Why is this work relevant for Entertainment?

National Geographic Asia has come together with regional NatGeo Explorers, changemakers, and performers to launch the first-ever Planet Possible Day (PPD). PPD Event was a live-streamed virtual event, with over 2 million viewers, that took place on October 24 2021, hosted on NatGeo Asia’s Facebook page. The programme brings together a cast of well-known personalities to drive awareness on topics related to climate change and sustainable lifestyles in a relatable and engaging manner. The personalities came on live during the event to engage with live audiences on Facebook. Celebrities also performed songs to illustrate the same theme message.

Background

Planet Possible is a channel marketing initiative by National Geographic, that aims to help people understand the threats to our world and imagine new possibilities for the planet. NatGeo Asia wanted to create an inaugural live-virtual event as part of their multi-platform approach to engage their audience in a more direct manner. The main objective is to inform, inspire and enable the online audiences to live more lightly on the planet. The targeted audience was existing and potential NatGeo fans who are of younger demographics living in South East Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The aim of the event is to create targeted engagement and content that is relevant and relatable to regional audiences within the South East Asian region.

Describe the creative idea

Instead of a run-of-the mill zoom panel live shows that are prevalent in the market, there were 3 creative approaches to differentiate this live show compared to the others. Performances Performers with a strong social following were invited to perform never-seen before content for the show and they joined us live during the show to engage with their fans and giving their perspectives to the topics discussed. Live Interactions During topic presentations, audiences were encourage to leave their comments and spark off discussions on the topic. These comments were then addressed live by our personalities making the engagement two-way instead of top down. Social Engagements There were constant social content posted pre-event, during event and post event to drive awareness and engage audiences to the topics and

Describe the strategy

Mix of Cast The cast was a mix of NatGeo Explorers who were experienced in the subject matter and also Influencers/Celebrities who were strong advocates on the subject with strong online following. The topics shared covered perspectives both from experts and layman which allowed our young audience to be more engaged. Relatable Localised Discussions References were designed to feature elements which the South East Asian audience can relate to. Subjects like eco-fried-rice, environment-friendly bubble-tea, sustainable batik, #forget-ootd, and conserving mangroves were discussed to establish resonance with the targeted audience. Digital Activations Consumer engagement with our young audience were amplified by digital activations like Instagram AR filters and Instagram stickers. Optimistic Tone To differentiate from the bleak tonality of similar discussions on sustainability, the show was produced with an optimistic emphasis to seek out solutions and inspirations, putting positivity over cynicism.

Describe the execution

The show was live-streamed on the same day as the International Day of Climate Action on 24 Oct2021. The campaign was put together within a short span of 2 months from Aug - Oct 2021. The live event was made up of pre-recorded segments (60%) and live segments (40%). For the pre-recorded segments, the production team coordinated production shoots across 7 cities around the world from the US to the Asian region. All production shoots were done remotely with the main directing team in Singapore. During the live show, there were a total number of 17 sets of guests that logged in online across the whole world to join our Facebook audience for live engagements. The show was streamed live on Facebook. It was re-posted on Youtube after the live event. The show will be re-adapted to be broadcasted on National Geographic's linear TV channel in Q1 2022.

Describe the outcome

The campaign and live-stream was well-received with many positive comments from the audience. Many comments from the audience found the show to be inspiring and relevant. It has also motivated our audience to take a positive step towards living a more sustainable lifestyle. 2 Million Total Views for the Event Over 13,000 Likes and Comments on Facebook 45% Audience Retention during livestream 65% View-Through Rate during livestream 4% Engagement Rate (Overall Campaign) 77 Million Total Media Reach USD$ 229,000 Total Media Value