Inside Adventure - Red Bull

Problem: how do you find new ways to tell the oldest type of story AND save the day when adventures go wrong?

We won a hard-fought commission from Red Bull to develop a world-first AI-driven format via an innovative, custom-built virtual production studio.

This subverts so much of what people usually expect about adventure content. It’s indoors, for a start.

Complete with bespoke AI technology and towering, hyper-immersive LED screens plus YouTuber host Beau Miles, we enabled Red Bull adventurers to step back inside the most awe-inspiring and emotionally challenging moments of their expeditions in a way they - and the viewers - never expected possible.

The AI and virtual production technology helped us recreate the ‘moments that never were’ and show the art of the possible. The result was a way for Red Bull to still make expedition content that had run aground take on a new, monetisable life. Twisty.

Defender Trophy hype film

Branded content for Defender

Problem: how do you relaunch an obsolete and divisive concept for the modern world?

Our task here was to launch the global Defender Trophy competition, encourage entrants, build on a huge legacy and inspire a new generation of epic adventure.

This was a reboot of what used to be the Camel Trophy - a now defunct and potentially controversial cross-continent marketing programme very much of its time.

We developed this concept at BASE with Defender over a period of 18 months. It culminated in a stunning and sometimes dangerous shoot across Namibia with vets on the often lethal frontlines of conservation.

Our limited series of launch films (including this one below) come with an even bigger, challenge-based global format for this new version of the classic cross-continent competition.

The relaunch content gave new life and new impetus to the brand’s global teams and local partners, achieved global press coverage and ignited the competition for a new era.

Gnarly.

Subaru Japan x what3words

Dune Bug

Problem: how do you translate brand values and product features in a local context that can also work globally?

The aim of this film is twofold: give our client what3words more marketing collateral to attract more automotive partners to their navigational tech; help Subaru promote their model in Japan.

I co-wrote and co-produced this short, conceived the overall creative concept and co-managed the production team on the ground in Japan.

A bait-and-switch sand-boarding film shot on Japan’s stunning but highly protected (!) dunes was the answer.

The film was localised for Japanese audiences and reedited for use in multiple territories for w3w’s partner acquisition campaigns.

Steezy.

what3words x Jaguar Land Rover / Defender

The Perfect Shot

Problem: How do you make boring features of a technology product thrillingly real?

We created a cool, mini-epic story to solve this challenge using one of the creators we’ve built deep relationships with, in this case a Nat Geo presenter and his climbing crew.

The story was designed to show the in-car technology being the key to unlock incredible adventures in the wild.

The central video was distributed by all three parties (BASE, JLR global YouTube (!) and what3words PR networks) and we pulled off the shoot using our US talent, previous US adventure shoot experience and knowledge of the eerie and spectacular desert landscape of the Alabama Hills.

We built out the story to make a striking and unusual (and a bit Goth?!) mag cover, a central spread and a print marketing tool for our clients what3words. Online we added social and interactive elements so that viewers can be inspired and take real action too.

It was all topped off by the capture of spine-tingling, starry nightscape shot of Mount Whitney.

This is the best example yet of the multi-channel content offering we built at BASE from scratch, how it all connects, intertwines and gets the best value for the client brand.

I co-wrote and co-produced the film, conceived the overall creative concept, shaped and edited the online and print articles. I was also the client lead.

Dreamy.

Secret Compass

Brand strategy & identity

Problem: How do you reinvent a brand for a totally different audience and market?

The challenge here was to reimagine the brand identity of Secret Compass - a provider of extreme adventure trips and co-founded by TV adventurer Levison Wood.

The SC business had evolved over time and now primarily supplies risk management services to the film & TV industry. It has delivered world famous programming like Skyscraper Live with Alex Honnold for Netflix, Pole to Pole with Will Smith and Limitless with Chris Hemsworth for Disney among many others.

Some elastic thinking was required to find a positioning equally rich and relevant to both business aspects - and which stayed true to the well established spirit of the brand.

Essentially they are the TV industry’s secret weapon.

Without them so many headline shows and talent would not have made it. Their genius lies in their ability to find a way to achieve the project, regardless of the genuine mortal threat or terrifying conditions faced. Also, they’re literally always away (producing). So that worked nicely.

I produced the new positioning and messaging, plus worked with a brand designer to deliver new brand guidelines and multichannel content governance.

Cruise Collective

A new proposition and brand for the global cruise market

Problem: How do you disrupt a well-established travel market using media knowhow?

