Newport Beach, California, United States
Max Bard is an Executive Producer and the head of PRAY Studios, PRAY.COM’s content production arm. As the head of PRAY Studios, Max has produced over 5,500 original podcast episodes, audio books, and daily devotionals. Max has worked with Superbowl Champions like Drew Brees, Emmy Award winners like Dr Phil, and Grammy Award winners like Lecrae to create world-class content for the Christian audience. Prior to PRAY.COM, Max was the President of VideoFort, Hollywoods largest supplier of aerial and nature stock footage to companies like Getty Images, Adobe, and Shutterstock. VideoFort content has been used in Academy Award winning films, Cannes Lion award winning commercials, and Emmy award winning TV shows. Max is from Los Angeles and graduated from the University of Southern California in 2014. After graduation Max pursued his dream of writing, directing, and editing film & video content in genres ranging from Drama to Advertising to Music Videos.
• Spearheaded the launch of a new podcast initiative with 10 highly successful podcasts that resulted in over 100M downloads and an average completion rate of over 94% per episode in the first 18 months. • Developed & executed on a social media strategy that resulted in 3.5M net new followers with a 9% engagement rate for Pray's Instagram & TikTok channels in the first 12-months of launch. • Partnered with the Chief Business Officer to generate multiple million-dollar revenue streams in the first 12-months of launching our podcast network. • Implemented innovative AI software to streamline production, enhancing efficiency and creative output with a skeleton team scaling the fastest-growing AI Bible brand on YouTube/Insta/TikTok @theaibibleofficial. • Actively engaged in celebrity and high-profile influencer relations, successfully negotiating deals and producing celebrity-driven stories for the app including with James Earl Jones, Dr. Phil, Drew Brees, Lecrae, Savannah Chrisley, Michael Chandler, T.D. Jakes, Kel Mitchell, and others.
• CONTENT: I partner with the CEO, CFO, and CDO to manage creative content budgets, execute on the content production roadmap, act as the point of contact with talent agencies, collaborate with external partners, and implement data-informed strategies to achieve positive ROIC. • GROWTH: Develop & Manage the Television Growth strategy with the growth & data team which made Pray.com one of the most responsive DR advertisers on TV.
• Directly manage Pray's content & production team consisting of over 15+ content creators (producers, composers, editors, writers). • Defined & Manage Pray's content strategy & broadcast television advertising strategy. • Developed and executed on Pray's content roadmap to produce over 2,500+ pieces of owned media within the first year of launching our audio subscription platform. • Produced 3 FB Livestreams that resulted in over 2M views and 62k post engagements, featuring Vice President Pence, Secretary Mike Pompeo, Franklin Graham, and the nations most well-known faith leaders. • Partner with the Data team to implement strategic content & advertising decisions that drive user retention and subscription growth.
I partnered with the marketing, communications, and social media teams to produce video content that would drive brand awareness. Companies I worked and created a lasting relationship with are Dropbox Inc, Thumbtack Inc, Pray.com, and Awesomeness TV. - Produced Dropbox’s VTO video that is currently their most viewed video on their careers facebook channel, "Life Inside Dropbox". - Produced over 15 FB ads for Thumbtack Inc, helping increase usage and sign-ups to their platform. Many of the ads still run, over 8 months later. - Produced new media content for some of the top social media influencers including: Nash Grier, Sommer Ray, Christian Yelich, Lindsay Arnold, Ally Barron and many others. For a small sample of my work please visit www.MaxBard.com
Worked with the marketing team to produce a promotional video for Pray.com's collaboration with ARC Churches.
Videofort is Hollywood's largest supplier of aerial and nature stock footage. I was brought on in June of 2016 to increase its profitability. The company was successfully turned around and sold in the Fall of 2017. - I helped restructure the business, revamp their YouTube channel, edit and contribute to a 255 page manuscript to be turned into a book, design & develop a new website, and produce a pitch deck for potential investors. - I increased key metrics of the YouTube channel from the previous year: Shares grew by 187%, Comments grew by 212%, and Likes grew by 126%. This increased sales & profitability of their stock footage library by over 20%.
I collaborated with a team of 4 engineers & designers to develop a personal training on demand iOS platform, which consisted of 3 apps. I was also in charge of producing 80+ videos throughout the year that helped grow the Instagram account to 40k followers. Our videos included: a web-series about Health & Fitness entrepreneur's called "Pumpd", a fitness video podcast called "Fit-Techs", and a series on fitness internet influencers.