The Challenge

In late October, Avast’s Corporate Communications team approached us with a concept originally pitched by their PR agency: a “12 Days of Holiday Scams” series highlighting common holiday scams across twelve days. The ask was to evolve the idea from a static storybook into 12 animated films, each one to two minutes long, each featuring a different scam scenario and unknowing victim.

The timeline was aggressive: five weeks from briefing to launch.

In addition to the long-form episodes, each installment required a full promotional toolkit — trailers in multiple social formats, YouTube thumbnails and descriptions, and social copy — all of which also needed to be transcreated into French and German.

In total, the scope ballooned to 108 deliverables (12 episodes × 3 video assets each × 3 regions). Traditional animation production would have been impossible within the timeline and budget.

Strategy

To meet the scale and speed required, we built a generative-AI–driven animation pipeline that allowed us to produce cinematic-quality storytelling without the traditional production timeline.

The approach blended AI-generated footage, voice, and translation with hands-on creative oversight and post-production polish. Custom-trained character systems and consistent visual models ensured that every episode introduced unique characters and environments while maintaining a cohesive narrative universe.

We also created a recurring antagonist - Deceivus, a scammer bot who appears throughout the series - providing a unifying thread across the twelve stories, allowing for recycling of certain environments and elements, and establishing a character with potential for future content.

Execution

As account lead, my role was to keep a 24/7 global production engine running smoothly. With teams working across the U.S., Mexico, and overseas, I established a disciplined handoff system so work could move seamlessly from our East Coast team to overnight production and back again each morning. Clear documentation, organized working files, and daily stand-ups ensured nothing slowed the pipeline. At the same time, I maintained constant communication with Avast’s U.S., French, and German stakeholders to secure rapid feedback—sometimes within hours—to keep the series on schedule. I also helped quickly resource additional editors, animators, and retouchers as the pace intensified, ensuring every team—day and night—had what they needed to deliver at speed.

Results

In just five weeks, we delivered the entire 468-asset campaign on time and on budget, transforming a simple PR concept into a fully realized animated series.

The campaign generated strong social engagement and media pickup, expanding Avast’s educational messaging around scam prevention during the holiday season.

Most importantly, the success of the series introduced Deceivus as a potential evergreen character, with Avast exploring future uses across additional scam-awareness campaigns and future holiday installments.