Economist Impact’s The Sustainability Atlas, developed with Infosys Topaz, exemplifies a transformative approach to content-led marketing campaigns by combining rigorous editorial integrity with cutting-edge AI technology. In an environment flooded with fragmented data, our platform stands out by delivering credible, actionable insights drawn from over 1,700 indicators and 500+ expert pieces from The Sustainability Project. Unlike generic data tools, the Atlas uses generative AI to tailor content specifically to users’ industry, geography, and sustainability priorities, transforming complex datasets into strategic guidance.

What differentiates our approach is the focus on context-specific intelligence. Powered by Infosys Topaz, the conversational interface surfaces insights solely from verified Economist Impact content—eliminating the noise of unreliable sources. Our AI is not a content generator but a content distiller, enhancing editorial trust rather than diluting it.

The Atlas supports content marketing by making sustainability insights interactive and visually compelling through geo-comparison tools, enabling users to assess regional risks and opportunities in real time. This makes it a powerful storytelling platform for clients and publishers aiming to reach informed, impact-driven audiences.
Innovation lies in its audience-first design—catering to C-suite leaders, policy researchers, and ESG strategists alike. It empowers users across sectors to derive value quickly and with precision, whether they’re benchmarking emissions or identifying regulatory gaps.

Ultimately, The Sustainability Atlas shifts content-led marketing from passive consumption to active engagement, making sustainability not just a message but a meaningful business imperative—grounded in truth, driven by intelligence, and built for action.

The Sustainability Atlas campaign significantly boosted awareness and engagement, exceeding expectations with 19.4 million social impressions (196% of target) and 45,318 clicks, achieving a 0.23% CTR—nearly double the industry average. Meta led performance, driving 59% of visits, while LinkedIn attracted high-quality engagement from CXOs and sustainability leaders.

User behaviour showed strong interest: average visit duration was 2 minutes 31 seconds, 2.6 times above benchmark; 52% of users scrolled halfway down the page. The AI chatbot logged 730 unique searches with an 85% completion rate, proving its effectiveness in delivering specific, trusted insights quickly. Over 2,000 senior leaders engaged with the interactive globe to compare regional sustainability performance.

Clients praised the platform’s innovation and impact. Jonathan Birdwell, Global Head of Policy & Insights at Economist Impact, said, “Never before have we brought all that data and insight together in one place… The Sustainability Atlas provides accessible and actionable insights to policymakers and business leaders worldwide.” Ashiss Kumar Dash, Infosys EVP, added, “The Atlas equips businesses with the tools they need to drive measurable impact, reinforcing our commitment to sustainability and digital innovation.”

To bring together the most successful female entrepreneurs and leaders and inspire many more across the globe, particularly in the Middle East region, Forbes hosted its fourth annual Forbes 30/50 Summit in Abu Dhabi on March 5-8, 2025, during International Women’s Day.

The Forbes 30/50 Summit focuses on creating cross-generational mentorship opportunities to provide leadership, guidance, and insights to women at every stage of their career. It also offers diverse perspectives focused on women in leadership and entrepreneurship and provided rich cultural immersion opportunities.

The agenda not only offered a platform for speakers to share insights and experiences as part of an engaging series of on-stage discussions, but also featured Idea Forums – a structured, impactful time of networking and workshops – that provided attendees with the ability to share their voices and actively participate in knowledge shares on topics including corporate leadership, entrepreneurship, investment, creative economy and impact.

The summit also offered rich cultural immersive opportunities across Abu Dhabi, through the input of its local partners and sponsors Saadiyat Rotana Resort & Villas and Experience Abu Dhabi.

Chaired by “Know Your Value” founder and Co-host of MSNBC’s Morning Joe Mika Brzezinski, MSNBC Contributor, ForbesWomen Editor Maggie McGrath and Author Huma Abedin, the event standed as the physical headquarters for International Women’s Day – uplifting and celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of all women.

The Forbes 30/50 Summit was presented by Cisco.

The 4-day event, hosted by Moira Forbes, President, ForbesWomen & Executive Vice President, Forbes and Maggie McGrath, Editor of ForbesWomen, and chaired by Mika Brezinski, Founder of Know Your Value included a mix of panel conversations, networking opportunities, giving-back moments and cultural exploration.

