Cinco Preguntas with Marcus Romero: Creative Director at Texas Creative

Marcus Romero is Creative Director at the marketing agency Texas Creative in San Antonio. He is a family man, designer, maker — in that precise order. Raised on a steady diet of instant Ramen noodles, vinyl records, and reruns, Marcus’s work exemplifies the mood and exuberance of youth culture. Marcus has been on staff at Texas Creative and serving the broader San Antonio visual landscape for 19 years. We spent time with him asking about his career and some recent award-winning projects.

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MiSA:  You spent your formative years immersed in the raw energy of the Texas electronic music scene, designing posters. Then, your career reads like a sprawling, multi-act film, transitioning from computer science to toy product development and eventually spanning nearly three decades in the agency world. How has this “polymath” journey shaped your directorial eye when conceptualizing and executing complex digital video campaigns today?

Romero:  My path into creative work and producing video was anything but linear, but looking back, every phase taught me something about adaptability, storytelling, and problem-solving under pressure. Event production during the Texas electronic music era had a huge impact on how I approach creative work today. I worked with a small crew of musicians and DJs who wanted to leave a mark on the scene by building nights around sounds that weren’t typically heard in this part of Texas. We weren’t just throwing parties locally, we were trying to cultivate a roster of artists and create something that felt connected to a larger electronic music culture happening outside the state. When you operate a small business with a tiny team, you end up wearing every hat imaginable. It taught me early that if you want momentum, you have to be willing to learn whatever skill the moment requires. That’s really how I got into design. Out of necessity, to stretch the budget. I’d always been interested in art, advertising, and film, but this was the second half of the ’90s and coding felt like the practical future. Finding early success designing flyers, promotional materials, and advertising for events within the Texas electronic music scene, even in what was still a fairly niche culture at the time, showed me there were creative paths that energized me far more than the prospect of staring at code all day.

Working in toys was trial by fire. I had just finished art school and landed my first professional job, only to discover the company was in serious financial trouble and deeply behind on royalty payments to Warner Brothers. Four months into my employment, almost the entire creative staff was let go as the publicly traded company struggled to stay afloat. Overnight, the responsibilities of a much larger team collapsed onto a handful of us. I suddenly found myself handling product photography, package design, illustration, retail product development, and presentations under intense pressure. That experience permanently shaped me. It taught me how to think creatively while solving operational problems in real time. It also taught me how to stay calm when the stakes are high. When I eventually moved into the agency world, the pace accelerated even more. For nearly three decades, I’ve tried not to retreat from challenges that felt slightly beyond my reach. Some of the biggest leaps in my career came from saying yes before I fully knew how I was going to execute something. I’d absorb lessons during the process, refine the approach, and carry those discoveries into the next project.

Looking back, a lot of my career has been shaped by what the French call Système D; improvisation, adaptability, and finding solutions with whatever resources are available. I didn’t learn creativity in a vacuum with unlimited time and budgets. I learned it in situations where things constantly shifted and you had to keep moving forward anyway. That mindset heavily influences how I approach campaigns and video production now. My background across design, technology, branding, production, editing, and strategy allows me to see projects from multiple perspectives at once. I’m thinking about systems, audience behavior, emotional pacing, and how every moving piece supports the larger story.

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MiSA:  For the award-winning "Bexar Responsibly" campaign, you didn't just name the initiative; you conceptualized an on-location PSA video shot with a full production team. Can you walk us through your cinematic approach to capturing the emotional weight of a heavy, grounded subject, such as safe gun storage, on film?

Romero:  For the Bexar County Gun Safety Initiative, we realized very early that this subject required an enormous amount of care and nuance. Once we began researching firearm storage habits in Bexar County, a few things became immediately clear. First, whatever message we created had to acknowledge that firearm ownership is a constitutionally protected right and a deeply embedded part of the culture for many families here. We understood immediately that the message would fail if people felt judged rather than understood.
Our research also showed that fear was often the motivating factor behind gun ownership. Most people we were speaking to were good people trying to protect their families. Unfortunately, that same fear, combined with complacency or a momentary lapse in judgment, can sometimes create dangerous situations for the exact people they’re trying to protect, particularly children.
That understanding shaped everything creatively, including the campaign name itself. “Bexar Responsibly” allowed us to acknowledge both the right to bear arms and the responsibility that comes with owning one.

Concepting the PSA was not a direct path. We explored several approaches before ultimately settling on a grounded story centered around parenting and the everyday efforts people make to keep their children safe. Cinematically, we wanted the piece to feel restrained and emotionally honest rather than sensationalized. We focused on small, recognizable moments and allowed the tension to emerge naturally from the situation itself. We also made several deliberate visual choices to reinforce that idea of protection and responsibility. The children were intentionally cast and styled in a way that allowed viewers to interpret them either as siblings or as versions of the same child at different stages of life. In the final scene, one child still has sunscreen on his nose and swim gear, while another wears a bicycle helmet. Those details were meant to evoke the countless ways parents carefully protect their children as they grow up. The emotional tension comes from realizing that after years of attention, caution, and care, a single moment of complacency around firearm storage can still place that child in danger. 

One of the most important creative decisions we made was to leave the outcome open-ended. We felt that what we chose not to show was just as important as what we did show. Rather than presenting a definitive conclusion, we wanted viewers to sit with the possibility of what could happen and project their own fears, experiences, and responsibilities into that silence. We were also fortunate to work with a production partner that understood the level of care required for a subject like this. Even on set, safety was treated with absolute seriousness. In light of recent accidental shootings involving firearms during film productions, extra precautions were taken with the unloaded firearm used in the spot. The firearm belonged to an on-duty Bexar County officer who also acted as the armorer during production.
Ultimately, the entire campaign was built around the idea of mitigating risk while accepting the reality that firearms are part of our culture. The goal was never to shame people. It was to encourage responsibility, reflection, and safer decisions that could help reduce firearm injuries and deaths in Bexar County, especially among children and young people.

