The Finnish executive and producer gives us a taste of the keynote speech about animation and social media that she will host at the upcoming Cartoon Springboard

Ahead of Madrid’s Cartoon Springboard (24-26 October), we chatted to Eliza Jäppinen, CEO of Visible Realms. The Finnish executive and producer is among the experts invited to this year’s edition. On 24 October, she will be hosting a keynote speech delving into the relationship between animation and social media. We asked her a few questions about her presentation and, more broadly, about her career.

Cineuropa: Could you please introduce yourself and your background?
Eliza Jäppinen: I’m the CEO of Visible Realms and the creative producer of Studio Killers, an internet phenomenon and animated band. I am a new-media pioneer. With Visible Realms, I set out to tackle the challenges of understanding how social media and new-media projects like Studio Killers can be built into a business and also how to build new IP through a gaming- and social-media-first approach.

What’s your take on Cartoon Springboard? Why is it an event that’s important for the industry and for its new entrants?
Cartoon Springboard is an excellent place for young talent and producers to come and get deeper insights into, and make connections to, the industry and the business, and [to discover] how to develop their ideas into something that will be produced and financed. For networks and seasoned producers, it’s a great place to connect with up-and-coming talents who have fresh and bold ideas. It’s a great event.

On 24 October, you’ll be hosting a keynote presentation titled “Animation and Social Media”. How did you end up picking or being assigned this topic, and why is it timely?
Studio Killers has had 12 billion views on TikTok with the song “Jenny (I Wanna Ruin Our Friendship)” [a music video for which is available here], and our many years of presence and content from video blogs, artwork and music videos across all other socials is what caused that purely viral moment. While a lot of social media is like capturing lightning in a bottle, there are methods that will help you get audience and engagement numbers that can help your IP. So I’m hopefully going to be able to shed a little bit of light on that. 

Could you summarise the key ideas/concepts you'll be sharing during your presentation?
The presentation will go through my work with Studio Killers, what we learned is working and what isn’t, and what we are applying to our future projects. It will touch on both social media and gaming as the pillars for our work, as well as the when, why and how to build a social-media and community presence.

How and why can social media be a tool to “revolutionise the way one can approach an IP”? Could you share any successful case studies or examples within the European animation landscape?
That’s an interesting question, as most of the social-media breakthroughs seem to be happening stateside: Oddballs and Strange Planet, for instance. I think in Europe, one should instead be looking at games like Cut the Rope and Angry Birds that ran successful animation ad campaigns on social platforms that led to television series and films.

What type of audience groups consuming animation may be more receptive to social media, and why?
Nearly all audiences are on social media except preschool, which isn’t supposed to be there, but we know they are consuming it as well. We’re all receptive to being influenced by things from LinkedIn to YouTube, Roblox and TikTok… The question is more about content and platform match, and how that lends itself to further development.