Inside Delta’s Leap into Long-Form Storytelling
Nathan Smith, General Manager of Global Brand Marketing and Drake Springer, Head of Creative Production at Delta Air Lines, share how Delta created Why We Dream—a feature-length documentary made with the Best Defense Foundation that follows World War II veterans returning to Normandy for the 80th anniversary of D-Day. They unpack the bold leap into long-form storytelling, the creative hurdles along the way, an unexpected collaboration with Hans Zimmer, and how the film is catalyzing Delta’s broader push into branded entertainment.
TRANSCRIPT
Nathan Smith: You know, start looking into being serious about how Delta was kind of shifting. Its, its, its marketing and its storytelling from that core idea of let's stop talking about ourselves and start talking about others that inspire us and find the alignment there and find, you know, entertainment value and, and, and engagement through, you know, social first initiatives to feature length films.
Jesse Roesler: Greetings and welcome to Content That Moves, the podcast from Credo Nonfiction and brand storytelling that pulls back the curtain to reveal how the very best in brand-funded films and episodic content is being funded, created, distributed, and measured. I'm your host, Jesse Roesler, founder of Credo Nonfiction, where we partner with brands to find and tell stories that reveal brand purpose and deepen brand meaning through short and feature-length documentaries or episodic series. Visit credononfiction.com to learn how we can help you create real moving stories for your brand. This podcast is co-produced by Brand Storytelling, bringing you the latest news, trends, and insights in branded content, with top-of-industry events and in-depth industry coverage. Online, Brand Storytelling encourages a higher level of collaboration amongst advertisers, agencies, media partners, and creators in pursuit of a richer media environment. For more of the latest in the world of branded content or to explore event offerings, visit brandstorytelling.TV today.
Jesse Roesler: Today we welcome two creative leaders from Delta Air Lines: Nathan Smith, General Manager of Global Brand Marketing, and Drake Springer, the Head of Creative Production. Together, they spearheaded Why We Dream, a feature-length documentary created in partnership with the Best Defense Foundation that follows World War II veterans returning to Normandy for the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Nathan and Drake share how the project came to life — from the bold decision to pursue a feature film, to the creative process and challenges along the way, and even collaborating with composer Hans Zimmer. We also explore how Why We Dream has become a catalyst for Delta's broader ambitions in branded entertainment and long-form storytelling.
Jesse Roesler: Well, Nathan and Drake, welcome. I wanted to start by letting you know I was delighted to see Delta's name on the list of brands presenting films this year. I'm about as loyal of a SkyMiles member as they come. I've always respected the content — like in the seat, when I'm lifting off, the baggage stowing — there's always a tongue-in-cheek humor, and it's always different. And all the short spots are just beautifully, beautifully done, beautifully written. I can tell there's always a lot of attention to the craft, and it's always fun stuff. So when I heard, oh, there's a feature length doc, I'm like, this is a beautiful next step. Let's go, let's go. I think it'd be great if you could tell me: what did the longer-form storytelling landscape look like when you started this, if there was one? And then let's get right into the inspiration and genesis of Why We Dream.
Drake Springer: We've been trying for the last at least four years that I've been here to infuse storytelling in a lot of the work that we're doing on the content side. So whether that is the safety video you reference with some cheeky tongue-in-cheek elements, or whether it's an employee-facing piece of content or something in between, we're trying to infuse as much story into it — and heart into it — as we can. And so the inspiration for this really came because the team at Delta, both on the global sales side and the community engagement side, partnered with a group called the Best Defense Foundation, which is a veteran service nonprofit, to fly World War II veterans back to Normandy, France, for the anniversary of D-Day every summer in June. So we've been doing this now for four years.
Drake Springer: We just did the fourth trip last month. And we'd created content for all of these trips — we'd sent somebody to capture content and done either a recap video or some social posts. Last year happened to be the 80th anniversary of D-Day. And so for us, it felt like: what do we need to do to rise to the occasion of this anniversary? You know, one, to honor the veterans who served all those years ago, but also to recognize the moment and the gravity of the whole situation. And it kind of started as a joke internally. We said, let's — what if we did a doc, like a full doc? And someone said, like a 30-minute thing, and we said, no, what if we did a feature film,
Nathan Smith: Like more than an hour?
Drake Springer: Like more than an hour. Who's gonna watch that?
Jesse Roesler: “What if” are the two best words to start these types of projects.
