When a client comes to us with a challenge, we’re not interested in simply checking a box.
We believe the best work happens when we become true partners with our clients. When we take the time to understand what they’re trying to accomplish, bring our expertise to the table, and give ourselves permission to think a little bigger, bolder, and sometimes a little more unconventional.
That’s exactly what happened with the Pennsylvania Horse Racing Association (PHRA).
What started as an opportunity to create engaging videos turned into something much bigger: a character, a personality, a growing library of content, and, to our surprise, a fan base of its own.
Cue the Wager Warrior.
Played by our now-former (we forgive him… sorta) teammate Jesse Macko, the Wager Warrior has become a recognizable face for PHRA, bringing humor, energy, and a healthy dose of personality to the world of horse racing. Through videos, social posts, a landing page, and newsletter content, the character has helped PHRA connect with its audience in a way that feels approachable, entertaining, and distinctly its own.
So, how did a superhero jockey who can shrink himself, fly, and help you get free past performances come to be?
The Origin Story
The idea for the Wager Warrior came from playing with the concept of size and scale around the phrase “Win Big.”
“We wanted to create a mascot or spokesperson that was entertaining, lighthearted, and visually interesting,” the Coal video team explains.
Thoroughbred jockeys are known for their small stature and daring courage on the track, so the team leaned into that idea and created a superhero jockey who could shrink himself, fly, and help racegoers make more informed bets by providing free past performance data.
At the heart of the concept was a simple idea: a little information can make a big difference in a payout. Or, as the Wager Warrior might say, good things come in small packages.
But a great character needs more than a good origin story. They need personality… and that’s where Jesse came in.
The team leaned into Jesse’s natural energy and charisma (don’t tell him we said that though), turning his outgoing, high-energy personality up a few notches. It didn’t hurt that Jesse was also already perfectly “jockey-sized.”
In fact, this is really where the idea was born! On one of the team’s earliest outings to the track, Jesse was watching the trotting before a race when he started getting some curious looks from the jockeys. Ashley Wood, PHRA’s Director of Marketing, pointed out that they probably thought he was some hotshot, out-of-town jockey who had come to scope out the competition.
It was one of those moments that made the team think: Wait a minute. We might have a star here!
From Idea to Reality
The Wager Warrior didn’t come together overnight. The character was the result of years of collaboration between Coal and PHRA that forged a partnership built on trust.
Our creative process starts by listening to PHRA’s goals and understanding the areas they want to focus on. From there, the Coal team heads back to the drawing board to brainstorm ideas and creative avenues. The concepts are then presented to PHRA, refined based on their feedback, and turned into a plan for bringing the strongest ideas to life.
“We’ll rework them if necessary based on their feedback, and then create a plan to move forward and make it a reality,” the video team says. “Seeing a client like PHRA get excited about our concepts is a really big source of inspiration and motivation for our team.”
That collaborative process has allowed the Wager Warrior to evolve far beyond a single video. The character has become a creative jumping-off point for PHRA’s content, giving the team room to explore new ideas and formats while maintaining a recognizable personality. The result is a growing collection of videos, social graphics, and other content that all work together as part of a larger campaign.
The commercials themselves are designed to be quick, snappy, comedic, and attention-grabbing vignettes. Their job is to capture the audience’s attention and encourage them to explore further.
From there, the campaign expands across platforms with different versions of the commercials, static graphics, and an informative website that provides additional context. Each piece has a role to play. “When you have all of the right pieces in the right places, you can create an effective campaign that can entertain, inform, and reach the target audience,” the team explains.
When a Character Takes on a Life of Its Own
At some point, the Wager Warrior stopped feeling like just another campaign. For us, it’s still surreal to see the character’s videos playing on big screens at tracks throughout Pennsylvania. Perhaps the biggest surprise came when we learned that the Wager Warrior had developed a fandom within the horse racing community. People started asking where the Wager Warrior races out of. Some were genuinely shocked to discover that Jesse isn’t actually a jockey.
That’s when you know you’ve created something special. The Wager Warrior became more than a vehicle for delivering information. He had become a recognizable personality, one that audiences remembered, talked about, and wanted to see again.
And the team has had plenty of fun bringing him to life. One of the video team’s favorite recent projects was “Texting and Flying,” a commercial that combined visual effects with some classic cartoon sensibilities. The video gave the team the opportunity to (safely) smush Jesse against a windshield like a bug. It was, in their words, “plain old fun.” It may have even opened the door for what’s next. “I may be sensing some falling anvils or pianos in the Wager Warrior’s future,” the team jokes. Honestly, we wouldn’t put it past them.
Collaboration Built on Trust
The Wager Warrior is a result of a partnership that has been years in the making.
Coal has worked with PHRA across countless video, web, design, and campaign projects, including the always anticipated Foal Cams! Over that time, we have traveled throughout the Commonwealth together, met countless people in the horse racing industry, and developed a much deeper understanding of PHRA’s world. That familiarity matters. It allows us to better understand the industry, the audience, and the goals behind the work, and it gives us the confidence to push creative ideas further.
“We absolutely love it when we get the chance to create a character and run with it,” the video team says. “Having client partners that trust us enough to take big conceptual swings means the world to us.”
The Wager Warrior isn’t the first time Coal has taken a creative swing with Jesse. Long before he ever wore the Wager Warrior’s cape, Jesse adorned a bedazzled Elton John baseball uniform to promote our local Chamber’s Young Professional Awards. Years of experimenting with comedic concepts for Coal’s own internal marketing helped the team develop the style, tone, and creative confidence that eventually shaped the Wager Warrior.
Without that bedazzled baseball uniform and the team jokes, the Wager Warrior might never have flown, and that’s the real story behind the Wager Warrior. Great creative ideas don’t always arrive fully formed. Sometimes they start with a conversation. Sometimes they come from knowing your client well enough to understand what they need. And sometimes, they start with a bedazzled baseball uniform.
The Wager Warrior is the result of all of those things coming together: a strong client partnership, an openness to think differently, a team that’s willing to go all in, and a client who trusts the process.
If the Wager Warrior has taught us anything, it’s that you never really know where a good idea might take you when you give it room to grow. Or, in this case, maybe shrink.