Bring Your IF to Life

Imaginary Friend, Paramount+

If you could reimagine your childhood imaginary friend, what would they look like?

In the film, our main character Bea helps imaginary friends reunite with the children who once created them. She keeps a record of every IF living at Memory Lane Foster Home by sketching them in her notebook.

To connect more deeply with fans, we stepped into Bea's role and continued the mission of reuniting IFs with their creators.

To kick off the activation, we posted a call-out on X inviting fans to describe their imaginary friends within a two-hour window. The post introduced the "Bring Your IF to Life" campaign and provided a simple structure for how fans could describe their IF.

To build early momentum, we also created example IFs inspired by well-known Paramount IPs—including Evil, Anchorman, Forrest Gump, Mean Girls, and TMNT. These were released one by one to spark curiosity and expand the campaign's reach.

Within the short submission window, we generated (and edited) over 70 unique imaginary friends. It became a fun and fast-paced collaboration across team, and a memorable experience bringing these adorable creatures to life for real fans online.

Some of AI-generated  IFs from Fan's submitted descriptions.

Inspiration

SAAGOSKATT drawing competition by IKEA (image source).

An interactive experience at teamLab, Singapore.

One of my early ideas for the campaign was to invite fans to submit drawing or descriptions of their imaginary friends, which we would then visualize for them.

The idea was inspired by an IKEA drawing competition I once heard about, where children from around the world submitted doodles. The winning drawings were turned into real plush toys and sold in IKEA stores globally.

Another inspiration came from a teamLab exhibition I visited in Singapore. Visitors could color a character on paper, scan it, and watch it come alive on a massive digital screen. Seeing my drawing suddenly appear and move across the room was such a magical experience—it instantly brought out my inner child.

That feeling of creation and wonder was exactly the type of moment I hoped to recreate for fans of IF.

Behind the Scene

My hand-drawn sketch used as style reference.

Adobe Firefly image generation settings.

The biggest challenge was figuring out how to mass-produce customized, hand-drawn doodles quickly without relying on freelancers or asking the team to literally skech everything by hand.

This is where AI came in.

After hours of research and testing different tools and prompts, I developed a workflow that consistently produced visuals that matched Bea's sketch style from the film.

My own pink, fluffy hand-drawn sketch served as the style reference. I also added the phrase "; simple crayon drawing, rough sketch outline" to the end of fan submission prompts.

With that formula, we were able to generate drawings that felt cohesive and true to the film's aesthetic, while still reflecting each fan's unique imaginary friend.

And just like that, we brought IFs to life.

Legacy

Adobe blog featured.

Clio event — A view from my seat.

This project was later recognized by Adobe for its use of Adobe Firefly generative AI within entertainment marketing and social media. It was presented during an Adobe MAX session in 2024 and featured in an Adobe blog article.

Beyond those milestones, I also want to give a special shoutout to my manager and creative director at Paramount+, Kelsey De Weerd, whose support meant so much throughout the IF campaign—from inviting me to attend an early film screener for ideation to giving me an unexpected shoutout during her talk at the 2024 Clio Entertainment event.

Those moments meant a lot to me personally. They marked a meaningful milestone in my design career and reminded me to keep pushing my creativity beyond what I thought was possible.

Project featured on:

-> Adobe Blog (2024): Behind the scenes — How Paramount+ used Adobe Firefly generative AI in a social media campaign for the movie IF
-> Adobe Max Session (2024): New Creative Flows: The GenAI Jump-Start
-> Clio Entertainment (2024): Cocktails & Conversation

Project: IF — Bring Your IF to Life
Client: Paramount+
Date: May 2024
Creative Directors: Kelsey De Weerd & Monchaya Ngaolertloy