Nathan Smith: It's the core theme throughout this entire process. Really, it—
Drake Springer: Has. It has. And that was really the impetus for it. We reached out to Pulse Films, who we'd worked with on a lot of projects — usually brand-side spots or branded content projects — but they had a nonfiction department, and I had a good relationship with their executive producer. So we reached out and said, hey, there are 30 different ways we could take this. We know we want it to be unexpected. We know we want it to not be like any other World War II film that's been made. Let's talk about it. Let's ideate. And that was kind of the launching pad over two years ago at this point. For that story.
Jesse Roesler: Well, it's so timely too, not just because of the 80-year mile mark, but how many years are there gonna be people left to make that trip? They're a hundred, 103 years old. I mean, to get those stories now, you might not be able to get those stories five, ten years from now. So it seems like an important thing to focus on at the moment.
Nathan Smith: And kudos to Drake and his team for identifying that, right? And it was one of those situations where you can ask for permission or ask for forgiveness. And I think in this—
Jesse Roesler: I was gonna bring up our favorite words in the film industry—
Nathan Smith: Yep. Right. But the moment was fleeting. And so it was kind of now or never, and we took the chance and really put all the energy into the storytelling and the filmmaking, knowing that if we produced something great, we would figure out how to deliver it to the world and how to make it make sense for Delta. Looking back — talking about The Steepest Climb and now this — it was truly a marked shift. I think we work with incredibly talented people across marketing, creative, brand, social, and we've gotten very good at telling the Delta story, but what we see the opportunity in now is showcasing other people's stories — hearing other people, and finding alignment between our company values and the role we play in people's lives, and really using that as a source of inspiration and entertainment that you start to associate with the Delta brand.
Jesse Roesler: Yep. Purposeful travel is such fertile ground to find amazing stories. We did a project with Marriott. Annie, who was here — I dunno if you met her — and we posted about regenerative travel: people looking to go to a place and not consume, but actually make the place better. So coral reef restoration, for example, is a story we told. And he happened to be staying at a Marriott property and he loves those, but the story was focused on what the traveler was doing and that they were improving the environment. So there are just so many great stories once you start looking at people's reasons for making the journeys they're making.
Drake Springer: I mean, that's, like Nathan said, core to who we are in our DNA at Delta. Everybody has a story. Our job is not just to transport them from point A to point B — it's to connect them to that journey, to whatever their ultimate goal is. And they all have a story to tell. Our stories are all unique. We saw the same thing with our veterans — many of them hadn't told their story over the last 80-plus years. They came home from the war, they put their duffel bags in the closet, and they didn't speak of it again. And so it was almost cathartic in a lot of ways for them to share these stories. And that was a concern we had: we don't want them to necessarily relive—
Jesse Roesler: Bring up—
Drake Springer: Trauma — one of the most traumatizing moments of their life — but they had elected to go back to Normandy on their own, and that was important for them. So for us to be able to convey that story and to tell that story as part of a lasting legacy for them, I think, was really a no-brainer for us.
Jesse Roesler: Yeah, absolutely. I'm curious about finding — you center it on a handful of veterans that you really settle in with and get to know their stories. How did you decide who you would follow? I'm assuming you looked at your manifest and just started talking to people, but what was that process like of finding the stories that you wanted to really focus in on?
Drake Springer: It's a good question. They're all incredible people with incredibly diverse backgrounds. For us, we looked at some of the folks who had gone consistently over the last couple of years leading up to that, because our teams knew them — they knew their families, they knew their stories — and that was a good head start for us to say, okay, we know this person has an amazing story about this part of the war, or this person had an amazing story when they came home. So we started doing some outreach after we had worked with our director, Meredith, and the team to understand what the thread of the story was. We started doing pre-interview calls with tons of the vets.
Nathan Smith: And then beyond the individual stories, it was: what was the macro story we were trying to tell? I watched the film last night, probably for the tenth time, and I still found myself getting choked up, but not at the moments I originally did — there's some somewhat graphic imagery because we wanted to be real about how traumatic this was. It was the moments, and there are two or three throughout the film, that are so wildly relevant today. And it really drives home that idea — that old adage — if you don't learn from history, you're doomed to repeat yourself. There are some incredibly timely themes that rise out of these collective stories that I think are relevant beyond World War II history buffs, or even travel or av buffs. It's about society — treating each other with kindness and love.
Drake Springer: They sure do.
Jesse Roesler: So what was your timeline to put this all together? You said it was more of an ask-for-forgiveness-instead-of-permission. Were there points in the journey that were bumpy — you didn't know what was going to happen? Walk me through the process: what were the big hills, and where did you find your momentum?
