National Geographic: Bringing the field trip to life
The brand affinity was strong with National Geographic but at the time few people engaged with it beyond the yellow spine magazines stored in their parent's attics. I lead a multi-disciplinary team to develop and build out the modern era of a 125 year old brand; to help build the foundations of a digital expression around National Geographic products and content through brand, design and storytelling.
The field trip, not the classroom.
What my team delivered:
Digital strategy
Design
New digital experiences
Video strategy
Content strategy
Video editing
Coding
What we accomplished:
Increase in digital engagement.
Access to the archives.
Won awards, grew brand affinity
Recognition in other spaces beyond print.
New collaborations.
New branded content opportunities.
Bringing the print magazine archive to life in the digital world.
It was the project of a lifetime to take 125 years of print into a digital experience. A key differentiator of the society is their archive so we wanted to have the ability to not only access 125 years worth of content but also mix and match that content with present-day articles into editorially-themed or celebrity-curated collections. This feature earned the project the nickname: “The Living Archive.”
A big goal for us was once we brought a reader in we wanted them to go further down the rabbit hole. Jump in and get lost....
Awards: SPD Best Website (Gold), POYi Best Website (Judges' Special Recognition)
Introducing more immersive storytelling.
Taking advantage of the unique photography, the amazing photographers and videographers already out exploring to allow people to experience the planet as though they were there. We wanted to give readers first hand access through all channels and platforms.
Described by Fast Company as a "leonine wormhole," the average time spent on site was 15 minutes.
The Serengeti Lion: Photographer Nick Nichols and videographer Nathan Williamson spent two years in the field, documenting the everyday lives of big cats with a custom robot.
Voyager experience: Leveraging archival footage, sound design, photography and infographics we launched a cinematic experience about the stories behind the Voyager missions.
Celebrating and expanding on the photographic legacy
National Geographic is known for its photography but there was nowhere in their digital space that highlighted their people and projects and their own voice. Our goal was to find ways to amplify and celebrate that and allow readers to dive deeper and eventually share the love.
We wanted to bring the perspective of the highly esteemed photographers and photo editors to the forefront, giving readers a sneak peek behind the curtain. We worked with the photo editors to create this space called Proof as well as integrate this approach into the newly created IG account.
As part of the Proof, we created a social-first series called Artifacts that helped people get to know photographers and explorers through their personal items.
Sunday Stills was a new bi-weekly digest of the best visual journalism from across the National Geographic universe. It was an attempt to bring a few minutes of wonder to the weekend. It was opened 10% more than any other business newsletter at the time.
What’s old is new again. We wanted to leverage the Nat Geo archive in a way that would tap into younger, retro-loving audiences. We started FOUND – a curated collection of photography from the National Geographic archives – to honor the 125th anniversary to showcase photographs that reveal cultures and moments from our past. Time, The Verge, Wired, Need Supply, and Reddit all covered it as a gem of the internet.
