APPAREL COMMERCIAL VIDEO PRODUCTION CAMPAIGN

Tillys 2026 Summer Commercial Video Campaign: Multi-Format Commercial and Vertical Video Production

Learn how ZANE Productions helped Tillys produce a fast-moving 2026 summer commercial video campaign with 50 final video assets, multiple aspect ratios, custom production design, visual effects, behind-the-scenes content, and a two-day Los Angeles production targeting a young Gen Z audience and built for streaming, YouTube, Meta, Instagram, TikTok, and vertical social platforms.

Project Snapshot

APPAREL COMMERCIAL VIDEO PRODUCTION CAMPAIGN

This commercial video production case study highlights how Tillys partnered with ZANE Productions to bring a large-scale 2026 summer campaign to life under a tight timeline, an ambitious budget, and a high-volume deliverables list.

Tillys needed more than a crew. The brand needed a commercial video production company that could help shape the creative, build a production plan, solve major logistical challenges, create a custom studio environment, film multiple lifestyle scenes, and deliver campaign assets across 16:9, 1:1, and 9:16 formats for A/B testing across paid media and social platforms.

As a full-service video production company and vertical video production company, ZANE Productions helped Tillys turn a complex campaign into a practical, efficient production model. The final campaign included a one-minute hero video, a 30-second edit, multiple 15-second and 6-second cutdowns, individual edits for six different style archetypes, platform-specific exports, behind-the-scenes footage, and additional content captured during the shoot.

The Brand: Tillys

Tillys is a specialty retailer of casual apparel, footwear, accessories, and hardgoods for young men, young women, boys, and girls. The brand is rooted in active, outdoor, social, and youth lifestyle culture, offering a mix of iconic global brands, emerging brands, and proprietary merchandise across fashion, footwear, and accessories.

The Tillys concept began in 1982 when co-founders Hezy Shaked and Tilly Levine opened their first store in Orange County, California. Today, Tillys is headquartered in Irvine, California, and operates as a national retail brand with stores across the United States and an e-commerce platform serving customers online. For fiscal 2025, Tillys reported $553.6 million in total net sales, making it a major player in youth lifestyle retail and fashion.

For the 2026 summer apparel commercial video production campaign, Tillys needed a video production partner that understood not only polished commercial production, but also the social-first reality of modern retail marketing. The campaign needed to feel bright, youthful, energetic, style-driven, and built for the way audiences discover fashion across streaming, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Reels, and paid social.

How Tillys Found ZANE Productions

In late March 2026, the Creative Director at Tillys reached out to ZANE Productions with a major production challenge. The brand was preparing to launch a large summer campaign and needed to book a production company as soon as possible.

Tillys was actively searching for a partner through both Google and AI tools, including ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude. ZANE Productions appeared as the most recommended video production company capable of handling the complexity of the campaign. That discovery path became an important part of the story: Tillys was not only looking for a production vendor, but for a company that could show up in search, be trusted by AI-driven recommendations, and then prove in conversation that it could actually solve the production challenge.

After contacting several production companies, Tillys found that ZANE Productions was the team most willing and able to meet the project’s constraints. From the first call, ZANE Productions helped think through creative solutions, production logistics, budget strategy, deliverables, and how to make the campaign possible without compromising the final result.

The Challenge

Tillys needed to launch a major commercial video campaign for summer 2026, but the project came with several overlapping challenges.

The brand wanted to keep the production budget around $100,000 while producing a large collection of campaign assets for A/B testing. The campaign needed to feature six different styles connected to six different character archetypes. The core videos needed to work as a one-minute hero commercial and a 30-second version, while also supporting shorter 15-second and 6-second edits for each style and character direction.

The campaign also needed to be delivered in multiple aspect ratios:

• 16:9 for streaming, YouTube, and horizontal placements

• 1:1 for select Meta and social placements

• 9:16 for Instagram Reels, TikTok, vertical video, and mobile-first platforms

The original scope included 42 video deliverables plus behind-the-scenes coverage. Because the production was planned carefully and the shoot generated additional strong footage, ZANE Productions ultimately delivered 50 final campaign assets plus BTS content.

