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.
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
“Drunkey Monkey” is available for Samsung and Apple devices and can also be found on GIPHY.
We would like to thank Charlie for all his hard work. We will miss his curiosity, positive energy, and creative spirit. The sky’s the limit—we cannot wait to see what the future holds for him!
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!
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!
Fall 2022 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 past fall. 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.
Team Spotlight - Wendy Jia
Meet Wendy, our summer illustration and animation sprout! Wendy worked closely with our senior illustrator and AR/animation teams to create her own personal sticker pack for GIPHY, Tenor, and iMessage. We will miss Wendy and look forward to seeing all her future creations! Please scroll down to learn more about the personal project she worked on while interning at the studio.
“Through Tea for Teaspoon, I got to explore so many of my interests, like character design, complex rigging, and 3D animation. With the help of my coworkers, I was finally able to accomplish my dream of designing my own personal sticker pack, while also challenging myself to learn new skills.”
Nothing is more rewarding than seeing our summer interns’ projects come to life. O.M.Tea! Meet Teaspoon—a mighty, fearsome matcha-thief brewing with mischief. Keep an eye out on your own cup, for you never know where he’ll pop up next…maybe even in your messages?! For Wendy’s personal project, she used Maya to create animated 3D stickers inspired by some of her favorite things!
“I thought about the things I love and wouldn’t mind working on for 6 months. I settled on matcha, hamsters, and deer. I also drew inspiration from the sticker packs I personally use. Taking all of this into account, I designed 21 silhouettes, narrowed it down to 8 thumbnails, and finally iterated on 1 design. That’s how I ended up with Teaspoon!”
As an animation student at Northeastern University, Wendy was able to explore the entire pipeline—character concept, color, modeling, rigging, texturing, lighting, and animating. She was able to develop marketable skills across multiple disciplines. Her favorite part was getting to design all of Teaspoon’s expressions! These 3D animated stickers are sure to last you an oolong time.
Disenchanted Animated Stickers
Raise your hand if you are an OG Enchanted fan (all of our hands are raised *very* high)! Our team had the wonderful opportunity to collaborate with Disney to design eight animated stickers for the release of Enchanted’s sequel, Disenchanted. We loved seeing our favorite characters—Giselle, Robert, and Prince Edward—come to life. Click the link to see them all on Walt Disney Studios’ official GIPHY page and be sure to catch Disenchanted on Disney+.
Samsung Themes & Season's Greetings
What better way to celebrate the holiday season than with some Samsung Themes? We collaborated with a number of brands to bring some holiday cheer to Samsung Galaxy users’ devices. See them below.
The Smurfs Christmas Cheer
Papa Smurf, Smurfette, and crew are bringing the Christmas spirit to your Samsung devices. This theme is perfect Christmas customization. Click here to download the latest Smurf theme from Galaxy Store.
Betty Boop Loves Christmas
We love the holidays almost as much as Betty does! Betty invites Galaxy users to get into the holiday spirit with her latest Samsung Theme. Click here to download “Betty Boop: Loves Christmas” from the Galaxy Store.
Garfield Christmas With Friends
Gather by the fireside and around the tree with Garfield and friends this holiday season. Make messaging the ones you love this holiday season even more festive with the “Garfield: Christmas With Friends” Samsung Theme, available now in the Galaxy Store.
Summer 2022 Newsletter
We are excited to recap all the creative content we made and shared throughout the summer in this issue of our newsletter. As always, we would like to thank our clients and business partners for their endless support and flexibility.
Team Spotlight - Raquel Fioroti
Meet Raquel, our graphic design sprout! This summer, Raquel worked closely with our senior illustrator and licensing team to execute design concepts for messaging stickers, Twitter emojis, and Samsung themes. We are going to miss Raquel greatly and look forward to seeing all the amazing things she accomplishes in her senior year at MassArt! Scroll down to learn more about the personal project she worked on while interning at the studio.
“Through real-life projects, I was able to develop my skills in Adobe programs, such as Illustrator, Photoshop, and After Effects. I learned about licensing for digital marketing and distributions and made some pretty cool connections with people working in those industries.”
