A local VC firm with a small budget wanted to make a big splash. Who’d have thought an irreverent animated short about a self-made, self-satisfied snowman would, well, snowball!

The Challenge: Blueprint Ventures is a technology investment firm, which had done very little marketing in the past. In December of 2005, the firm contracted Iron to produce an online animated short, in hopes of gaining some brand awareness in the industry.

The End Result: The Gary Snoman series has become a viral phenomenon, spreading from viewer to viewer all over the world. Viewings over the last three years have numbered in the hundreds of thousands and mentions in the San Francisco Chronicle and a wide array of online publications have elevated it to one of the most anticipated annual holiday entertainment events in the Private Equity world. The ultimate result: the Blueprint brand is now known throughout the industry.