Drake Springer: There's an old saying at Delta where the only thing constant in production is change. And that is highly relevant to this project. When we started, we'd never done anything like this before. Delta had never made a film, per se, that we were looking at putting out commercially in a space where more than just our employees would see it. So we started relatively small. We created a sizzle. We figured this is probably the best way to sell this into some of our leaders who maybe aren't creatives — people who don't think in this space — and we didn't want to just give them a one-page brief, so we created a three-minute sizzle actually featuring a clip from Rose in the Titanic as Betty, which just worked really well. It was kind of jarring, but it got the point across in a lot of what we did.
Drake Springer: Then we had a 40- or 50-page director's treatment, and we shopped it around our leader — our creative director, Maya Dukes — and she loved the bold thinking and said, let's see where it can go. That's where we started: seeding ground with research and development into the war, our eight folks, what role that played when they came back, how themes from the war tied into what advanced the American Dream in terms of technology, innovation, and the economy. That was the starting point. And we did probably six months of work before we shot a single frame of any of that.
Jesse Roesler: That's not always the case, so—
Drake Springer: It's not. And while we didn't necessarily have a strategy for what we were gonna do post-finishing, eventually we had one. We did it backwards — which worked in this case — but we had a strategy at least to approach the film.
Jesse Roesler: That's great. Any other challenges along the way?
Drake Springer: The film did die midway through production. We'd been shooting for probably four months. We'd captured almost all of the interviews with the veterans that are in the film, and we were running out of space on the charter because it was a huge event. We were taking up a handful of seats, and that handful of seats was highly coveted space. A couple folks in the organization didn't necessarily know about the project or didn't understand it — they were tied to the charter, but not to the documentary — and we lost the space on the charter, and they basically said, this isn't something we're gonna pursue; we need this for other things. And then — within 24 hours — we found out, one, that the project was dead, and two, that Hans Zimmer said yes. All in the same day. The whiplash was brutal. But long story short, due to huge efforts from people across marketing and sales and creative, we were able to take four weeks or so and rally the troops and get this sold up to the people that needed to say yes. And they—
Jesse Roesler: Tell me more about that. What did you put together to sell—
Drake Springer: It up? A lot of it was leaning into the idea that these folks won't be around much longer. The number of veterans still alive from World War II is dwindling. Most of the folks in our film are over a hundred, and they're the ones who are left. The time is relevant. The anniversary is now. This is one of those things that if you miss it, you're not going to go back and capture it later. So that relevance, plus the idea that we could attach star power like Hans Zimmer to this film — and they were excited about it. You know, it's a passion project for him to do World War II things. He's got a personal connection to World War II with his mom, who was in Germany when the war broke out.
Drake Springer: And his head of studio has an old Victory Vertical piano, which they used to airdrop into the war as a morale booster for troops — there are only eight left in the world — and they have one at their studio. There were just really cool synergies we found. Basically we said, guys, it's an unbelievable opportunity, and we have this person that we never in a million years thought would say yes. We can't pass this up for the brand. They understood. We got that message up. We got buy-in from some of our SVPs who went to our C-suite, who bought in, and we collectively held hands and said: this is something the brand has to do.
Jesse Roesler: That's awesome. How did you go about getting ahold of Hans Zimmer? Did you already have a connection there?
Drake Springer: We did not. That was pure luck.
Nathan Smith: On a wing and a prayer, as they say — on a wing—
Drake Springer: And a prayer.
Nathan Smith: Some airline violence. <Laugh>.
Jesse Roesler: That's awesome.
Drake Springer: For me at least, music is really important in content. I feel like it can make or break a scene — a film, a hundred percent. So for me, the sound and the composer were going to be key. Hans — I've looked up to Hans and his team for years just in my personal life.
Jesse Roesler: I've got some of his scores on vinyl.
Drake Springer: Yeah, same. It's great. He moves people in ways other composers haven't. We met some amazing other composers for this project — all of whom were really interested and really talented — and we just said, we can't not ask. The answer is probably no. And even if the answer is yes, we can't afford it. But we went out and — I think the same day, or at least the following day — his head of studio, Russell Emanuel, wrote back and it was just: yes. Wow. Yes. Yes. I love that.
Jesse Roesler: If you don't ask, you won't know. That's such a great lesson.
Drake Springer: [Get] you don't ask for — that has never been more true than on this project, I think.
Nathan Smith: It was just smooth sailing from there. Totally smooth on out, right?
Drake Springer: Yeah, tell us about that smooth sailing.
