As an animation studio, DreamWorks Animation is always looking for new ways to entertain, uplift and connect with our fans. This past holiday season, we wanted to thank our fans with a gift they could open every day throughout the month of December. So we developed an interactive advent calendar leading up to New Year’s Eve with daily activities for families consisting of holiday-themed games, printables, DIY and watch-alongs.
We knew we wanted to reach fans across our digital ecosystem, so we developed a suite of holiday-themed branded assets to complement and drive to the interactive advent calendar. We produced a 60-second “31 Days of Joy” sizzle, custom social assets leveraging the #DreamWorks31DaysOfJoy hashtag, and talent holiday messages.
The :60 sizzle includes holiday-inspired moments from our theatrical and TV library, including Shrek, Boss Baby, Kung Fu Panda, Trolls, How to Train Your Dragon, Abominable, Madagascar, Spirit Riding Free, Troll Hunters, She-Ra and more, with the song “Christmas is a Feeling” performed by Kelly Clarkson and the cast of Home for the Holidays.
We also invited talent to create holiday messages for fans that we posted to our social channels including Eric Bauza (The Adventures of Puss and Boots), Noah Bentley (Dragons Rescue Riders), Charlet Chung (Fast & Furious: Spy Racers), Amber Frank (Spirit Riding Free), Bailey Gambertoglio (Spirit Riding Free), Noelle Stevenson (She-Ra), and Luke Youngblood (Fast & Furious: Spy Racers).
The interactive advent calendar included 31 custom branded activities for kids such as:
-Spirit Riding Free Holiday Make-a-Match Game
-Shrek the Halls Gingy Bread Cookies
-How to Train Your Dragon Homecoming Watch-Along BINGO
-Trolls Animated Coloring Book
-Boss Baby Holiday Word Search
- Fast & Furious: Spy Racers Super Spy Invisible Ink DIY
From a design perspective, in addition to the festive “31 Days of Joy” logo that celebrates the theme of gift-giving, we also developed branded snowflakes integrating IP iconography that were used throughout the campaign.
The “31 Days of Joy” campaign gave us an opportunity to thematically connect legacy IP with new shows, extend fan engagement with beloved characters, and generate awareness for new series.
Fans were able to engage with DreamWorks Animation characters every day throughout the month of December, and we provided families with fun, easy activities to keep kids busy during school breaks.
The campaign generated 2.7M impressions across web, social & email.
