The JibJab Blog

Stick Your Face In It!

JibJab Meets Mad Men

We’re huge fans of Mad Men here at JibJab and when AMC approached us about adapting the last three seasons of the series into a minute-long recap with a JibJab twist, we jumped on the opportunity. Now Mad Men Starring You is live on our site, with the ability to cast yourself as Mad Men regulars Don, Betty, Roger or Joan.

If you’ve never seen Mad Men before, the recap is a great catch up before Season 4 starts on July 25th… and if you’re an avid follower of the show like us, then enjoy the ability to turn yourself and friends into your favorite characters!

July 14, 2010
The Dog that Tweets

Sammie the office pug is a lot of things… noisy, nosy and now… connected. He started his own Twitter account today, make sure to keep up with his office antics by following him here!

July 13, 2010
Kazoo Guy Does 4th of July!

You’re a Grand Old Flag is our first of six kazoo videos releasing this year, and dang is it fun! We found Mister Tim, the talented gentlemen starring in the video, on the interwebs, where he became famous for his rocking rendition of Enter Sandman. Yes, that’s all the same guy, and yes, he really is playing the kazoo and making all of those sounds with his mouth.

We shot this video in our studio, then Mister Tim flew back to Colorado to edit. Andy gave stellar direction along the entire way and finalized the edit in-house. Special thanks to Amia for hunting down all the random props and wardrobe items. Send this as an eCard here!

July 4, 2010
Goodbye, Mr. Cook

Alan Cook, artist, animator and Canadian extraordinaire is leaving JibJab this week, headed to Oregon. His foot print on the site is massive and we will miss him dearly. In his honor, we all took to sketching our own little rendition of Alan in a book we presented to him on Friday. Some of our guys in tech wrote him notes in code, Gregg flat out tried to bribe him with a dollar bill. Alas, he is still on his way. We’ll always have Comic-Con alan.

To protect the mushiness of our messages, this is as big as we’ll allow Alan’s tribute art to be displayed.

But maybe coolest of all, Mike made Alan this puppet version of himself. We were all stunned by it’s accuracy, right down to the exact JibJab t-shirt Alan would sport around the office. O’Canada….

July 3, 2010
Founding Fathers: Facial Expression Edition

Check out the raw footage from our Founding Fathers’ Rap and see the facial expressions that go along with being as dope as we are. Special thanks to Matt, Devin, Evan and Andy for having the moves to go along with the rhymes.

Happy 4th of July! For more behind the scenes pics, check our album on Facebook!

July 2, 2010
JibJab Does Our Laundry???

We had a big team meeting today where we went over our three year plan (can you say AWESOME things on the horizon?). Not to brag (ok, we’re bragging a little) but right at the end of the meeting, Gregg instilled a new office policy. On Mondays, if JibJab employees bring in their dirty laundry, it will be clean by day’s end! It’s enough to make one want to immediately take off all their clothes and put them in a bag! Luckily, we held off on that urge.

July 1, 2010
JibJab and Facebook Permissions

For those of you connecting your JibJab account to Facebook in order to access photos and post to walls, Facebook is now taking steps to make privacy setting simpler to control. Read more their article about what is changing on the Facebook Developers Blog. We’re excited to be part of a fun, but safe network where you can be equal parts private and creative!

June 30, 2010
Still Feeling the Force

Star Wars Starring You is still going strong and we’re still feeling the force in the studio… namely due to the ten or so cardboard cut outs we’ve strategically placed around every corner. It took us a few months to get used to their silhouettes hanging around (every once in a while when closing up at night, a Han Solo in the corner of our eyes would scare the crap out of us) but they’ve come to fit in with our mish-mash of props and puppets. Check out our full collection over on Facebook.

June 29, 2010
Thank You!

Dear JibJabbers,

Today we announced a very exciting milestone as a company: over the past twelve months, we have processed over 1 million orders from customers. Why is this so exciting? Three years ago, our future was very uncertain. We were having huge success getting audiences to see our political satires, but we were unable to build a business around them. We knew that if we didn’t figure out a business model soon, we’d have to go out and get real jobs.

When we discovered that American Greetings had a huge business in paid eCards, we bet the company – and our future – on the idea that if we created high quality eCards, we could build a Membership-focused business model as well. The one millionth transactions is a big milestone for us on the journey to financial profitability – which is essential if we are to continue growing, creating and innovating in online entertainment.

Thank you to all of you who have trusted us enough to become JibJab customers. There is no higher compliment for our team than knowing you spent a few of your hard earned bucks on the products we’ve built. Rest assured we are working our tails off, and re-investing all of the proceeds from these sales, into making more things to make you laugh.

Gratefully Yours,
Evan, Gregg & the Whole JibJab Team

Big "Thanks" from the Whole Team at JibJab!

June 28, 2010
For Immediate Release: JibJab hits 1MM Transactions!

This morning we sent out a statement announcing one of our biggest milestones ever, 1 million transactions! So far TechCrunch has picked up the story as well, check out the press release below!

JIBJAB MILESTONE: ONE YEAR, ONE MILLION TRANSACTIONS

Company Establishes Leadership Position in Personalized Entertainment

VENICE, CA – June 28, 2010 – JibJab, a leading innovator in online entertainment, today announced that it has processed over one million direct-to-consumer transactions in the twelve months ending June 30, 2010.

