situation after the clear domes and all the electronics inside overheated in the sun.
“It was all hands on deck,” Fernandez said.
Bianca Fernandez on set for her Therabody commercial shoot. (credit: NBCUniversal)