Nat Geo Channel Unveils 'Curious' Brand Push

A month after National Geographic Channel announced it was readying a new global brand campaign, the basic-cable network has taken the wraps off the first examples of its “Live Curious” creative.In conjunction with Nat Geo’s launch of its second annual Expedition Week programming stunt, the net on Sunday night (Nov. 15) unveiled a pair of evocative promos designed to communicate its ideology. Shot in 40 locations around the globe, the two spots juxtapose arresting images of human activity with a litany of interlocking declarative sentences.The 60-second brand spot opens with a young couple dashing from an underground enclosure into the light of day. As the girl turns back to face the camera, her voiceover declaims, “If you are, you breathe.” The clip cuts to a middle-aged man doing tai chi in a park (“If you breathe, you talk”); from there, new subjects fill the screen about one every three seconds, the voiceover progressing along with the visuals.The spot ends with a shot of an older man in a corral, at sunrise: “If you want to know more, you are alive.” As the man slides out of the frame, the National Geographic logo appears onscreen alongside the “Live Curious” tag line.A second spot distills the one-minute execution down to 30 seconds. Another promo focuses on Nat Geo’s on-air talent, incorporating shots of Cesar Millan (Dog Whisperer), Sean Riley (World’s Toughest Fixes) and Chris Fischer (Expedition Great White). The new tag replaces “Dare to Explore” in the U.S. and “Think Again” overseas.The Italian production company Mercurio Film and creative consultant Patrizio Marini developed the first two promos, which Nat Geo refers to as its “anthem” spots. Meanwhile, the New York-based studio Click 3X created the program-themed extensions for the campaign.Rafael Sandor, executive vp of creative and marketing for Nat Geo Channel International, and Kiera Hynninen, executive vp of marketing for Nat Geo’s stateside unit, together oversaw the development of the tagline and brand campaign. The Live Curious spots last night began rolling out here in the U.S., as well as in India and the Netherlands. In December, Nat Geo channels in Italy and Germany will begin running the anthem spots; by March 2010 the initiative will be seen in all 166 countries serviced by NGC. “What we are looking to do is to make a connection between that natural curiosity that informs the National Geographic brand and our programming,” Hynninen said. “The spots define something that’s true about NGC in a way that feels uniquely representational.”While some of the visual elements refer to the fascination of the natural world, the emphasis of the campaign is squarely on the human experience. “Curiosity is what makes us human,” said Sandor. “The spots reinforce that philosophy and are designed to transcend political borders.”The Live Curious initiative comes on the heels of Nat Geo’s year-ago adoption of a consistent on-air “look” at all its global properties. In addition to certain aesthetic considerations, the network is making more of an effort to create content that can be distributed in each market. Last month, Nat Geo announced plans for a worldwide run of a new seven-hour miniseries, Great Migrations.Now in production, Great Migrations represents the most ambitious undertaking in the National Geographic Society’s 120-year history. Set to bow in fall 2010, the global programming event will offer marketers the opportunity to reach some 315 million consumer households, in such far-flung locations as South Africa and Iceland.

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Nat Geo Channel Unveils 'Curious' Brand Push

Anthony Crupi

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Anthony Crupi