The company shifted from an advertising supported business model to a direct to consumer model in Q4 2007 and today sells (i) annual subscriptions, which give users unlimited access to JibJab’s 1,500+ ‘eCards’ and everyday fun ‘Starring You’ products online, (ii) digital downloads, for the iPhone and more, and (iii) personalized photo merchandise.

“Just over three years ago we saw an opportunity to create a meaningful business in digital social expressions,” said JibJab co-founder and CEO Guy, Gregg Spiridellis. “Breaking the one million transactions mark is a major milestone on that journey. My brother and I are incredibly proud of the team that helped pull it off.”

Driving the company’s growth has been its Starring You® product line, which enables users to insert their faces into fun personalized videos and pictures online. Since its launch, people have uploaded over 150 million heads to the Starring You platform and viewed personalized videos and images over 400 million times.

“In the 10+ years JibJab has been in existence, we’ve been told innumerable times that it’s impossible to build a high-quality programming business online,” said Evan Spiridellis, co-founder and Head Art Guy. “There is nothing we’re more proud of the than the fact that people think highly enough of our work to pay for it.”

JibJab has been in the news recently for its partnership with Lucas Films to promote the 30th Anniversary of Empire Strikes Back. The company’s other high profile personalized entertainment partnerships include OfficeMax (ElfYourself) and Disney (High School Musical 3).

JibJab is backed by Polaris Venture Partners, Overbrook Entertainment and Sony Pictures Entertainment.

June 28, 2010
Bring Your Dog to Work Day!

While every day is bring your dog to work day for Sammie, our office pug, today is bring your dog to work day for the rest of our JibJabbers with pets. Meet Lucy and Oliver, a German Sheperd mix and corgi respectively. Both were rescue dogs, Lucy was saved just last week from the Downey Shelter in South Gate. There are huge shelters all over… if you’ve got room in your heart (and your house) for a pet, don’t forget about adopting!

Did you bring your dog to work? Are they scaring the crap out of your dog-weary co-workers? Sounds like the perfect time to make a free JibJab beware of dog sign for the office!

June 25, 2010
Updating/Downloading The Star Spangled Banner

We revisited more than one piece for the Fourth of July this year… in 2008, when we offered our collaboration with ThePartyParty.com as an Independece Day eCard, it featured footage of presidents from the past century, sliced up to sing us a rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner”. After a few years passed on our site, it became apparent that one thing was missing… our current commander-in-chief!

Thanks to the guys at the Party Party, now we have an updated version offering some Obama action into the mix. Like this song? You can also buy it over on iTunes!

June 24, 2010
Touching Up Our Tracks

The original Founding Fathers track was recorded a decade ago, with a track created by Adrienne Spiridellis, JibJab Founding Brother Evan Spiridellis’ wife. For Founding Fathers 2010, we got the help of audio master John Frrizzell, who spruced up the original track, running a recording through his iPhone, through a megaphone and back into a microphone to get the desired effect… how cool is this?

June 23, 2010
Founding Fathers’ Rap Remake!

Everyone in the studio is super excited about our Founding Fathers Rap redux/reboot/remix/revamp/remake/what-ever-you-might-call-it. The original was one of the first animations we did using collage style animation and this year marks it’s tenth anniversary on JibJab.com. Since then, we’ll admit we’ve gotten a little better at animation. Check out the decade old version with full lyrics below, then click here to star in our updated version FREE in honor of the Fourth of July!

FOUNDING FATHERS RAP LYRICS

They call me the General, I don’t mean to be crass,
I’m gonna take it to the limit ‘cuz it’s time to kick some Brit a–!
The King! The Royal! His Highness! The Honcho!
I’ll kick it to him like I’m Macho Camacho!
See, he’s got the moves. He’s swift as Paul Revere.
You tried to catch me but you couldn’t ‘cuz I shifted into fifth gear!
We’ll rise above. We’re working a transcendence.
Shout it out, “We declare our independence!”

I’m getting’ chilly down in Philly y’all, you know it’s my town.
Though he’s as ancient as the mariner, he still gets down, ya see!
I get electric when I fly my kite.
He’s getting bigger on the trigger- POP! POP! in a gun fight!
Tommy P gonna kick some Common Sense,
Gatherin’ up the Minute Men to take it on the offense.
Sun is rising, it’s a sign of our ascendance.
Step to the bass, “We declare our independence!”

Tommy J, I’m the man, with the grand plan in my right hand,
He’s kickin’ grammar gonna take you to the Promised Land!
Bustin’ crazy rhymes with a paper and the pen,
He’s rockin’ it on the mic to the King and his henchmen!
I wrote the letter and my homies called it divine,
Johnny H come and kick it on the dotted line.
Straight from Virginia, this required my attendance.
We’re here to tell you, “We declare our independence!”

June 22, 2010
Print Your Dad His Own Beer Label!

Dads love beer. It’s basic science. We sketched this new Father’s Day postable with that principle in mind. Our recommendation? Make one here. Take a screen shot (Windows, Mac). Print it out. Cut it out. Wrap around beer bottle. Present to dad!

[Update] Did you give a beer bottle to Dad? The first picture we get of a pop being presented with JibJab brand brew gets a free year added to their membership! Upload photos to our Facebook page here.

June 18, 2010