National Geographic Channel : Live Curious - Challenge

information

National Geographic Channels International (NGCI) and National Geographic Channel U.S. (NGC) announced their first-ever global tagline “Live Curious” and brand campaign. This effort will be rolled out between November 15, 2009,
and March 2010 in 166 countries and 34 languages with customisable elements for regional audiences. The announcement is the latest manifestation of an enhanced strategic asset sharing process between NGC and NGCI — both joint ventures between Fox Cable Networks and National Geographic Ventures — following David Haslingden’s appointment as CEO of National Geographic Channels worldwide in 2007. The collaboration in developing a consistent, cohesive message for worldwide use follows the adoption last year of a universal National Geographic Channel logo and on-air look, along with an increase in global co-production of programming.

“Live Curious” was developed after worldwide consumer research conducted to identify common values that reflect the essence of the National Geographic brand promise and would
resonate and translate effectively across regions in Europe, Australia, Asia, Latin America and the United States. Qualitative studies were done on brand perception and previous taglines, while focus groups helped refine an overarching theme that struck a positive chord with viewers.
“’Live Curious’ is at the heart of National Geographic’s DNA and the National Geographic brand is one of the most familiar and powerful global brands, transcending borders and cultures”, said Haslingden. “And with the National Geographic Channels continuing to increase momentum worldwide, it has became increasingly important to create a common voice that would resonate in every language, while at the same time leaving space for each region to maximise local relevance“.

“Live Curious” will be the basis for a global brand campaign, currently in production, that will promote the network, its programming and talent. The campaign will first be introduced in the United States, India and Netherlands and will eventually reach more than 315 million homes in 166 countries. In addition to fully produced spots of varying length, the toolkit will include core elements around which each region can add local footage, talent, messaging and non-traditional tactics to build diverse campaigns for their specific audiences. To continue the process of global collaboration and collective inspiration, these localised campaigns will be shared with all other regions as the basis for ongoing generations of the campaign worldwide. The National Geographic Channels in Australia, Hong Kong, Italy, Spain, Turkey, U.K. and the United States are expected to be the first to create local campaigns bridging off the central global concept.

The brand campaign will promote key programming as well as talent from shows shared around the world including Sean Riley (World’s Toughest Fixes), Cesar Millan (Dog Whisperer), John Garcia (Dogtown), Chris Fischer (Shark Men), Batso and Johnny O (Rescue Ink), and Zeb Hogan (Monster Fish). The tagline will be reflected in a full range of consumer and trade
advertising platforms, including broadcast, print, outdoor and digital. Ad sales extensions are also in development, along with digital consumer touch points such as a microsite, social
networking applications and games.

Rafael Sandor, Executive Vice President of Creative & Marketing for NGCI and Kiera Hynninen, Executive Vice President of Marketing for NGC U.S. jointly oversaw the development of the tagline and brand campaign. Italian production company Mercurio Film and Creative Consultant
Patrizio Marini were commissioned to execute the primary :60 and :30 brand spots, U.S.-based Click 3X is creating some programme-centric extensions for the global campaign, and various other extensions are being produced internally.

“Live curious” is about exploration, pioneering and questioning, which captures National Geographic’s shared spirit”, said Sandor. “The campaign aims to connect on a human level so
no matter what country you live in or language you speak, this message to ‘Live Curious’ hits close to home”.