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.
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.
Digital Collectibles
This summer we released non-NFT digital card collections, stickers, and special edition items for 5+ of our licensed brands (not all listed):
- TMNT
- Paul Frank
- SpongeBob
- Bob Holt
- Tate Artists
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.
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!
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!
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