DAY ONE – 30/50 SERVICE DAY AND EXPLORATION
As part of Forbes effort to uplift women and girls across the world during the Summit, the 30/50 service and experience day was an opportunity for attendees and speakers to celebrate each other and spread their messages and insights to women in the local community. Programming included:**

• Abu Dhabi Tours & Experiences; Forbes’ let attendees choose their own adventure exploring the city’s most significant sites.
• Service Day: Forbes’ annual service day provided attendees with a mentorship opportunity at the Cranleigh School alongside some of Abu Dhabi’s brightest students.
• Al Wathba Desert Party: To welcome attendees from around the world, Forbes hosted an authentic desert party in Al Wathba to kick off the 2025 30/50 Summit.

DAY TWO & THREE – IMPACTFUL CONVERSATIONS & PERSPECTIVES
During Days 2 and 3, no less than 16 sessions a day were held, including panel conversations, Idea forums, networking sessions and an Awards Gala:

• Women, Wealth and What Comes Next: a conversation with Elissar Farah Antonios, Founder of Soul Ventures Holding Ltd and Racquel Oden, Head of International Wealth at HSBC Bank.
• Idea Forums: an impactful time of networking and workshops with intimate conversations across the whole event’s venue. With the help of the event’s app, attendees could build their schedule and interact with speakers around five idea forums: Corporate Leaders, Entrepreneurship, Money & Investing, Creative Economy, Impact.
• The Forbes 30/50 Summit International Women’s Day Awards Gala: hosted at the exclusive Louvre in Abu Dhabi, the evening hosted by the Minister of State, UAE Foreign Affairs celebrated women who have helped shape history.

DAY FOUR – INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY BRUNCH

Throughout the event, Forbes has solidified a world-class speaker lineup, including:
• Freida Pinto, Actress & Activist
• Yusra Mardini, Olympic Swimmer & UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador
• Trinny Woodall, Founder & CEO, Trinny London
• Najlah Imad, Para Table Tennis Athlete & Paralympic Gold Medalist
• Sherrese Clarke Soares, Founder & CEO, HarbourView Equity Partners
• Angela Tabiri, Mathematician & Founder, Femafricmaths
• Linda Rama, Albanian Economist, Advocate, wife of Albanian Prime Minister
• Lucy Goff, Founder, LYMA
• Huma Abedin, Vice Chair, 30/50 Summit, MNSBC Contributor & Author

To reach the right audience and give the Summit’s sponsor Cisco exposure, Forbes deployed pre-event digital branding: a series of audience recruitment emails, a boosted registration page on Forbes.com, and organic promotion across Forbes social handles (LinkedIn, Meta). Press communications kits were distributed to worldwide media outlets for international media exposure, where Cisco featured as a Presenting Sponsor across all communication touchpoints.

At the event, Cisco was given the opportunity of Executive speaking on-stage, with integration in the New Architecture of Impact fireside chat with Macy Andrews, VP and Chief of Staff, People and Purpose at Cisco. The latter was enhanced on Cisco’s owned social communications and platforms.

Forbes’ social channels offer a platform for the Forbes 30/50 community, honorees, attendees, speakers, and major news outlets to engage and share experiences from the renowned event – amplifying powerful moments to a global audience. Forbes leveraged social to produce pre-, during and post-event targeted social assets that amplified brand integrations for the three partners (including sponsors Saadiyat Rotana Resort & Villas and Experience Abu Dhabi), with guaranteed views and impressions.

Audience engagement with the Forbes 30/50 Franchise and Summit continues far beyond the event. Serving as an extension of this year’s Summit programming, Forbes developed a robust content experience landing page that will live on Forbes.com in perpetuity.

The post-event content experience includes event highlights— from speaker quotes, to photographs, to sponsor logo inclusion and more. The event lander was included in the post-event ‘Thank You’ e-mail to all attendees providing continued exposure for the memorable conversations hosted at this year’s event.

To celebrate and elevate this year’s event, Forbes created two (2x) custom, full-page print ads to be included in our magazine issues both pre-event and post-event, reaching Forbes 5.7M readers.

