The Ad Club Media Innovation Day: Highlights & Takeaways
As one of the leading animation studios and illustration studios in Boston, our team was invited by The Ad Club to attend Media Innovation Day 2024. This event brings digital media’s “brightest minds and industry leaders” together to “explore the latest trends, technologies, and creative strategies” that are shaping how we interact with media (The Ad Club).
Read below to learn more about Bob Ferrari (President) & Jackie Karnoff’s (Creative Manager) experience.
Keynote Speech: A Culture of Innovation
The event started strong with Gogi Gupta’s presentation on company culture, which emphasized the importance of fostering a strong, values-driven environment that prioritizes innovation and agility. As the founder of Gupta Media, he shared insights into how creating a positive and collaborative culture not only strengthens internal teams but also leads to better outcomes for clients. Gupta also highlighted the significance of transparency and trust within an organization. He shared examples of how his company’s focus on communication and employee empowerment has been key to maintaining high levels of productivity and creativity—especially in an industry that is constantly evolving.
Intersections of AI & Media
A major focus was on the growing influence of artificial intelligence (AI) in media and marketing. AI is being used to enhance personalized advertising to streamlining creative production processes. Attendees discussed how AI tools, such as large language models (LLMs) and generative AI, are transforming search functionalities, media planning, and consumer engagement, especially in platforms like Google and TikTok.
Our company uses Machine Learning (ML), a subset of AI technology, when designing Augmented Reality (AR) effects for brands on TikTok & Snapchat. With our custom AR effects, brands can personalize digital marketing experiences for their target audiences. When combined with ML & AI, our AR effects become more personal; more realistic; more interactive.
3 C's - Creativity, Collaboration, and Community
Community-driven partnerships was another key trend we learned more about from Later’s Mikayla Caprio. Collaboration with content creators and influencers has shown to be a wildly successful way to create product awareness and engagement. Overall social media is where brands should be focusing their marketing efforts and spend.
In addition, there were a few case studies of recent marketing campaigns that featured cutting-edge omnichannel strategies that utilized new spaces to advertise in like Zillow, video games, and conventions with great success.
Interested in something unique for your brand?
Bid on our services at the Ad Club Media auction.
Bare Tree Media is a full-service creative studio and digital publisher creating super slick, mobile-facing content! We would love to help your brand reach its fans, build community, and increase digital sales revenue. Check out our IP Licensing & Digital Publishing pages to see our IPs, as well as branded experiences we’ve published for mobile platforms.
By auctioning off our creative services at The Ad Club’s Media Auction, we are able to support the local advertising community and Ad Club’s first-generation scholarship/internship program. Bidding ends October 4th—click below to bid before it’s too late!
Summer 2024 Newsletter
We are sad that summer is coming to an end and the days are getting shorter, but we are ready for Q4. In this issue of our quarterly newsletter, we are excited to recap all the creative content we made and shared throughout the summer. Our team members have been hard at work creating digital experiences for brands. As always, we would like to thank our business partners for their endless support and flexibility.
New Partnerships
This summer we announced an expanded partnership with Wimpy Kid, Inc. & Jeff Kinney, author of the international best selling children’s book series “Diary of a Wimpy Kid.” This collaboration marks Wimpy Kid’s first venture into digital licensing. In addition to emojis and AR effects, we will create mobile messaging stickers and phone themes. We’re excited to continue our 5+ year partnership with Wimpy Kid, Inc. and cannot wait to help promote the launch of “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hot Mess.” Head to our blog page to learn more about the expanded partnership.
We also announced a licensing and global distribution partnership with Paul Frank. Fans—keep an eye out for new mobile themes, messaging stickers, and non-NFT digital collectibles that feature Julius the Monkey and friends. We are excited to help Paul Frank and Futurity Brands expand their brand beyond its existing physical apparel and accessories lines. For more information, check out our blog page.
Licensing Expo 2024
Bob Ferrari (CEO), Sonya Priest (Licensing Manager), and Jackie Karnoff (Creative Manager) hopped on a plane and flew to Las Vegas for the annual Licensing Expo, hosted by the Global Licensing Group. We loved meeting up with brand partners, attending keynote presentations, and securing some new licenses. Follow us on Instagram, X, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay up to date.