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MiSA: You’ve noted that great work is rooted in long-term relationships and deep research. When designing the digital space for the Texas Cavaliers and highlighting their charitable efforts, how did you balance commercial utility with the emotional, documentary-style storytelling required to honor their history?

Romero:  We’ve been fortunate to work with the Texas Cavaliers for several seasons now, and that long-term relationship gave our agency, especially our account service and PR teams, a much deeper understanding of both their operational needs and the charitable mission behind the organization. That familiarity was incredibly important when it came time to help them launch a new digital presence during their 100th anniversary year. 

From the beginning, we understood that the site couldn’t simply function as a ticketing platform for the River Parade. It also needed to communicate the deeper story behind the event itself. For many people, the River Parade is a celebration and a major cultural tradition in San Antonio, but what often goes unseen is the amount of work, planning, fundraising, and community involvement that supports it throughout the year. A major focus for us was making sure the digital experience highlighted the charitable impact at the center of the organization. The River Parade ultimately helps generate meaningful financial support for carefully selected nonprofit honorees and community organizations working throughout the region. We wanted visitors to understand that purchasing a ticket wasn’t just about attending an event, it was participating in something larger that directly benefits the community. Creatively, that meant balancing utility with storytelling. The site needed to function cleanly and efficiently from a user experience standpoint, especially around ticket sales and event information, but we also wanted the photography, written content, historical material, and overall pacing of the experience to feel more documentary in tone than purely promotional. The goal was to honor the organization’s long history while helping audiences connect emotionally to the purpose behind the celebration. At its heart, the Texas Cavaliers story is really about community stewardship. The River Parade is a shared gift between the organization, the people who participate, and the citizens of San Antonio who continue to support the tradition year after year. It’s a party with a purpose, backed by a long-standing tradition of giving.

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MiSA:  You recently shot and edited intimate interview vignettes for the Make Ready Market, which garnered PRSA merit recognition. As both the shooter and the editor, how do you discover the narrative rhythm in these social videos compared to a heavily scripted, large-scale commercial piece?

Romero:  The Make Ready Market pieces were especially interesting because the narrative rhythm wasn’t something we imposed onto the footage, it was something we discovered inside each person’s story. While I created additional supporting footage for the campaign, the interview footage itself had already been captured, so a lot of the creative process happened in the edit. Each of the chef and business owners approached their work with a completely different ethos, and that naturally shaped the pacing and emotional tone of their individual pieces. With David Galbreath of Eet-Up, what stood out immediately was his obsession with craft. There’s no shortage of places to get a burger, but what made his story compelling was the fact that he left a successful career to immerse himself in restaurant work specifically to study shortcomings and refine his process. That kind of mindset gives you a very clear emotional thread to build around.

For David Gilbert of Thai Bird, I wanted the edit to reflect his genuine affinity for Thai culture and the sense of connection behind the food itself. With Elias Carofilis from Bujee Beverage Company, the energy was completely different. His drive and momentum came through almost immediately in the footage, so the pacing naturally became more kinetic and forward-moving. That’s one of the biggest differences between documentary-style social content and a heavily scripted commercial piece. In larger commercial productions, the rhythm is often engineered very precisely before the camera even rolls. In these interview-driven pieces, the rhythm comes from listening closely to how people speak, where they pause, what they emphasize, and what emotional truths emerge naturally in conversation. As an editor, I’m always looking for clarity and pacing, especially in social content where attention is incredibly fragile, but I also think audiences respond when you give moments room to breathe. I wanted these pieces to feel concise and engaging without becoming overcompressed. They needed information and momentum, but also enough air for personality and authenticity to come through.

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MiSA: Your recent broadcast work for Davis Law Firm took your production into the sprawling, high-energy environment of Austin's Q2 Stadium. What were the distinct visual and directorial challenges of framing an intimate 30-second spot against the colossal backdrop of professional soccer?

Romero:  The Q2 shoot was an incredibly ambitious production day, largely because of the amount of material we needed to capture within a very limited window. We only had access to the Austin FC players for about two hours, so the entire day depended on careful planning, scheduling, and the ability to adapt quickly once we were on the ground. Fortunately, our internal team and production partners have worked together long enough to move very efficiently under those kinds of constraints, and the Austin FC staff were fantastic to work with and incredibly accommodating throughout the process.

From a creative standpoint, the biggest challenge wasn’t really the scale of the stadium itself; it was understanding the culture surrounding Austin FC and the Verdes fanbase. Soccer supporters are incredibly passionate and emotionally invested, and we knew immediately that the work couldn’t feel like a generic sponsorship integration or a standard “presented by” moment. Conceptually, the goal was really about further introducing Jeff Davis to the Austin market in a way that felt natural and approachable. While Davis Law Firm already had a presence there, Jeff is still far more immediately recognizable in San Antonio. The challenge became finding ways to place him within that Austin FC environment authentically and endearingly, so it felt like he was genuinely engaging with the culture surrounding the club instead of simply appearing alongside it. That influenced a lot of the visual and editorial decisions. We wanted the spots to carry the energy and movement associated with the club and its supporters, but still feel approachable and human. In a 30-second format, every frame has to work very hard, so a lot of the directing and editing decisions came down to maintaining momentum while making sure the personality and warmth of the piece still came through.

See more of the creative work of Marcus Romero at Texas Creative by visiting texascreative.com.