2025 Newsletter

Hello 2025! In this issue of our quarterly newsletter, we would like to share some company updates and creative highlights from Q4 2024. As always, we would like to thank our business partners for their endless support and flexibility. Cheers to another great and successful year! We love creating for you.


New Partnerships

This November we announced a partnership with Soundwave Digital. Through this partnership, we will be expanding our offerings to include media planning and programmatic buying. We are excited to work alongside Soundwave Digital to meet our clients’ advertising and marketing needs. Visit our blog page to learn more about this partnership.


Team Spotlight

We had two wonderful Animation & Illustration Sprouts join our team. Meet our interns, Anthony & Laura. 

Our internship and co-op opportunities give aspiring creatives an opportunity to collaborate 1-on-1 with a small team on client projects. Anthony and Laura worked closely with our creative team to create a variety of digital experiences for brands such as The Smurfs, Strawberry Shortcake, and Betty Boop.

Meet Anthony: 

Anthony is a talented animator, designer, and storyteller. Polished and whimsical—we are so grateful to Anthony for sharing his complex, thoughtful design POV with us.

“My favorite part about working at Bare Tree Media is the people. Everyone here is incredibly approachable, reliable, and supportive. I was incredibly nervous given that this was my first time doing any sort of remote work, but once I realized that the team was all in it together, I understood exactly why everyone at BTM seems so happy!”

We pride ourselves on providing our interns with a space to create freely and push boundaries. While at Bare Tree, Anthony & Laura worked on a number of personal projects. 

“While I found fun in every project I worked on, I’d definitely go with the First Day of Fall social media post. I was looking forward to it for the majority of my time working here. My speciality is 2D, hand-drawn animation, so it was a welcome return to what I love doing the most. Plus, I love compositing animation.”

Check out Anthony’s “First Day of Fall” post on our Instagram page!

Meet Laura: 

Laura is a talented illustrator from the Greater Boston area. She would describe her design style as playful and bold with a handmade quality.

“Each project I have worked on came with their own set of challenges from which I was able to grow. Working on digital sticker packs was very enjoyable for me. It was a lot of fun working with seasonal designs (i.e., Betty Boop: Merry & Bright) and creating assets to accompany the main images.”

Laura also created an Election Day post for our social media channels and her own personal sticker pack entitled “Bagel Buddies.”

“For my PSP, I was inspired by daily life…bagels are always in my kitchen! Throughout this project I liked having the ability to experiment with different techniques and learn new animation skills. I’m happy to have been able to bring my own concept to life!”

To start the storyboarding process, Laura thought about various bagel puns. Once her expression sheet was completed, she sketched out imagery for each bagel and refined the illustrations based on feedback she received from our creative team. Adding another level of interaction and engagement, Laura animated her stickers in After Effects.

“This experience [working at Bare Tree Media] has provided me with an enjoyable work environment and has inspired me to continue growing my skills in animation and graphic design. My growth would not have been possible without members of the team being so willing to help me learn and giving me constructive feedback.”

Laura’s sticker pack will be on the Apple and Samsung Galaxy stores soon!


#TEAMWIMPY

We’ve been working with author Jeff Kinney and Wimpy Kid, INC. for 5+ years to bring fans of the best-selling book series unique digital offerings. As previously announced, our team will now create mobile messaging stickers and phone themes to help promote “Diary of a Wimpy Kid.” To learn more about the partnership, check out our blog page.

Our Social Media Coordinator, Emily, worked with the Wimpy Kid, INC. social media team to create a reel to promote DOAWK’s first sticker pack: “Team Wimpy.” This reel featured our stickers in action on iMessage and included iconic moments, quotes, and characters from the series. This collaboration amassed over 4,000 likes and 100,000 views on Instagram.

“Team Wimpy” is now available on the Apple & Samsung Galaxy stores.

Our team attended the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hot Mess Tour” kickoff event in Plainville, MA. We love supporting our local partners. A reel Jackie created was shown at the pre-show! We’re so happy audience members got to experience our DOAWK digital offerings.


The Wild Robot

Our team had the opportunity to create rotoscope stickers for NBC Universal’s newest movie, “The Wild Robot.” These GIFs effectively capture the essence of the movie and promote it in a visually engaging and shareable way. We loved seeing Instagram users utilize our stickers on promotional posts and stories.

In October, our team watched the movie together. Great work, NBC Universal—it was a tearjerker!