Team Spotlight
Meet our Animation & Illustration Sprout, Charlie! Charlie is a co-op student from Northeastern University. For the last couple of months, Charlie worked closely with our design, licensing, and animation teams to create a variety of digital experiences for our clients. Whether it was Samsung Themes, messaging sticker packs, or internal social posts, Charlie always brought his A(rtist)-game.
“My favorite part about working at Bare Tree Media is the wonderful people who I get to work with! Throughout my time here, I’ve felt so supported and encouraged to pursue new and innovative ideas. My co-workers’ personalities and work ethics are so inspiring, and I’ve learned so much from them about communication, flexibility, and creativity.” — Charlie Allan
Our co-op program gives students looking to pursue a career in the Arts & Digital Media an opportunity to develop their technical skills, push creative boundaries, and produce marketable work. While at Bare Tree, Charlie worked on a number of projects including a “Sustainability” social post, Blink Twice rotoscope stickers, and his own personal sticker pack, “Drunkey Monkey:”
“My favorite project I worked on was the “Sustainability” social post. I was given a lot of room to experiment and learn while working in After Effects, and I tried out character animation for the first time. I loved ideating, illustrating, and creating type treatments for my personal sticker pack too because I could see my sketches come to life and my graphic-eye improve throughout the process.” — Charlie Allan
Movie Magic
Blink and you’ll miss it…our design team created rotoscope stickers for summer’s newest psychological thriller Blink Twice. Find them on GIPHY and Instagram and share your excitement for the movie’s August 23rd premiere.
Congratulations to everyone on our team who worked on this project. The final product is fantastic!
Paris Games 2024
Our team and licensing partners were going for gold this summer! To celebrate the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, we decided to bring some Olympic spirit into the mobile messaging world.
Samsung Electronics selected our team to create the official Team France mobile theme, available exclusively on the Samsung Galaxy store. This was an incredible opportunity for us to showcase our design and digital publishing expertise with the world. We are thrilled to be associated with an event that inspires community, connection, and collaboration. Click the image below to download.
Quidd Drops
This summer, Quidd, a leader in digital collectibles, released non-NFT digital card collections, stickers, and special edition items for 5+ of our licensed brands (not all listed):
We’re excited to announce that our team will be working with Quidd on the ideation, production, and promotion of future card collections. Our Creative Manager, Jackie, designed 50+ cards for Betty Boop, and the final product was Boopin’ fantastic. Jackie was able to capture all of Betty’s different personas into a collection perfect for fans of the iconic character. The collection is still live on Quidd—you won’t want to miss it!
Paul Frank Ventures into Digital Licensing
Boston, MA – August 09, 2024 — Bare Tree Media, a digital publisher of licensed IPs worldwide, has announced a global digital licensing and distribution partnership with Paul Frank. The collaboration expands the Paul Frank brand beyond its existing physical apparel and accessories lines, venturing the brand into popular digital platforms managed by Bare Tree Media.
“Together with Bare Tree Media, we are excited for Paul Frank fans from around the world to have meaningful engagements with Julius and his friends. We are delighted to continue our long-time partnership with Bob and his team.” — Michael Puglisi, Brand Director of Global Licensing at Futurity Brands
Under this partnership, Bare Tree Media has leveraged its expertise in digital content creation and distribution to launch collections of digital content on Quidd, Apple app store, and Samsung Galaxy app store. From mobile themes, to messaging stickers, to non-NFT digital collectibles, there is a little something for every fan of Paul Frank.
“Our creative and licensing teams are excited about partnering with Futurity Brands—Paul Frank fits perfectly with the Gen-Z and Millennial audiences we serve through our global digital products and platform partnership. I personally know Paul Frank, and I’m honored to continue the 28-year legacy of such an iconic pop culture phenomena.” — Robert Ferrari, President of Bare Tree Media
Bare Tree Media recently designed and published Olympics-themed Paul Frank messaging stickers to Apple and Samsung. Each one captured the funky, fresh, and very French essence of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Content like this and more will be released throughout the upcoming year.
About Bare Tree Media
As a pioneer in the digital creative and technology sector, Bare Tree Media enables brands to reach, engage, and entertain consumers through the creation and digital publishing of branded emojis, messaging stickers, GIFs, digital collectibles, metaverse virtual goods, and augmented reality experiences within popular messaging platforms. Interested brands can learn more at www.baretreemedia.com or contact Bare Tree Media at info@baretreemedia.com.
