• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, December 19, 2022

It's not exactly a miracle on 34th Street, but you could validly call it a miracle one block over where IPG Mediabrands' UM unit is headquartered. This morning the agency announced its "Dear Santa" branded entertainment documentary promoting the United States Postal Service's "Operation Santa" program, has been picked up as a six-episode series by Hulu.

The documentary and its spin-off series, which are produced by UM-backed studio Traverse32, highlights the postal service program that enlists anonymous "adopter elves" to answer the hundreds of thousands of letters received by American post offices that are addressed to Santa Claus each year.

The agency and the studio received critical acclaim for the documentary when it was released last year -- originally in theaters, and ultimately on video-on-demand and broadcast TV.

“The evolution of 'Dear Santa' from a film that appeared in theaters at the height of the pandemic to a new national docu-series, with distribution on Hulu, has been extraordinary," Mediabrands Chief Content Officer and Traverse32 Global President Brendan Gaul said in a statement, sounding as if he is making his next elevator pitch.

Both the original documentary and the new series are available for streaming on Hulu now.