This created several immediate challenges:

• Producing a high-volume commercial campaign within a $100,000 target budget

• Planning the production in less than four weeks after confirmation

• Shooting the campaign on May 1 and May 2 for a June 30 launch

• Building the production while the concept was still being finalized

• Adjusting quickly once the final creative direction was approved in mid-April

• Creating assets for six style archetypes with four main cast members and ten supporting “best friend” cast members

• Capturing horizontal, square, and vertical video production deliverables from the same shoot

• Building a custom yellow dressing room set with a practical mirror

• Creating a four-door Tillys store setup without the budget for a full four-door set build

• Using VFX and CGI to expand the world of the campaign

• Coordinating a studio production day and a Venice Beach production day

• Managing post-production while key Tillys creative team members had limited availability during May because of business travel

• Delivering the full campaign in time for a late-June launch

For many production companies, the combination of timeline, deliverables, creative complexity, custom set design, VFX, and budget would have made the campaign difficult to take on. ZANE Productions approached it as both a creative and operational puzzle.

The Solution

ZANE Productions built a production plan around one central idea: maximize every shoot day, every setup, and every piece of footage so Tillys could receive a full commercial campaign instead of a single commercial.

The team moved quickly after confirmation in the first week of April. With less than four weeks before the May 1 shoot date, ZANE Productions managed casting, crew, locations, production design, technical planning, camera strategy, visual effects planning, scheduling, BTS coverage, and the full post-production workflow.

The production was structured as a two-day shoot:

• Day 1: Studio production with the custom Tillys store wall, yellow door setup, dressing room set, mirror moments, controlled lighting, product styling, and VFX-driven scenes.

• Day 2: Venice Beach lifestyle production with the dream sequences, friend groups, biking, ocean moments, music, dancing, car scenes, and social-first lifestyle content.

This two-day structure allowed the team to separate the production-heavy studio elements from the outdoor lifestyle elements, keeping the schedule efficient and giving each part of the campaign the right visual treatment.

Creative Development and Production Planning

When Tillys first reached out, the concept was still being finalized. That meant ZANE Productions had to begin production planning while leaving enough flexibility to adapt once the creative was locked.

The campaign concept centered around characters entering a bright yellow Tillys dressing room, trying on different outfits, and seeing a vision of themselves through a magical mirror. Each mirror vision revealed the feeling of wearing the outfit in real life: biking with friends, running into the ocean, going to a concert, hanging out in a car, meeting a romantic interest, or creating a TikTok-style dance moment.

The concept was playful, fashion-driven, and built around imagination. The challenge was making it practical.

ZANE Productions helped Tillys translate that idea into a shootable production plan. That included identifying which scenes needed to be captured practically, which moments could be solved with VFX, how to cover each style archetype, how to maximize each cast member, and how to protect the campaign’s visual consistency across every deliverable.

Casting for Six Style Archetypes

Casting was a key part of the campaign because each character needed to represent a different Tillys style archetype. The production featured four main cast members, with each main talent helping represent multiple style directions across the campaign.

In addition to the four lead performers, ZANE Productions helped coordinate ten supporting cast members to appear as friends, beachgoers, concert energy, car passengers, and social lifestyle moments. This gave the campaign a bigger world without requiring a much larger production footprint.

The casting needed to feel young, stylish, natural, and aligned with the Tillys audience. Because the campaign was built for both commercial and vertical video production, the talent also needed to perform well in quick visual moments that could work as 6-second, 15-second, 30-second, and hero-length edits.

Custom Production Design: The Yellow Dressing Room

One of the biggest production design challenges was the custom yellow dressing room. The campaign needed a bright, stylized, all-yellow fitting room where the characters could try on outfits and see their dream sequences through a mirror.

To make the set work within the budget, ZANE Productions and the production design team built a three-wall dressing room using flats, while using the cyclorama wall as the fourth side of the environment. This allowed the set to feel complete on camera while leaving enough room for camera, lighting, grip, rigging, crew, and performance.