About Paul Frank
Paul Frank was created in 1995 in Huntington Beach, CA by artist, cartoonist, & fashion designer Paul Frank. Known for its brightly-colored apparel and accessories, Paul Frank and its most recognized character, Julius the Monkey, bring joy to fans all over the world. Hong Kong-based licensing company Futurity Brands now manages the beloved brand.
From Booths to Brands: Licensing Expo 2024
Bare Tree Media is the leading digital licensee for IPs such as The Smurfs, Betty Boop, and Care Bears. We offer brands a variety of digital solutions including, but not limited to, mobile messaging stickers, mobile phone themes, smartwatch faces, virtual goods within online worlds and the metaverse, and digital collectibles.
In case you missed it, our team flew out to Las Vegas, Nevada to attend Licensing Expo’s annual licensing trade show. This event hosts more than “10,000 professional attendees involved within the consumer product licensing industry” and connects the world’s most “influential entertainment, character, art, and corporate brand owners” with consumer goods licensees (Licensing Expo).
Bob Ferrari (President) & Sonya Priest (Licensing Coordinator) sat down to recap their experience at the 2024 Licensing Expo.
Why the Licensing Expo?
BF: The Licensing Expo is Bare Tree Media’s most important trade show of the year. This event provides us the opportunity to meet with our licensors outside of Zoom boardrooms for face-to-face meetings and social events. In addition to meeting with our partners, we also network and explore new business partnerships. Most of the licensing industry centers around physical merchandise—apparel, accessories, and home goods. We love showing brands how our digital offerings allow them to more effectively reach and engage their audiences.
Who did you chat with?
SP: We have a large IP portfolio primarily composed of media and entertainment brands. Each year, our brand partnerships list grows, giving us more opportunities to meet, network, and connect at the Licensing Expo. Some of our current licensors include:
- Paramount: Spongebob Square Pants, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Rugrats, Garfield, Avatar, Mean Girls, I Love Lucy, and Star Trek
- Cloudco: Care Bears and Madballs
- CPLG: Strawberry Shortcake and Teletubbies
- Paul Frank
- The Smurfs
- Betty Boop
We also work with numerous independent artists managed by Tate Licensing. We had many productive discussions with our licensors and are looking forward to announcing some exciting new projects.
What did you learn, if anything, from the expo?
SP: Beyond the networking opportunities and client meetings, the Licensing Expo holds many presentations, panels, and workshops. We received resources and guidance on navigating style guides and saw case studies for specific brand launches. We also attended the “Video Games: Driving Billions to Play” panel and “Paris Hilton and 11:11 Media: Building a Global Brand Across Culture, Content, and Commerce” keynote presentation. These presentations discussed trends within the licensing industry and how licensees can better engage kids and family franchises. We work with a lot of brands that have cross-generational appeal, so these discussions were really informative.
What about the future of marketing excites you?
BF: I am excited licensors are embracing digital as a key category for the future plans of their IPs. Our team is always focused on innovation, and we will present ideas that drive both digital sales and marketing initiatives.
How We Play a Role?
BF: We are positioned perfectly to help brands navigate the future of commerce through “Phygital” opportunities, the merging of physical and digital opportunities. In 2024, we will be offering AR experiences on Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat to engage fans and link them to a site for purchasing our branded digital products. We are also exploring tech to link the purchase of a physical product at retail to a digital replica GIF to own. Exciting times ahead for our company and licensed IP owners.
Is there anything else you'd like to add?
SP: The Licensing Expo is always a great week, and I am sad it’s over! Bob, however, will be attending the Brand Licensing Expo in Europe this September.
Interested in something unique for your brand? Reach out to our team!
Bare Tree Media is a full-service creative studio and digital publisher creating super slick, mobile-facing content! We would love to help your brand reach its fans, build community, and increase digital sales revenue. Check out our IP Licensing & Digital Publishing pages to see our IPs, as well as branded experiences we’ve published for mobile platforms.
"Diary of a Wimpy Kid" Ventures into Digital Licensing
Boston, MA – May 23, 2024 — Bare Tree Media, a digital publisher of licensed IPs worldwide, has announced its partnership with Wimpy Kid, known for the international best-selling “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” book series. This collaboration marks Wimpy Kid’s first venture into digital licensing and promises to bring innovative interpretations of the brand to popular platforms worldwide.