Jesse Roesler:. A little tongue in cheek maybe there? <laughs>
Nathan Smith: I mean, here we had this amazing film in its final edit, amazing composer, wonderful director, and we started off this year really excited about the opportunity to go to market with it. And then our industry changed. First half of this year there was a lot of uncertainty, which required us to be really responsible with budgets and priorities. There was another point — literally at the goal line — where we faced the reality that this might not go to market. We might not have a Premiere, we might not be able to invest in a distribution strategy — which was actually a bit of a blessing in disguise.
Nathan Smith: Because then we had to huddle and come together — not just pitch it from a creative standpoint or even from a brand connectivity standpoint — but from a business-imperative standpoint. So this film became the catalyst for our overarching initiative to do more brand storytelling: developing a slate across different genres and formats, and being serious about how Delta was shifting its marketing and its storytelling — from that core idea of “let's stop talking about ourselves and start talking about others that inspire us,” finding alignment there, and finding entertainment value and engagement through social-first initiatives to feature-length films. We were pressed to develop a multi-phase, long-term strategy to get this initial project over the finish line. We came together as a team and figured out a way to do this that's undeniably Delta — that no one else can do — and that was premiering the film at Tribeca on D-Day.
Drake Springer: On the USS Intrepid.
Nathan Smith: On the USS Intrepid — oh man — which was your brilliant idea. There have been several points where I looked at Drake — and I have complete trust and faith in him — but I'm like, are you kidding me? <laughs>
Jesse Roesler: You're dreaming big, that’s great!
Nathan Smith: That's great. And I love it — it inspires me and the rest of the team as well. Last night I described myself as: my role in this is Drake's hype man. But really, it's how do we come together, put some great minds in a room, and figure out it's not just this one thing — there's so much more this will unlock for us as a brand in brand storytelling. So let's figure out how to get it done. And we bootstrapped it and made it happen. We even had a 100-year-old birthday party at the premiere for one of the veterans who was in attendance, which was pretty amazing in its own right. Super cool.
Jesse Roesler: What a way to announce your entry into this world. It's such a beautiful, moving film — and to start with a feature, that's so good.
Drake Springer: We set the bar high for ourselves, so we'll have to reassess.
Jesse Roesler: That's great. So now that you have this prestigious premiere at Tribeca, and it sounds like a beautiful event surrounding it, can you say anything more about where this film will go next? I'm hoping I can watch it on the back of the seat at some point, but I'm sure you've got other aspirations for where this will end up too.
Drake Springer: I think it's part of the strategy Nathan was talking about. This feels like a very relevant, poignant story — more so than ever right now — and we've been working closely with our partners at United Talent Agency to help shop the film around. There's been some good interest in it. Despite it being a brand-driven story — even though the film does not talk about the brand, which is a point of pride for us; it was a very intentional decision to not push the brand in a way that felt inauthentic — the goal is twofold: get it to as many audiences as we can, whether through a streaming partner, a linear partner, or maybe even a limited theatrical release.
Drake Springer: And then put it onboard the seat so that on all of our 1,200 flights a day they can enjoy it. That's the thing we've tapped into as we unearthed the strategy. Nathan can speak more to that, but we realized our inflight entertainment system is a woefully untapped distribution platform — with, you know, 500,000 eyes a day, 220 million a year — a captive audience in seats onboard our aircraft. That's huge potential. It's also something we can offer to distribution partners: work with us here, we'll put it here; it doesn’t necessarily cost anything, but it's extra reach you wouldn't otherwise have.
Nathan Smith: Absolutely. It's opened the door to a lot of innovative thinking. Drake and I would be the first to admit this is a “flying the plane while building the wing” scenario. A year and a half ago, the world of branded entertainment and commercial licensing — all of those aspects — was relatively new to us, but we've immersed ourselves. We've thought about how to put our own spin on this that makes sense for the business and for our customers — whether that's in-flight, exclusive content you can only see with Delta; incubating up-and-coming filmmakers and connecting them to their potential by putting them in front of the right places and spaces to potentially be picked up—
Nathan Smith: Working with not only well-known names, but introducing new names into the world of entertainment. It's come with a diverse set of genres and show formats that we think would be incredibly interesting and entertaining for our audiences, but all ladder up to something that feels uniquely Delta. If we did our job right, two or three years from now you could see a film or a show or a series with no Delta branding throughout — but at the end, when you saw “Produced by Delta,” you'd have that aha moment: now I see why that was the way it was, because that's what I expect from Delta-originated content and entertainment. It aligns with company values, aligns with our customer values, aligns with this idea of journeys of discovering your potential and connection, and seeing the world as a connected place. I think the world needs more of that right now, no doubt. We're incredibly excited to dig in and double down and see what's possible for us.
