Ghost Signal
Client
Nightwave
Services
Characters · Animation
A cast of characters and animated bumpers built for a late-night channel that needed more personality than polish.
Summary
Nightwave came to us with a channel that looked fine and felt forgettable. Ghost Signal was the answer: a loud little universe of characters, bumpers, and interstitial moments that made the overnight block feel like its own place.
We designed a cast first, then built the motion language around them. Quick loops, weird transitions, and short animated hits that could live between programs without needing a full narrative every time. The goal was simple: if someone tuned in at 1am, they should know exactly where they were.
The package rolled out across on-air bumpers, social cutdowns, and a reusable motion kit the internal team could keep remixing. Ghost Signal became less of a campaign and more of a recurring personality for the channel.
Strategy
We started with character before channel chrome. Each figure got a clear attitude, a limited color set, and a motion personality that could survive a three-second bumper. From there we mapped where the cast should appear: opens, closes, social teasers, and the weird in-between moments that usually get filler. The strategy was to make those scraps feel intentional, then give Nightwave a kit flexible enough to keep the signal going after launch.
Campaign Performance
84.2K
Bumper Plays
12
Characters Built
46
Animated Cuts
2.1x
Social Shares
31
On-Air Variants
6
Week Rollout
Execution
Execution lived in two layers: the characters themselves, then the systems that kept them moving. We illustrated the cast, built looping bumpers for the overnight block, and cut shorter versions for Instagram, TikTok, and channel promos. Every piece was made to work alone or as part of a sequence.
Alongside the finished spots, we handed Nightwave a motion kit: timing guides, color rules, and reusable transitions, so the world could keep mutating without us babysitting every cut. Ghost Signal stayed loud, weird, and easy to extend, which was the whole point.