“We are excited for our continued partnership with Bare Tree Media to expand the reach of our characters and stories in the digital sphere. This collaboration will allow fans to further connect with ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ and interactively express themselves across digital platforms around the world.” — Jeff Kinney, author of “Diary of a Wimpy Kid”
For many years, Bare Tree Media and Wimpy Kid have enjoyed a digital marketing partnership where Bare Tree Media created “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” emojis for the brand’s official GIPHY channel. Under this new expansion, Bare Tree Media will leverage its expertise in digital content creation to develop engaging collections of mobile messaging stickers, mobile themes, and smartwatch faces for Apple and Samsung devices. Fans can look forward to engaging with a diverse range of digital assets that feature characters and catchphrases in line with “Wimpy Kid” humor.
“Our passionate designers and licensing team are huge fans of [author] Jeff Kinney and his ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ books. This passion will fuel our design and publishing teams’ creativity when offering fans engaging mobile content to share and customize their devices. Given we are both Massachusetts-based companies, we are excited for our respective teams to have the opportunity to meet often to plan and execute digital marketing and sales strategies.” — Robert Ferrari, president of Bare Tree Media
Content will begin releasing this summer, with continued updates throughout the year, including alongside the upcoming release of “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hot Mess” in October.
About Bare Tree Media
As a pioneer in the digital creative and technology sector, Bare Tree Media enables brands to reach, engage, and entertain consumers through the creation and digital publishing of branded emojis, messaging stickers, GIFs, digital collectibles, metaverse virtual goods, and augmented reality experiences within popular messaging platforms. Interested brands can learn more at www.baretreemedia.com or contact Bare Tree Media at info@baretreemedia.com.
About “Diary of a Wimpy Kid”
More than 290 million copies of the books in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series have been sold globally. Published in 2007, the first book was an instant bestseller on the New York Times bestseller list since its publication. Kinney published the eighteenth installment in the series, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: No Brainer on October 24, 2023.
About the Author
Jeff Kinney is a #1 New York Times bestselling author and a six-time Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Award winner for Favorite Book for his Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. Jeff has been named one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. He is also the creator of Poptropica, which was named one of Time’s 50 Best Websites. He spent his childhood in the Washington, D.C., area and moved to New England in 1995. Jeff lives with his wife and two sons in Massachusetts, where they own a bookstore, An Unlikely Story. For more about Wimpy Kid visit wimpykid.com.
What is Immersive Marketing?
Gone are the days of traditional marketing and advertising. With the proliferation of new technologies, immersive marketing has become a useful tool brands can use to build stronger and deeper emotional connections with their consumers.
Immersive marketing uses cutting-edge technologies such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), or mixed reality (MR) to provide consumers with more enhanced and engaging marketing experiences. Whether it’s through AR-enhanced shopping experiences, interactive branded events, or VR simulations, immersive marketing allows brands to connect with their audiences in more meaningful ways all while driving engagement, brand awareness, customer loyalty, and a positive return-on-investment (ROI).
Immersive Marketing .vs. Experiential Marketing
The phrases “immersive marketing” and “experiential marketing” are often used interchangeably. While both deliver memorable experiences and generate earned media, there are fundamental differences that set the two apart.
What is Experiential Marketing?
Experiential marketing describes any hands-on, interactive experiences brands design for consumers. The goal of these experiences is to draw visitors, and therefore, generate brand awareness. Audience members become active participants in crafting a brand’s story. Oftentimes, these do not occur within a simulated environment. Examples of experiential marketing include:
- Gen Z and millennial-focused marketing agency Wasserman Next Gen partnered with Coffee-mate to build a 20’ coffee cup “cafe” on Ohio State University’s campus to provide students with a caffeine boost for finals season. Wasserman Next Gen coupled this pop-up with an on-demand coffee and creamer delivery service.
- To reinforce the brand’s “Have a Break, Have a Kit Kat” tagline, Kit Kat installed benches that resembled the famous candy bar in public spaces. When people sat down, the bench would dispense a free Kit Kat bar and people could take a break and have a Kit Kat.
What is Immersive Marketing?