The challenge here was to quickly pivot the first version of this brand and business model for the cruise industry as it was heading for the rocks.

Together with a regular UX design collaborator, we course-corrected the development of this brand and proposition. We reimagined the brand identity and built out the digital product, ensuring far better product-market fit, delivering over £300k revenue for our client in Year #1.

The start point for us was to evaluate the opportunities associated with the original idea. Our Media had an array of excellent commercial brand relationships within the cruise sector, the sector itself is still undergoing significant growth globally, and Our Media has the advantage of being able to reach millions of potential customers through their owned titles and network.

Following a phase of discovery and research with stakeholders at the cruise partner brands, prospective and current cruise-lovers and an assessment of the wider intermediary market in cruising, we developed a new and differentiated proposition. This positioning harnessed the power of Our Media’s specialist interest titles and passionate audiences and matched them with passion-related products offered by the different cruise lines. We grouped the different products from the different cruise brands by passion point and interest and not by other product features as the rest of the intermediary market did.

We evolved the brand assets to make them richer, more dynamic and appealing and created seamless user journeys to acquire many more in-market prospective customers. We also developed a content strategy which harnessed the power of the ‘collective’ cruise expert voices to hook in users searching for content and cruises related to their personal passions. Jibby.

GE Healthcare - campaign content

‘Lou’ - a B.A.D. story

Problem: How do you sensitively tell the story of a deeply personal and upsetting subject?

It was really tricky to get the tone and story right for this one: a video campaign to drive awareness and behaviour change around Bile Acid Diarrhoea for GE Healthcare. Bile Acid Diarrhoea can be soul-destroying and debilitating for sufferers, alongside the other chronic effects.

The aim was to give sufferers a voice and show them that there were options to improve the situation and not to suffer in silence, as many understandably do.

I led and designed the audience research before scripting and what came through from the patients we interviewed was a common sense of dark irony about the absurdity of the condition but also a longing for companionship and shared experience.

In the concepting, scripting, and creative direction of this film, working with a brilliant German animator remotely, this is what we tried to pull off. Also managed to cast one of my favourite actors from Smack the Pony and sneak in a Die Hard reference.

Austria Tourism

Branded multichannel content

Problem: How do you appeal to a notoriously difficult-to-persuade specialist audience?

For this brief from Austria Tourism, the ask was to drive consideration and visits to a gravel biking destination at very short notice (Salzburg).

Taking an outline idea from one of the staff writers I built a multichannel story based on the insight that ‘gravel-curious’ riders are attracted as much by the social scene around biking as the actual biking itself.

I used the BASE global network to identify local influencers and creators who, along with our UK subject specialist writer, could tell this story, craft the content, feature within it and amplify it.

Citalia

Always-on social

Problem: In a sea of choice, how to you tell destination stories that are distinctive?

Citalia lacked any coherent social strategy and needed desperately to increase engagement and direction, driving top of the funnel interest but also consideration for those more familiar with the brand’s offering. There was no connection between the brand’s core identity and what was being published on their key social channels.

For Immediate Media, I set the social strategy by finding the commonality between the different audience segments and created a new, central editorial proposition.

That proposition need to give clear creative direction but also be flexible and rich enough to feed the high volume of activity required for real community building. The answer was finding a single lens we could apply to Italy’s wide variety of places, people and culture.

Having studied, worked and then got married there, it was cool to be able to inject some of that experience into this ongoing programme of work.

Move Technologies / MoveGB

Comms & content strategy

Problem: If your main source of revenue suddenly jams shut, how can you use your core strengths to pivot?

Back in the pandemic, (urgh, remember that?) I helped launch a new digital product and service set for Move Technologies (formerly MoveGB).

A pretty hard ‘pivot’ was required given the violent market shift. I led all the B2B positioning and messaging as well as the roll-out of the new services.

We made the most of the unique data we had via a marketplace platform to flip it into properly useful insights and recommendations for current and prospective clients.

BASE Adventure Media

Content strategy

Problem: How do you build a brand digitally with next to zero budget?

To grow the BASE brand and audience, we set up a gear-reviewing network of 50+ reviewers and creators for this key part of the site.

The network brought deep topic expertise, authority and in many cases, substantial additional distribution.

I designed and established SEO optimisation approach, page structure, governance and workflow, coaching the team to self-manage over time.

It’s now the best performing area of the site by some distance and routinely gets over 10 million impressions per month.