UMG Holiday

The Classics Reborn

Project Lead / Creative Director: Mike Johansen

Marketing Lead: Harold Gutierrez 

Media Planning: Dylan Shapiro

Universal Music Group challenged me to work with my team to create content and videos around some of the most popular classic holiday songs. We worked with the incredible animation partners at Fantoons, Dreambear, Ingenuity Studios, and others to bring these contemporary classics alive. My role was to curate and commission the artists and studios responsible for the majority of the projects. The assets created from these videos would go on to power UMG's global holiday campaign annually. 

Perfect Partners

My team commissioned hundreds of holiday videos over three years with dozens of studios and individual creators, but when you find a team that clicks with you and the artist's team, it's like magic. That team was David Calcano and his animators at Fantoons. Below you can see three of the nine holiday videos we created together.

Every project is special in our eyes and we're treading on the hollowed ground of beloved classic songs, Fantoons would always come through with ideas and knockout creativity. Fostering relationships with artists & their families and honoring their late loved ones with these beautiful animated films will always hold a special place for me.

Marketing

My team and I generated thousands of assets to power UMG's holiday campaigns in the coming years. Each project generates key art, animated gifs, Instagram/Snap lenses, and other content to drive engagement across all global social platforms.

Holiday key statistics across artist channels

260m

420%

1.2b

Video views

Channel growth

Social

Engagements