Unlike experiential marketing, immersive marketing transports consumers into an entirely fabricated world infused with the brand’s values, beliefs, and messaging. These multi-sensory experiences rely on technologies to bridge the gap between the real and virtual realities. In addition to increasing brand awareness, building emotional connections, and boosting engagement, immersive experiences can differentiate brands when tailored to a particular target audience and industry. Examples of immersive marketing campaigns include:
- Ally Bank teamed up with Monopoly and used AR to build an interactive multi-city scavenger hunt. Life-sized Monopoly-style game squares were placed across U.S. cities, and when activated via QR code, entered users into a virtual game. This campaign leveraged immersive technologies to gamify financial literacy.
- IKEA’s AR app, IKEA Place (now known as IKEA Kreative), offers customers a chance to design and visualize their own living spaces. Using their personal digital devices, IKEA customers can place virtual furniture and decorations in their homes in real-time. This immersive experience helps customers “try before they buy” and make more informed purchase decisions.
Future of Immersive Marketing
Immersive marketing is not a fad: according to Polaris, the immersive technologies market is expected to reach multimillion USD by 2030 and undergo a mean annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23.7%. With the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), immersive marketing is expected to become more personalized. Finally, immersive marketing will integrate with social media to provide users of platforms such as TikTok and Instagram with opportunities to shop without having to leave the apps.
How We Play a Role
Our experienced team of AR developers work with brands to create immersive marketing solutions that leverage the power of AR. Interactive lenses allow customers to engage with their favorite brands within mobile apps such as Snapchat, TikTok, and Instagram. As the official Branded Effect Partner for TikTok, we’ve worked closely with PLANTERS, Macy’s, KIA, and Cannes Lions to produce personalized experiences for their larger marketing campaigns.
- We teamed up with Macy’s in 2022 and developed the perfect gift finder for holiday shoppers. By answering a series of prompts about their giftee with just the nod of the head, Macy’s shoppers could find the best holiday gift and later share their results with friends. “Macy’s Gift Finder” amassed over 54.8M views on TikTok.
- To announce the launch of three new cashew flavors, PLANTERS asked us to create a showstopping AR effect for TikTok. With over 55.6M views, “CashewOKE” had audiences breaking out their karaoke skills and singing along in real time to PLANTERS’ cashew-fied version of “Hungry Eyes.” The 2D cashew bounced across the lyrics to help users keep time.
Interested in something unique for your brand? Reach out to our team!
Bare Tree Media is a full-service creative studio and digital publisher creating super slick, mobile-facing content! We would love to bring your brand’s ideas to life through digital animation and AR. Check out our Augmented Reality page to see branded experiences we created for TikTok, Snapchat, & Instagram.
Spring 2024 Newsletter
The weather is getting warmer and our projects are heating up! In this issue of our newsletter, we would like to share what our incredible team has been up to this late-Winter & Spring. We had the opportunity to work with some amazing clients this quarter and have a lot of great work to showcase. As always, we would like to thank our business partners for their endless support and flexibility.
Movie Magic
We love providing clients with creative ways to share sneak peeks of their films and boost engagement beyond the typical trailer. Our design and animation teams had the wonderful opportunity to work on creating rotoscope stickers for two upcoming movie releases: Challengers and Mad Max: Furiosa. Thank you to our Art Director, Jackie Karnoff, for taking the lead on these projects. We’d also like to shout out Charlie and Chihiro for all their hard work on the Challengers stickers. These stickers are available for free on GIPHY.
Warner Bros Pictures released the latest installment of the Dune franchise, “Dune: Part 2,” this past March. In celebration of its release, we’re throwing it back to the animated stickers our design team created for “Dune: Part One.” We loved collaborating with Warner Bros on these stickers and were very excited to see the evolution of these characters on screen in the latest installment. Click here to check them out!
Creations & Causes
At Bare Tree Media, we love to create work for causes near and dear to our hearts. The last few months, our design and social media teams have been working together to create social justice posts inspired by Black History Month, female empowerment, blood donations, and sustainability. Visit our GIPHY page to follow along with this series.
Winter 2024 Newsletter
Happy New Year! We hope everyone had a safe and relaxing holiday season. Our team members have been hard at work this year creating digital experiences for brands and clients across the world. As always, we would like to thank our business partners for their endless support and flexibility. We look forward to creating more for you in 2024.
