Tennessee Athletics received a Midsouth Emmy Award for Best Sports Promotion this week for the creative team’s Dark Mode reveal video that took the internet by storm in October 2024. The video was produced by Assistant Director of Football Creative Video Noah Halford, with contributions from John Gargiulo, Luke Poorman, Trey Morten, William Crowder, and Cory Honaker.
The video went viral across the college sports landscape as soon as it hit the internet on Oct. 28, 2024. According to Tennessee Athletics, the video recorded over 35 million impressions and 34 million views across social media, with 6,455,101 engagements and an 18.3 engagement rate.
Check it out below:
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Tennessee’s Dark Mode reveal video has become a major creative moment for each football season. According to UT Athletics, “VFL Films, the football creative team, 151 Creative, fan experience and strategic communications all work together for the annual production.”
Here’s a look at some of the behind-the-scenes process of making the video, as posted to social media by Noah Halford:
How we made the Venom Dark Mode Uniform Reveal ⚫️🕸️
Shoutout to @CoreyHMedia for getting the animations to the finish line. Shoutout to @_lproductions_, @TwoTreyz, @johngcreative_, and @williamcrowder_ for helping out with the shoot! And shoutout to @jakobethomas2 for modeling! https://t.co/BHNdQPwl5U pic.twitter.com/etSH7RUHOP
— Noah Halford (@noah_halford) October 28, 2024
Here’s a look at the 2025 version of the Dark Mode reveal video that took place just a few months ago. As opposed to the Venom-inspired video from 2024, this one had a Tron-inspired flair to it.
UT’s Midsouth Emmy Award announcement took place at the organization’s ceremony in Nashville earlier this week.
In addition to Tennessee’s Emmy Award, UT Athletics also received a nomination for VFL Films’ Zakai Zeigler documentary, “Bet on Me“. VFL Films’ Sarah Detwiler produced and directed the documentary that told the story of Zeigler’s rise from youth basketball hopeful in the NYC area to Tennessee Basketball legend.