The mirror created an additional technical challenge. Mirrors often reveal cameras, lights, crew members, and unfinished parts of a set. To solve this, the team carefully positioned the walls, mirror, clothing racks, talent marks, and camera angles so the reflection would show the intended yellow environment rather than the production footprint.

The set was built without a practical ceiling so lighting and rigging could be placed above the talent. When the camera angle revealed the missing ceiling, the team planned to solve the issue through visual effects. This gave the production the flexibility it needed on set while still allowing the final campaign to feel polished and complete.

Creating the Four-Door Tillys Store Setup With One Door

The campaign also called for a stylized Tillys store wall where four characters enter four separate yellow doors. Building a large set with four fully dressed doors would have pushed the budget beyond the campaign’s needs, so ZANE Productions created a more efficient solution.

Instead of building four doors, the production team built one yellow door and filmed each character separately from carefully planned angles. The camera positions were designed to match where each door would appear in a larger four-door composition. In post-production, the shots were combined to create the illusion of a bigger set with four doors lined up across the same yellow environment.

This approach required coordination between production design, camera, directing, and VFX. Each angle had to be planned with the final composite in mind, so the finished shot would feel intentional rather than patched together.

The result gave Tillys the scale of a larger set without requiring the cost of a larger build.

Visual Effects and the Magical Mirror Concept

Visual effects played an important role throughout the campaign. The mirror visions needed to feel magical, energetic, and connected to the outfits, while still staying grounded in a commercial fashion world.

ZANE Productions used VFX and compositing to support:

• The magical mirror transitions

• The dream sequences inside the mirror

• The four-door composite

• The missing ceiling in the dressing room set

• Set extensions and refinements

• The polished final campaign look

Because ZANE Productions has experience combining live-action production with green screen, CGI, and VFX workflows, the team was able to think through the visual effects before the shoot rather than treating them as an afterthought. That made the production more efficient and helped protect the creative direction.

Camera and Lens Strategy

The campaign used an ARRI Alexa LF camera system to create a premium commercial image with strong color, skin tone, and dynamic range.

For the Tillys store and dressing room scenes, ZANE Productions used Cooke S7/i T2.0 FF prime lenses. These lenses helped create a clean, polished, commercial look while still feeling organic and flattering on skin. The store and dressing room scenes needed to feel sleek, controlled, bright, and brand-forward, so the Cooke lenses supported the more refined side of the campaign.

For the mirror dream sequences, the team used TLS rehoused Canon FD lenses. These lenses created a more expressive, character-driven, vintage-inspired look with a dreamy 1970s quality. That contrast helped separate the practical dressing room world from the fantasy lifestyle visions seen through the mirror.

This lens strategy gave the campaign two connected but distinct visual modes: a polished commercial retail world and a more emotional, textured dream world.

Venice Beach Lifestyle Production

The second shoot day took place at Venice Beach in Los Angeles. This day focused on the lifestyle scenes that appeared as mirror visions: friends riding bikes, running into the ocean, enjoying music, dancing, hanging out near a car, meeting someone new, and capturing the kind of spontaneous summer memories that fit the Tillys brand.

ZANE Productions coordinated the Venice Beach shoot with the appropriate Los Angeles city departments, including the necessary film permits and production permissions. Because ZANE Productions regularly produces in Los Angeles, the team was able to move through the permitting and coordination process efficiently while keeping the shoot safe, organized, and properly managed.

The Venice Beach footage became a major part of the campaign’s energy. It gave the final videos movement, sunshine, friendship, youth culture, and a sense of summer freedom.

Built for Commercial and Vertical Video Production

A major part of the campaign was planning for multiple formats from the beginning. The production was not designed only as a horizontal commercial that would later be cropped for social. It was designed as a multi-format video campaign.

This mattered because each platform has different creative needs. A 16:9 YouTube or streaming edit needs composition, pacing, and scene structure that works horizontally. A 9:16 vertical video needs strong center framing, fast visual readability, mobile-first energy, and moments that hold attention on TikTok, Instagram Reels, and other vertical platforms.