Team Spotlight - Phoebe (Feeb) Om
Meet our Animation & Illustration Sprout, Phoebe (Feeb)! Feeb is a co-op student from Northeastern University. Starting this Summer, Feeb worked with our licensing, illustration, and animation teams to design messaging stickers, illustrated videos, GIFs, and Samsung themes.
“The team was definitely my favorite part of working at Bare Tree Media! I’ve mostly worked on animation and design projects by myself. It was awesome to bounce ideas off other people, get feedback from them, and see a large project come together through the efforts of multiple people. For example, for the Healthy Ocean Coalition animated video, it was so much fun creating assets of sea creatures and bringing them to life. My teammates taught me a lot about animating in After Effects from my team members, so it was a really valuable experience.”
We love watching our interns and co-ops grow, get creative, and produce work they are proud of. Over the last few months, Feeb has been working on her “personal project,” entitled “Bunny and Cat are Girlfriends.” This sticker pack is available for Samsung and Apple devices and can also be found on GIPHY & Tenor.
“I loved creating really goofy, meme-like stickers. I thought about what kinds of stickers my friends and I would like to send to each other, and I got to make it real! They ended up being very silly as a result… I hope lots of people will have fun using them!”
Licensing Announcement
Bare Tree Media is now the official digital licensing partner for Paramount and its global franchises. Our team is so excited to create and publish everything from Samsung themes to messaging stickers for iconic brands such as Avatar: The Last Airbender, Garfield, Spongebob Squarepants, Rugrats, and many more. Thank you to the teams at Paramount, Apple, Samsung, and Quidd for their support. We look forward to continuing our work with you all in 2024. For more information about this partnership, click here.
Movie Magic
Step into a world of pure imagination! Our illustration and design teams had the opportunity to design and animate illustrated and rotoscope stickers for the Wonka movie, featuring Timothée Chalamet. Thank you to our Art Director, Jackie Karnoff, for taking the lead on this project. We’d also like to shout out Katie Rose, Chihiro, and Julia for all their hard work and talent. This project had us all reliving our childhoods! These stickers are available for free on What’s App and GIPHY.
Our illustration and design teams designed animated GIFs for Hollywood’s latest fantasy/sci-fi movie, Poor Things. Thank you to Searchlight Pictures for trusting us with this project. Check them out on GIPHY.
We love rotoscope stickers. Our team created stickers for two of Warner Bros latest films: The Color Purple & Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. Thank you to our Art Director, Jackie Karnoff, for spearheading these projects. The Color Purple and Aquaman GIFs can be found on GIPHY!
Eye on AR
Our AR and social media teams have been working together to showcase our company’s AR skills. Check out our Instagram and TikTok to see all the different effects we’ve created internally and for brands. We’ve made effects for a variety of industries including, but not limited to, entertainment, sports, and beauty. In need of something unique for your brand? Check out our website baretreemedia.com to learn more about us and our AR team’s capabilities.
Our team loves being a part of the MetaSpark community. During MetaConnect 2023, our AR manager, Vedika Bhasin, had the wonderful opportunity to join other AR creators in sharing what they love about MetaSpark and what new features they look forward to exploring in the future. Click here to watch the full clip.
Creations & Causes
At Bare Tree Media, we love to work with companies who want to use art to make our world a better place. This past 2023, our team had the pleasure of working with the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and the Healthy Ocean Coalition (HOC) to produce animated informational videos that raised awareness for important environmental causes. These projects were a full team effort—we loved the challenge of storyboarding, designing, and animating these videos. We look forward to working on similar projects in the future.
Summer 2023 Newsletter
Happy end of Summer and Hello Fall! In this issue of our quarterly newsletter, we are excited to recap all the creative content we made and shared throughout the Summer. Our team members have been hard at work creating digital experiences for brands and clients across the world. As always, we would like to thank our business partners for their endless support and flexibility. We look forward to creating more work for you all this Fall.
Company Reel 2023
Our 2023 Company Reel is here! See all the exciting projects we’ve been working on and clients we’ve been working with over the last few months. In need of something unique for your brand? Check out our website baretreemedia.com to learn more about us and our team’s capabilities. We create everything from AR effects to animated messaging stickers to illustrated videographics. A big thank you to our Creative Manager, Jackie, for putting together this Company Reel.