We love seeing our summer interns get creative and work on projects that address causes important to them. #NationalThriftShopDay is not only about supporting local thrift shops but about bringing awareness to their charitable missions. For Raquel’s personal project, she designed a GIF to highlight one of the most popular thrift spots in the Boston area: Buffalo Exchange. As for what Raquel learned throughout this process, she found that she was able to showcase her design and animation skills, as well as create connections with the Greater Boston community.
“The design team at BTM was very open to me applying and learning skills even outside of my official job title. This project was challenging, but it was very rewarding to be able to bring awareness to shopping locally and second-hand. The best part was the shoutout I received from Buffalo Exchange…that was pretty cool!”
Read below to learn more about the other thrift shops Raquel highlighted (and may even create more GIFs for):
- Boomerangs: funds goes to the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS in Massachusetts
- Garment District: provide affordable clothing and costumes, always putting clothes to be recycled and reused, even after being on their racks
- Urban Renewals (Family Thrift Center): sell not only clothes, but toys, electronics, furniture, and jewelry too
Branded Likes for KSA
BTM takes on KSA! In case you missed it on our socials last month, Twitter named us the exclusive design studio of branded likes for the North America, Europe, and Middle East regions. On July 27th, our first branded like went live for Twitter users in Saudi Arabia. This design was created for stc pay, a mobile wallet that can be used to pay bills and send money to friends and family. We loved having the opportunity to bring branded likes to overseas advertisers and cannot wait for more designs to go live in the near future.
Smurfs X ZEPETO Announcement
In case you missed it on our socials, we are beyond excited to officially announce our partnership with IMPS The Smurfs & Lafig Belgium. We are working together to design and bring virtual goods within ZEPETO, Asia’s largest metaverse platform.
Bare Tree Media has worked with IMPS The Smurfs in the past to provide audiences with a variety of digital content, including but not limited to, branded mobile messaging applications, Snapchat AR experiences, Samsung Themes, watch faces, and a GIPHY channel. The initial launch includes Smurfs-themed 2D and 3D branded apparel and accessories. These items are available exclusively to ZEPETO’s global audience. More details announced at: https://bit.ly/ZEPETOlaunch
“This is such a ‘smurftastic’ opportunity to launch a popular branded IP, such as The Smurfs, into the metaverse with a leading metaverse partner such as ZEPETO. We are thrilled to offer ZEPETO’s global audience of 300 million users an opportunity to customize their avatars and metaverse experience with The Smurfs-branded digital goods collection…” – Robert Ferrari, president of Bare Tree Media
National Ice Cream Month
July is National Ice Cream month and our design, animation, & AR teams collaborated to bring our audiences *sweet* visual experiences.
Inspired by early 2000s computer games, our lead illustrator, Danielle, designed an ice cream vending machine game for our audiences. While fully leaning into the nostalgia of the 2000s, she also wanted to bring a new and modern approach to this design. Although the storyboarding sketches below show an ice cream purchase gone wrong, we decided that everyone should be a winner during National Ice Cream month!
Rudy, our motion graphics intern, brought Danielle’s 2000s vision to life through animation. By animating the “start game” and selection processes, users feel as though they are playing the game and receiving the ice cream themselves. A flashing sign with celebratory confetti appears when users are notified they have won the game.
Wanting to bring some sweetness to our Snapchat channel, our AR designer, Wayne, designed a simple randomizer lens inspired by Danielle’s design. When users end a video, an ice cream from the machine is randomly selected. National Ice Cream month may be over, but you can’t go wrong with a big scoop of your favorite flavor of this frosty dessert. Try out “Ice Cream Machine” by clicking here.
GIPHY Artist Channel Feature
Introducing GIPHY clips! This feature allows designers to upload animations that include sound. Our Bastille Day clip was featured alongside our other GIFs on GIPHY’s artist channel.
Back to Boston
Boston-based team members have been getting together weekly to work in-person for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic. Our hybrid work weeks provide flexibility, as well as an opportunity for new hires to meet long-standing staff. Team members were able to work collaboratively on design projects, discuss strategy, and even participate in a few bonding activities, including a Workbar birthday party!