ZANE Productions planned the shoot with all of these outputs in mind. The team captured footage that could support:

• A one-minute hero campaign video

• A 30-second commercial edit

• 15-second social cutdowns

• 6-second paid media cutdowns

• Individual edits for each style archetype

• 16:9 horizontal exports

• 1:1 square exports

• 9:16 vertical video exports

• BTS footage

• Additional moment-driven edits for A/B testing

This is where ZANE Productions’ experience as both a commercial video production company and a vertical video production company became essential. The goal was not just to create one beautiful video. The goal was to create a full performance-driven asset library that Tillys could use across platforms, placements, and audience tests.

Behind-the-Scenes Content With a Nostalgic Twist

Tillys also wanted behind-the-scenes footage and a string-out of the best moments from the shoot. ZANE Productions approached the BTS coverage as another creative opportunity rather than a basic add-on.

The BTS videographer captured footage with a modern camera and a 1998 Panasonic VHS camera. The VHS footage gave Tillys an unexpected nostalgic texture that matched the brand’s youth lifestyle energy and gave the BTS assets a more distinctive visual personality.

This was not something Tillys originally expected, but it became a strong example of how ZANE Productions looks for small creative choices that can add value to a campaign.

Post-Production and Delivery

After the two-day shoot, ZANE Productions moved into post-production with a clear understanding of the campaign’s deadline and the Tillys team’s limited availability during May.

The first edits were presented to Tillys, and the team responded positively to the initial direction. From there, post-production moved through the standard process of notes, revisions, calls, creative adjustments, and final exports.

Because the campaign required so many deliverables, the post-production workflow had to be organized carefully. Each asset needed to maintain the campaign’s overall look while also serving a different purpose, duration, aspect ratio, or style archetype.

ZANE Productions delivered the full campaign package, including 50 final video assets plus BTS footage, in time for the June 30 launch.

The Results

The Tillys 2026 summer campaign officially launched on June 30, 2026.

Within the first two days of launch and A/B testing, the campaign had already generated more than 100,000 views and was showing early signs of sales conversion. For a campaign built around multiple styles, multiple formats, and multiple testing variations, this early traction showed the value of creating a large video asset library instead of relying on one hero commercial alone.

ZANE Productions helped Tillys:

• Turn a complex creative concept into a practical production plan

• Produce a major retail commercial campaign within an ambitious budget

• Build a custom yellow dressing room and stylized Tillys store environment

• Create a four-door set illusion using one practical door and VFX

• Capture six lifestyle style archetypes across studio and Venice Beach scenes

• Film with a premium commercial camera and two distinct lens packages

• Deliver horizontal, square, and vertical video production assets

• Expand the original 42-deliverable scope into 50 final campaign assets

• Capture BTS footage with both modern and nostalgic VHS textures

• Launch the campaign on schedule by June 30

• Generate 100,000+ early views within the first two days of launch

For fashion brands, retail brands, agencies, and marketing teams, this campaign shows how the right commercial video production company can help turn a demanding creative brief into a scalable content system built for modern advertising.

A Strategic Creative video production company Partner for Retail and Fashion Brands

This project is a strong example of how ZANE Productions operates as more than a production vendor.

Tillys needed a team that could help think through the campaign before the shoot, not just show up with cameras. ZANE Productions supported the brand across creative development, production strategy, budget planning, set design, casting, permitting, VFX planning, technical execution, post-production, and final delivery.

That type of partnership is especially valuable for retail and fashion brands that need a high volume of content across multiple platforms. Modern campaigns need to work as commercials, paid ads, social assets, vertical videos, and brand storytelling pieces all at once. The production company has to understand how those different needs affect the creative plan from the beginning.

For Tillys, ZANE Productions helped create a production model that served both brand image and performance marketing.

Commercial Video Production Company for Los Angeles, New York City, and National Campaigns

ZANE Productions is a full-service commercial video production company serving brands, agencies, networks, studios, labels, and marketing teams across Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, and beyond.

Since 2015, ZANE Productions has produced and delivered visuals for brands, companies, networks, studios, and labels including Amazon, Samsung, Fortnite, Adidas, Marvel Studios, Warner Bros., NBCUniversal, Volkswagen, Hyundai, UFC, Procter & Gamble, Kraft Heinz, Cisco, Capitol Records, Virgin Records, USC, Wegovy, Ro, Spinnin’ Records, AltaMed, Markwins Beauty, and many more.