Team Spotlight - Julia Feldman
Meet our Animation & Illustration Sprout, Julia! Julia is a co-op student from Northeastern University. Over the last 8 months, Julia worked closely with our illustration, licensing, and animation teams to execute messaging stickers, GIFs, illustrated videos, and Samsung themes. She has worked on a number of projects including Wonka and IFAW and has created GIFs for our social media pages. We love to challenge our interns and co-ops to push themselves outside their creative comfort zones. Over the last few months, Julia has been working on designing her own animated sticker pack “The Goose,” which is available for Samsung and Apple devices and can also be found on GIPHY & Tenor.
“I loved going through the whole process of designing a character, coming up with expressions, illustrating, animating, and creating metadata and promotional materials. I learned so much about design and animation through this process and really appreciated all the support and critique given by my team members along the way.”
As Julia’s co-op comes to an end, we would like to thank her for all her hard work—she has been a fabulous addition to our team. We have loved watching her grow and develop her own artistic POV. We will miss her positive energy and cannot wait to see what the future has in store for her.
Licensing Expo 2023
Our CEO, Bob Ferrari, and Licensing Manager, Sonya Priest, took a trip out to Sin City for the annual Licensing Expo. We loved catching up with our existing brand partners, learning from industry leaders, and securing some new licenses. We will be announcing some new and exciting partnerships soon! Follow us on Instagram, X, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay up to date.
Branded Likes
Branded likes….we’ve missed you! There’s nothing we love more than these interactive animations. If you are a fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle franchise, our senior animator, Alexa, designed this X branded like for the new TMNT Movie. With the trigger hashtag #TMNTMovie, X users could activate this slimy surprise for 24hrs. Great work, Alexa!
Eye on AR
Our AR team has been using their knowledge of all things emerging tech to help brands give their followers immersive digital experiences. For the 2023 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, we partnered with Whalar to design a TikTok effect to be featured on the festival floor. It was so fun seeing how many creatives and attendees interacted with our effect. This project was a team effort and lots of fun to demo in the office.
“Rainbow Beach Disco” was also part of a larger Pride Month initiative. Pride celebrates unity, community, and self-expression. We love designing effects that create togetherness and encourage people to be themselves. Click here to try “Rainbow Beach Disco” and check out our TikTok to see our Cannes recap.
Spring 2023 Newsletter
In this issue of our quarterly newsletter, we are excited to recap all the creative content we made and shared throughout the Spring. As always, we would like to thank our clients and business partners for their endless support and flexibility.
Team Spotlight - Naomi Eberle
Our AR Technical Consultant & Snap Lens Ambassador, Naomi Eberle, spoke at Snap Inc.’s Partner Summit alongside Ambassadors, Sallia Goldstein & Mohamed Sorkatti. The three of them delivered an informative lecture on navigating SnapAR’s ecosystem and how brands can leverage its technologies to develop immersive, creative AR experiences. We are so proud of Naomi and cannot wait to hear her share her expertise at future guest lectures!
Lens Fest Extended
BTM x SnapAR in NYC! We held our 3rd Augmented Reality Meetup, “Lens Fest Extended,” at the Snap Inc. offices in New York City. We had such a great turnout and enjoyed connecting with many members of the AR community. Our guest speaker, Maya Pruitt, gave a great presentation on machine learning (ML) models! In the coming months, we are looking forward to hosting more AR events both in Boston and New York City. Follow us on social media to stay updated on the
latest news regarding these meetups.
PAX East & TikTok Creative Partner Day
Our team members have been busy the past 2 months attending different networking events around the country. We’ve enjoyed flexing our creative muscles, learning more about up-and-coming technology in the gaming and AR spaces, and of course, networking with other creative marketing partners.
We checked out the latest in all things gaming at the PAX East and GDC gaming conferences. It was great to discuss with other avid gamers and brands ways to build immersive experiences within gaming platforms, social AR, and the metaverse.
As one of the creative partners for TikTok, our AR team had the honor of designing the Effect House AR experience for TikTok Creative Partner Day in LA. This Effect House experience had a catch…the special effects are activated by a series of mystery gestures. We love creating interactive experiences that keep our audiences engaged!
Adopt a Shelter Pet
Last year for #NationalAdoptaShelterPetDay, our AR team designed a Snapchat lens pet owners could use on their own pets. This year, our AR team made this effect available for TikTok. Check out our Snapchat and our TikTok to try it out on your own furry friend today! Remember: Adopt Don’t Shop!
