Toronto, Canada-based House of Cool has hired Russell Ward as its new SVP of marketing and business development. The Toronto-Canada based pre-production animation studio behind projects such as Despicable Me, Ice Age and Epic tapped Ward to focus on a new interactive publishing platform called Massively.

Massively will allow for non-linear publishing, whereby users can utilize an app on their phone to text-message back and forth with characters in a story. The interactivity will focus on keywords from the users to alter the narrative.

Former VP of marketing at Teletoon Canada Ward will oversee the development, sale and marketing of the studio’s new choose-your-own-adventure-type storytelling platform.  The current target is heavy texters, which includes young adults, teens and tweens.