Spring 2022 Newsletter
In this issue of our newsletter, we will be recapping 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, and we look forward to collaborating with them on new projects this summer.
Quidd Partnerships
In case you missed it on our socials, we are beyond excited to officially announce our partnership with Quidd, the leading digital collectible marketplace. Bare Tree Media is working with Quidd to launch digital collectibles to fans. Upcoming collaborations will feature a variety of popular licensed brands. Previously, Bare Tree Media and Quidd partnered to release Smurfs-themed content and within the first two hours of launching, the series sold out and sales exceeded $100,000. More details announced at: https://bit.ly/
“Given the monumental success [of our first launch on Quidd], we are scheduling monthly product releases through year-end on the Quidd platform and invite brands to join us…by working with Bare Tree Media, brands can offer non-NFT digital collectibles to fans to be bought on the primary market and sold on the secondary market within Quidd…” — Robert Ferrari, president of Bare Tree Media
PAX East Conference & Licensing Expo
Members of our team had a chance to attend the PAX East Gaming conference in Boston, MA for the first time since the start of the pandemic. Our team enjoyed checking out the latest in all things gaming, including many indie games created by local game studios. We also finalized a partnership with an amazing global gaming company. We look forward to announcing the details of the partnership soon…so stay tuned!
According to their website, the Las Vegas Licensing Expo “has connected the world’s most influential…brand owners and agents with consumer goods manufacturers, licensees, and retailers.” Thousands of licensing industry professionals flew to Las Vegas May 23rd-26th to build partnerships, plan channel releases, and expose themselves to some of the newest brands available to the licensing world—and the BTM team was no exception!
Our studio representatives had the opportunity to meet with our valued licensors and discuss brand and product strategies for 2022 and 2023. We held 50+ meetings over three days with companies, including but not limited to, Sanrio (Hello Kitty), Mr. Men Little Miss, Hasbro, Care Bears, the Smurfs, and Pokemon.
“For me, this was the first meeting with a lot of our licensing partners in person due to COVID. I had the opportunity to network and gained more insight into the future of licensing in general. I was invited to a ‘Women in Toys’ breakfast and attended a character parade, featuring famous characters from Teletubbies, Squishmallows, etc. Overall, this experience was great and informative, despite it being at a limited capacity. The free swag was great too!” — Josie Martin, licensing coordinator at Bare Tree Media
Our AR team collaborated with the Smurfs to unveil a Snapchat Lens featured at the Licensing Expo. This hyper-casual gamified lens uses real-time 3D simulations and collision detection to bring users a fun, user-friendly AR experience. This lens also contains a custom link to a Smurfs sticker pack, available for iMessage, that has previously been promoted on our socials. Brands went crazy over the demo and requested our team to create AR experiences for them. Click here to try it out.
ARL Pet Prom & Adopt Don't Shop
Just because Earth Day is in April does not mean we can’t celebrate our planet and the beautiful things it contains all year round. May is National Pet Month and April is National Adopt a Shelter Pet Day. Bare Tree Media wanted to take the time to encourage our audience to support pets of all kinds.
In keeping with our mission of supporting animal welfare, we partnered with the Animal Rescue League of Boston and designed custom GIFS to promote their “Pet Prom.” The ARL Pet Prom highlights animals looking for their own fairytale happy endings. In addition, our AR team designed an Instagram Camera effect for the event that you can use on your own adopted pet.
Congratulations to the winners, Zilla and Fern, and be sure to check out these GIFs on the ARL’s official GIPHY page.
We created an official GIPHY page for the City of Boston Animal Care and Control Shelter and designed custom GIFS to promote pet adoption and care. Adopting from shelters provides all types of deserving pets with a safe and loving home. Our design intern, Wendy, created a special animated sticker pack for the occasion. Check them out and use them for yourself!
In addition, one of our AR designers, Wayne, created a lens you can use on your own adopted pet! This lens uses machine learning to detect the faces of dogs and cats—even hamsters and then applies the animations. We were so thrilled to see many of our Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok users try this lens.
Tiny Headed Kingdom Roll-out
Say hello to your favorite people with a PIF (a Pip GIF)! This month, Bare Tree Media collaborated with Tiny Headed Kingdom to release GIFs of everyone’s favorite tiny headed animals. Stay tuned for the release of more GIFs this June by checking out our GIPHY page.