Keep Calm & Tweet On

Our animators have been hard at work creating custom likes and branded hashtags for brands. These limited-time campaigns increase engagement for brands looking to market events and promotions on X. Check out some of our favorites below:

World Gold Council

Netflix: Paul .v. Tyson

Mountain Dew: Baja Blast

DraftKings


Traveling Around Town

Bob Ferrari (CEO) and Jackie Karnoff (Creative Manager) flew to Los Angeles to meet with our West Coast clients. We love catching up and brainstorming with our partners in person! Follow us on social media to receive updates about our new partnerships.

We also attended the annual Ad Club Media Innovation Day in Boston, MA. By auctioning off our creative services, we were able to support the local advertising community and Ad Club’s first-generation scholarship/internship program. Find our takeaways from the event on our blog page.


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.

Gogi Gupta's Keynote Presentation: A Culture of Innovation

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!

Bid Here

AWE 2023 Recap

The Augmented World Expo (AWE) is an annual conference and expo centered around augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and wearable technology. Our Augmented Reality team flew out to California for the expo and participated in exciting events.


Effect House x BTM Fireside Chat

In conjunction with the AWE conference in Santa Clara, California, we had the wonderful opportunity of co-hosting an event with TikTok Effect House. This event featured a fireside chat between our AR Manager/Effect House designer Vedika Bhasin and Effect House community lead Greg Feingold. We loved getting to connect with over 100 people and share our love of AR and all things Effect House.


SnapAR AWE Feature

Our latest Snapchat Lens “Nebula Dance” was featured at the SnapAR Lounge at the 2023 AWE conference in Santa Clara, California. We enjoyed watching AR creators, designers, industry leaders, and those interested in the space get groovy in the galaxy. If you did not make it to AWE, our lens is available on Snapchat. Click here to try it out.


Winter 2023 Newsletter

In this issue of our quarterly newsletter, we are excited to recap all the creative content we made and shared throughout the Winter. As always, we would like to thank our clients and business partners for their endless support and flexibility.


Augmented Reality Meetups

We would like to thank everyone who attended our SnapAR-sponsored meetups at Workbar Boston in January and February. This was a great opportunity for members of the AR community and those interested in AR to connect and learn more about this industry. We would also like to thank Naomi Eberle, an official Snap Lens Ambassador, for sharing her knowledge and expertise on Connected Snap lenses and Behavior Script.

Check out our socials or the next edition of our newsletter to hear more about our March 2nd Meetup, “Lens Fest Extended.” We are looking forward to connecting with new and familiar faces in NYC and cannot wait to hear Maya Pruitt’s presentation on machine learning (ML) models for object tracking.


Branded Likes

The ending of Super Bowl LVII was crazy but the ads were even crazier! Our design team had the opportunity of designing Twitter Branded Likes and Hashtags for some of the game’s most popular ads. Our lead animator, Chihiro, even had his Doritos animation featured in their ad during the commercial break!

Pepsi Co. and Doritos wanted to engage their viewers not just on the TV screen but on Twitter. To help them out, we designed a branded like for each of them that went live for 24hrs the day of Super Bowl LVII. Fans of Pepsi and Doritos could trigger the design on Twitter by liking posts with the following hashtags: #RealorActing or #DoritosTriangleScheme. It was truly amazing to witness how many Twitter users engaged with our branded likes throughout the game.


February Favorites

Looking to up your Valentine’s Day game? Our AR, Design, and Social Media teams worked together to launch multiple Valentine’s AR and design experiences across various platforms.

We released three new AR lenses: Be My Valentine (Instagram), You Light Me Up (Snapchat), and 1 MSG from Valentine (TikTok).

Show some love to your special someone (and the Smurfs) via Samsung. We had the opportunity to design this Samsung Theme for Galaxy users—just in time for Valentine’s Day! Spread love all year round by downloading this theme from the Galaxy Store.


Eye on AR - SnapAR Lensathon

Our AR team submitted a connected lens for the SnapAR Lensathon contest. With “Chaos Hoops,” users can play a game of basketball with friends from all over the world in real time. We’ve loved getting to watch users embrace their inner Lebron and Tatum with this lens. Click the Snapcode to try out “Chaos Hoops” on Snapchat. We cannot wait to see all the cool work AR developers and designers created for this contest!


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/quiddpartnership

“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:

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