Running Lean, Shooting Big: Justin Allen’s Hollywood Playbook for Butter’s Rise in CTV

The monitor shows a polished 30-second spot for a national insurance brand. Behind it, six people huddle around a camera setup that looks more like an indie film shoot than a Madison Avenue production. No armies of assistants, no catering trucks, no towering light rigs. Just a tight crew executing broadcast-quality work at a fraction of what the big shops charge.

This is how Justin Allen runs commercial production at Butter, and it’s flipping the advertising world’s assumptions about what it takes to compete at the top.

From Actor to Builder

Allen’s path to running lean productions started in the thick of television’s golden age. After four seasons as a commercial actor on AMC’s Mad Men, he watched some of TV’s sharpest creative minds work their craft. ‘I credit Mad Men as my filmmaking master’s programme,’ Allen says, having absorbed lessons in storytelling and production discipline that would later shape his approach to business.

The move from actor to director wasn’t immediate. Allen spent years developing projects under Zachary Levi’s Middle Man Productions, working under an overall deal with Universal Television. He produced critically acclaimed indie films including Winter Light, an Oscar contender, and Ultrasound, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. In 2019, he launched Broad St Media, directing more than 25 commercials for legacy brands like Best Buy, Wonder Bread and Sunbrella.

Two decades in the business taught Allen something most production companies miss: the connection between crew size and output quality isn’t what everyone thinks it is.

‘Justin’s arrival marked a creative turning point for Butter,’ said Judson Morgan, the company’s founder. ‘He’s not only an exceptional filmmaker he’s also a thinker who knows how to scale talent, ideas and operations. Under his leadership, Butter has grown in size, reach and storytelling ambition.’

The Butter Model – High-End, Low Overhead

Broadcast commercial production follows a predictable formula: massive crews, inflated budgets and overhead that prices out smaller brands. Industry data shows typical 30-second TV commercial production runs between $10,000 and $50,000, with larger productions climbing much higher.

Allen flipped this model entirely. At Butter, crews of six to 10 people produce broadcast-quality CTV commercials that compete directly with work from shops running 20-person crews and overhead structures.

The approach borrows heavily from Allen’s indie film background, where creative discipline and multi-skilled talent replace bloated departments. Directors of photography who can also operate cameras. Producers who handle multiple logistics functions. Editors who understand both post-production and client relations.

‘At Butter, we’ve taken decades of experience in film and television production and used it to build a broadcast-quality content creation model delivered by a lean crew of just six to 10,’ Allen explains. ‘This approach opens the door for small and mid-sized businesses to advertise on TV while maintaining high production value at a fraction of the historic broadcast production cost.’

The model works because CTV advertising operates more like programmatic digital than linear TV, offering budget flexibility that rewards efficiency over scale.

Results for Real Clients

The proof sits in Butter’s client roster: Bearded Crew, Rev FCU, Swyft Filings, Shelter Insurance and Chesterfield Auto Parts. These aren’t household names with Madison Avenue budgets, but they’re running national CTV campaigns that look indistinguishable from spots produced by the industry’s biggest players.

For founders watching their competitors outspend them on marketing, Allen’s approach offers a different playbook. Instead of matching dollar-for-dollar on overhead, successful scaling often comes from identifying where quality matters most and ruthlessly cutting everything else.

Small businesses typically can’t compete on raw spending power, but they can compete on creative execution and focus. A six-person crew that knows exactly what they’re building will consistently outperform a 20-person team working with unclear direction and overlapping responsibilities.

Building Wealth and Scale Efficiently

Allen’s model reveals something important about scaling businesses without bloat. Research on lean scaling shows successful growth comes from building systems that increase revenue faster than costs, not from hiring headcount for its own sake.

The key is recruiting elite talent and giving them clear ownership over results. Allen’s crews work because each person understands their role and has the skills to execute multiple functions when needed. Compare this to production companies where departments create silos and communication overhead.

When not behind the monitor, Allen moonlights as a rock concert photographer, capturing artists like Vampire Weekend, Niko Moon and Mt. Joy. The side passion isn’t just creative outlet – it’s training in reading energy, capturing moments and working efficiently under pressure. Skills that carry directly into commercial production.

This approach to business building – focusing on operational discipline rather than traditional markers of scale – increasingly separates companies that build real wealth from those that just look busy.

Lessons for Ambitious Founders

Allen’s success at Butter demonstrates three principles that work across industries. First, elite talent often performs better in small teams than large ones, assuming clear direction and proper incentives. Second, sustainable scaling requires systems that don’t proportionally increase costs as revenue grows. Third, competitive advantages often come from doing essential work better, not doing more work.

For entrepreneurs building their own ventures, the temptation is to hire quickly and build teams that look impressive on paper. Allen’s approach suggests the opposite: identify the core functions that drive results, find people who can execute them at the highest level, then build processes that amplify their capabilities rather than constraining them.

The broader lesson extends beyond production companies. Whether you’re building software, services or physical products, the companies that scale efficiently focus on creative problem-solving and operational discipline. They invest in people who can wear multiple hats effectively rather than specialists who need supporting infrastructure.

Allen now serves as President of Butter, overseeing creative direction and production across the company’s expanding CTV and broadcast commercial slate. His leadership signals the company’s evolution from boutique production house to a global force in premium commercial production – all while maintaining the lean principles that got them there.

In an industry built on big budgets and bigger egos, Allen proved that sometimes the best way to compete at the top is to do more with less. For founders watching from other industries, that’s a lesson worth taking.