Jesse Roesler: That's great. I've always seen it as a premium brand, and your first foray of content feels very premium. It's beautifully done. There are so many moving moments and stories, and you can tell the cinematic format was put to match the power of those stories, and it was done in a way where all the elements are working at the same time. Bravo.
Drake Springer: Thank you. That was almost a non-negotiable for us. When we approached the film team and said, “Yes, we want this to be a doc,” this can't be a follow doc, this isn't a run-and-gun doc — this needs to be a premium cina-doc kind of approach. To their credit — and all credit to Meredith and Jake Burghardt, who is our DP, and our producers Matt and Casey — and I know I mentioned Hans earlier, but I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Christian Lundberg, who also co-composed the score with Hans — just the incredible power of that team that pulled this off. One of my favorite moments — and there are several — is seeing those veterans in today's time back in a place they were when they were 19. Whether it's putting on their radio gear and doing Morse code or flying next to a P-51 over Mont-Saint-Michel or standing in front of the cathedral where he realized, “I'm all alone because everybody else has died.”
Drake Springer: Bringing them back to those places was — I know I said “cathartic” earlier — very intentional, but also special and powerful for them to go back to places where they suffered some of the most severe traumatic moments of their life, to put it at peace. We saw that happen in real time. When I watch it, through the lens of having been there as someone who was watching it get shot, I know that was a release for them. Which was different, because at the start of the project one of our biggest fears was: we don't want to take them back to a place where they're gonna relive trauma. We don't want to add to their angst. But they were the ones who really said, no, we want to do this.
Jesse Roesler: Yeah. Super powerful, those moments. And for me, some of my favorites were them back there interacting with super young people who were thanking them. I don't know, maybe I'm biased — I don't think about the younger generation as appreciating what those generations had to go through. So to see them telling them that — those reactions — super powerful stuff.
Drake Springer: It is. And I hate to say it — I think we have a long way to go as a country on our own toward appreciating what that generation did and remembering that history. The French people — that was one of the most surprising things. Everywhere we went, whether it was on a street corner or in a town, there were more American flags than French flags. These vets were treated like literal rock stars. That was a moment where it's like, oh, they get it. They've celebrated these people forever. There’s a lot to learn from that.
Jesse Roesler: Apart from the “ask for forgiveness, not permission,” are there any other takeaways you'd offer for other folks in your position who are trying to create something bigger than they have before?
Nathan Smith: I would amend that and say, don't always ask for forgiveness. Again, the big turning point and the catalyst this film has projected us into right now — as a marketing organization and a way of rethinking how we engage and create content — is leveraging the win. Whether or not this gets picked up for licensing, getting the responses and feedback we have to help hone our craft and strategy and ideas is a huge W for Delta Marketing — specifically this branded entertainment function. With that, we've been able to hone our craft, rethink our strategy, build on that, and look at new opportunities through new lenses now that we've gathered all this information, so we're not starting without a strategy and having to retroactively create one. We're starting with an incredibly strong baseline we can build against. And we have advocacy throughout this process from our leaders and members of the organization to lean in and make some of these not big bets, but small, smart bets as those first steps out of the gate to see where this can blossom.
Drake Springer: I think it's hard to top that, but I would say: be bold. Be bold in your thinking and your aspirations for the brand. For us, this was very unexpected. Once the idea got planted in our brains, it was very hard to shake — that was our gut check: this is something worth pursuing. Not everything is worth going to the mat for, especially in a corporate environment — you want to make sure you're fighting the right fights and pushing where you need to push, and sometimes it's better to ease off the gas. This was one where we realized: even though we've never done this before, and this is a very unexpected move for an airline brand whose role is to fly airplanes safely — not make feature films — this felt like a natural progression of our brand values in a space we'd never touched before.
Drake Springer: Once it took root, we had to move on it. There were internal conversations as a team: okay, this is stalled, or this has slowed down — is it still worth pursuing? The unanimous answer every time was yes. That was a little scary — we didn't have full buy-in all the time. But that's when the best stuff comes: when there's a powerful idea and passion behind it, it's hard to stop.
Jesse Roesler: While plans for wide release for Why We Dream are in motion after several successful film festival screenings, no official date or platform has been confirmed just yet. In the meantime, make sure to check out the teaser for the film on YouTube and follow Delta's social channels for updates on the film's distribution. As always, I hope you've been enjoying the show, and I'd love to hear from you. If you have ideas for guests or topics for future episodes, drop me a note at jesse@credononfiction.com.
