Helping Cartwheel Reach 1.3M+ Animators with Cost-Effective Creator Content
CLIENT
SERVICESCreator PartnershipsCampaign StrategyInfluencer MarketingClient
TESTIMONIAL
Nebula quickly understood what we were building and the animation and 3D community we wanted to reach. They found creators who were a strong fit for Cartwheel and worked with each of them to show the product in a way that felt right for their audience. Across launches, different creators highlighted different parts of the product, which helped us show a much broader range of what Cartwheel could do. The content was consistently strong, and Nebula handled everything from creative direction and coordination to partnership payments, which made things really easy on our side. We were really happy with both the process and the results.
— Andrew Carr, Co-Founder & Chief Scientist, Cartwheel
Project summary
Cartwheel is an AI-powered animation platform that makes it faster and easier to create 3D motion for games, films, and other creative projects.
Nebula partnered with Cartwheel to build a multi-platform creator campaign designed to introduce the product to animators, 3D artists, game developers, indie studios, and other highly relevant creative communities.
Rather than relying on traditional ads, we identified creators who could use Cartwheel to make visually striking content that demonstrated the product in action. Creators incorporated the platform into their existing workflows, turning the technology into the creative.
The campaign ran across YouTube, LinkedIn, and X as priority platforms with Instagram and TikTok as secondary targets, allowing Cartwheel to appear natively on the platforms where its target community was already discovering new creative tools and techniques.
By pairing emerging AI technology with creators who understood the animation space, Cartwheel generated high-performing content while reaching a highly specialized audience at significantly lower costs than typical B2B campaigns.
Top-Line Results
1.3M+
unique impressions
Put Cartwheel in front of target audiences across platforms: animator, 3D artist, game development, and creative technologists.
54K+
engagements
Generated an approximate 3.5% engagement rate, nearly 2x typical B2B benchmarks.
46%
more cost-efficient reach
Reached Cartwheel’s niche target audience at significantly lower costs than standard B2B industry benchmarks.
Finding Creators Inside the Animation Community
Cartwheel didn’t need broad lifestyle influencers. It needed creators whose audiences were already interested in animation, game development, 3D design, AI tools, and emerging creative technology.
Nebula identified and vetted creators across Cartwheel’s core platforms based on audience relevance, content quality, creative style, and their technical ability to demonstrate a highly visual product.
This gave Cartwheel access to established niche communities rather than paying broadly for impressions from audiences unlikely to use the product.
The ApproachThe ApproachTurning the Product Into the Creative
Cartwheel is inherently visual, so the strongest creator content leveraged the product to build stunning creative work.
We collaborated with creators to develop content that incorporated Cartwheel directly into their creative process, producing eye-catching demonstrations of AI-generated animation and motion.
The result was content that could convey the product's value within seconds while still feeling native to the creator and the platform.
The ApproachBuilding a Multi-Platform Campaign
Different parts of Cartwheel’s community spend time in different places.
Nebula activated creators across YouTube, LinkedIn, X, Instagram, and TikTok, adapting the campaign to the formats and behaviors that worked best on each platform.
This gave Cartwheel multiple entry points into the animation and creative technology ecosystem while allowing the strongest creative concepts to travel across channels.
Cartwheel X Nebula SocialThe Outcome
Nebula helped Cartwheel combine creator credibility, visually compelling content, and emerging AI technology to efficiently reach one of the most specialized audiences in the creative software space.
The campaign generated more than 1.3 million unique impressions and 54,000 engagements while reaching target audiences at a cost 46% below B2B benchmarks.
More importantly, Cartwheel showed up inside the communities where animators and 3D creators were already discovering the next generation of creative tools, with content that demonstrated the technology rather than simply advertising it.