#StandWithUkraine
We at Bare Tree Media, like so many around the world, are shocked and saddened by the sudden war that erupted in Ukraine. Our thoughts and prayers go out to those affected, and though we hope for peace to come quickly, we must be part of the solution.
Join us in showing solidarity with the Ukrainian people by sharing and donating to hospitals and other humanitarian efforts, including this one set up by our friends at Geeks for Less, who have strong Ukrainian roots. Donate here.
Eye on AR
Our AR, Design, and Social Media teams worked together to launch multiple virtual experiences across various platforms just in time for festival season! We designed 4 TikTok effects using Effect House and launched them the weekend of Coachella:
Pick one that encapsulates your festival weekend mood and share it while you jam out with your friends!
We are so excited to announce that Effect House is now available for everyone to use on TikTok. We look forward to seeing brands and creators flex their creative muscles in the world of AR. To see what you can create using Effect House, check out the effects we have made on our TikTok profile @baretreemedia.
Winter 2022 Newsletter
In this issue of our newsletter, we are excited to recap all the creative content we made and shared throughout the winter. As we move into Q2, we would like to spread the love to our clients and business partners by thanking them for their endless support and flexibility.
New Partnership Announced
In case you missed it on our socials, we are beyond excited to officially announce a new partnership with WildBrain CPLG and Azerion.
Bare Tree Media is collaborating with WildBrain CPLG to welcome the Teletubbies into the Habbo and Hotel Hideaway metaverses. This partnership comes just in time for the brand’s upcoming 25th anniversary. Under this partnership, we will manage the launch of Teletubbies-branded avatar onesies and other virtual goods into the metaverse. Read the details here!
“We are thrilled to bring the Teletubbies into the metaverse in the form of virtual goods for avatars and virtual spaces within Habbo and Hotel Hideaway. The nostalgia that the Teletubbies evoke as true pop culture icons is a perfect fit for the game demographics and we look forward to furthering releases throughout 2022” – Robert Ferrari, President of Bare Tree Media
We are also thrilled to announce that we are working with Sanrio do Brasil and Azerion to launch Hello Kitty into Latin American metaverses. Habbo and Woozworld users will have access to holiday-themed Hello Kitty furniture, clothing, and other virtual goods. For more information about this partnership, click here!
#BettyWhiteChallenge
In honor of #BettyWhite and her dedication to animal welfare, Bare Tree Media and its employees have accepted the #BettyWhiteChallenge by donating to numerous animal causes throughout the country. All employee donations have been matched by the company furthering our collective impact. We challenge you to make a donation to your local animal cause and make Betty proud on what would have been her 100th birthday!
Donations Made To:
- Potter League
- Medfield Animal Shelter
- Quincy Animal Shelter
- MSPCA-Angell Boston Adoption Center
- Friends of Attleboro Animal Shelter
- PAWS New England
- Animal Rescue League of Boston
- Boston Animal Care and Control Shelter
- Santa Barbara Humane
Source: Today Show & Guide Dogs for the Blind
Betty White would have turned 100 years old on January 17, 2022. She had a wonderful career entertaining us, and a personal life dedicated to helping animals. Bare Tree Media is honored to be the designers of The Golden Girls animated messaging stickers available on the Apple App Store. To further honor Betty White and her lifelong dedication to animal welfare, we pledge to donate our profits from the January 17th, 2022 sales of these fun and engaging messaging stickers to the American Humane Society. For more than 100 years American Humane has been first in promoting the welfare and safety of animals and strengthening the bond between animals and people.
KIA Robo Dog
Many of you were first introduced to Robo Dog within Kia’s Super Bowl advertisement. Bare Tree Media was thrilled and honored to have created a 3D model and TikTok AR experience to accompany Kia’s #fullycharged campaign.
Kia has also made Robo Dog available as an NFT via Sweet, and 90% of the proceeds are donated to the Petfinder Foundation—a national nonprofit that exclusively gives grants to animal shelters and rescues. We are excited to be partnering with companies who support animal causes.
Source: PRNewswire