Our work spans commercial video production, vertical video production, corporate video production, brand video production, social media video production, live stream video production, television, film, digital content, photography, green screen, CGI, and VFX.

With 500+ videos produced, 100M+ USD in client-attributed revenue generated, 100+ five-star Google reviews, and 1B+ cumulative views across web and social media platforms, ZANE Productions is built for clients who need creative thinking, high-level execution, and campaign-ready deliverables.

Whether a brand needs a Los Angeles commercial video production company, a New York City video production company, or a national production partner capable of managing multi-platform campaigns, ZANE Productions helps clients move from concept to production to final delivery with clarity, speed, and strategy.

Need a Commercial Video Production Company for Your Next Campaign?

If your brand needs a commercial video production company that can help develop the creative, manage production, build a scalable deliverables plan, and create content for streaming, social media, paid ads, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and vertical video platforms, ZANE Productions can help.

From concept development to final delivery, we help brands and agencies create campaign-ready video assets built for where audiences actually watch, engage, and buy.

Contact ZANE Productions to start planning your next commercial video production or vertical video production campaign.

FAQ

What type of video production did ZANE Productions provide for Tillys?

ZANE Productions provided full-service commercial video production, vertical video production, production design, casting, location coordination, film permitting, camera and lighting, BTS coverage, VFX planning, post-production, and final campaign delivery for the Tillys 2026 summer commercial video campaign.

How many deliverables did ZANE Productions create for Tillys?

The original scope included 42 video deliverables plus behind-the-scenes coverage. After the shoot, ZANE Productions delivered 50 final campaign assets plus BTS footage, giving Tillys additional content for A/B testing and multi-platform campaign use.

What aspect ratios were delivered for the Tillys campaign?

The campaign was delivered in multiple aspect ratios, including 16:9 for streaming and YouTube, 1:1 for select social placements, and 9:16 for vertical video platforms such as TikTok, Instagram Reels, and other mobile-first channels.

Why was vertical video production important for the Tillys campaign?

Vertical video production was important because the campaign needed to work across TikTok, Instagram Reels, mobile-first paid social, and other platforms where 9:16 content performs best. ZANE Productions planned the campaign with vertical video deliverables in mind from the beginning instead of simply cropping a horizontal commercial after the fact.

Where was the Tillys commercial filmed?

The Tillys campaign was filmed across two production days in Los Angeles. One day was filmed in a studio with custom production design, including the yellow dressing room and store door setup. The second day was filmed at Venice Beach for the campaign’s outdoor lifestyle and dream sequence scenes.

What made the Tillys campaign challenging?

The campaign was challenging because it required a large number of deliverables, multiple aspect ratios, six style archetypes, custom production design, visual effects, casting, permits, BTS coverage, a two-day shoot, a tight production timeline, and a June 30 launch deadline.

What camera and lenses were used for the Tillys campaign?

The campaign was filmed with an ARRI Alexa LF camera system. ZANE Productions used Cooke S7/i T2.0 FF prime lenses for the cleaner commercial look of the Tillys store and dressing room scenes, and TLS rehoused Canon FD lenses for the dream sequences to create a more expressive, vintage-inspired look.

Is ZANE Productions a commercial video production company in Los Angeles and New York City?

Yes. ZANE Productions is a full-service commercial video production company serving Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, and national clients. The company produces commercials, vertical videos, brand campaigns, corporate videos, social media content, live streams, digital content, and multi-platform video campaigns for brands, agencies, studios, networks, and marketing teams.

Can ZANE Productions create both commercial videos and vertical social media videos?

Yes. ZANE Productions works as both a commercial video production company and a vertical video production company. The team can create hero commercials, paid ads, social cutdowns, TikTok videos, Instagram Reels, YouTube assets, BTS content, and multi-format deliverables from the same campaign production.

What were the initial results of the Tillys campaign?

After launching on June 30, 2026, the Tillys campaign generated more than 100,000 views within the first two days of launch and A/B testing, while also showing early signs of sales conversion.