In addition to coverage on Forbes.com and the Know Your Value platform, the 30/50 Summit received powerful amplification across MSNBC, including segments on Morning Joe, bringing the summit’s inspiring highlights to a national bigger audience.

Summit attendees

The Summit received 454 engaged attendees (30 Under 30 list-makers, 50 Over 50 list-makers, VIP guests, powerful female business leaders and ForbesWomen community members). Almost half of the Summit’s attendees registered to participate in local tours and experiences, including a service day in Abu Dhabi. Individuals from all around the world attended this year’s Summit, with 40 countries represented:

• 45% of attendees were Under 30 or Over 50
• 44% were UAE residents (up from 27% the previous year)
• 75% joined the Brella app to network and opt-in on further sponsors’ communications
• Top attendee titles were CEO, Founder, Director

Global media coverage

The 2025 Forbes 30/50 Summit was announced with a spotlight on January and coverage in many local, national and worldwide publications and broadcast outlets. The online and broadcast coverage garnered 57 total mentions which has a readership of 399M. On the social media front, there were a total of potential impressions of 5,108,481,728 and 2.6K+ mentions.

The event also received press pick-up in mainstream media and trade magazines (MSNBC, The National, Mint, OneArabia, Sharjah,…), expanding the impact of the event to billions.

Partnerships coverage

The alliance with Know Your Value, MSNBC and the Morning Joe show significantly increased reach in North America:

• 285M viewership related to the 30/50 Summit
• 30+ segments on Morning Joe highlighted the Summit and powerful female voices
• 8.3M social impressions generated across Know Your Value platforms in support of the Summit
• 31M social impressions generated across Morning Joe platforms in support of the Summit

Forbes social reach

The whole event gathered 5B+ online impressions across the various social handles (LinkedIn, Meta, TikTok), with more than 3,000 mentions using Forbes hashtags #3050, #Forbes3050, #3050summit, #3050abudhabi.

30 -50 Summit media + photos

2025 Forbes 30/50 Summit

Despite decades of progress in HIV treatment, public understanding has not kept pace with the science. Outdated narratives persist – fuelled by stigma, misinformation, and a growing silence in policy discourse. In many regions, HIV is still wrongly perceived as an issue of the past, despite clear evidence that it remains a global epidemic. This quieting of public conversation has only deepened the stigma faced by those living with the virus. ViiV’s mission: ensure no person living with HIV is left behind – medically or socially.

The People Living with HIV Stigma Index Global Report 2023 revealed:

• 37.6% of people living with HIV experienced internalised stigma, feeling ashamed of their status
• 24.9% faced discrimination when seeking non-HIV-specific health services
• 23.6% encountered stigma within community settings in the past year

Broader societal silence and outdated perceptions create significant barriers to progress.

ViiV Healthcare, the only pharmaceutical company 100% focused on HIV, saw a unique opportunity to lead with purpose – not just as a developer of medicines, but as a catalyst for cultural and systemic change. Despite its innovation leadership, ViiV still faced a perception problem: many viewed it as a niche or challenger brand. While it was well-known within HIV advocacy circles, its wider visibility among policy influencers and healthcare leaders was limited.

This campaign offered the chance to reposition ViiV as a credible, compassionate leader in the global fight to end HIV – using the power of media to spark empathy, shift public narratives, and challenge stigma. To do so, the campaign had to move beyond awareness. It needed to foster understanding, normalise conversation, and build cultural permission to talk about HIV without fear or shame.

It was not just about brand visibility. It was about igniting progress through purpose-led storytelling.

To maximise reach and relevance, we built a phased media strategy that aligned with key healthcare moments and fully activated CNN’s global, multi-platform ecosystem.

The campaign launched in three waves:

• AIDS Week (July)
• ID Week (October)
• • HIV Glasgow (November)

Timing the campaign with these industry moments ensured the content felt timely, editorially aligned, and relevant to healthcare professionals, policymakers, and influencers.

Amplification tactics included:

• 30s and 15s cutdowns of the hero film deployed as pre-roll across CNN Health and CNN International
• 16 homepage takeovers and native display units, targeting health-focused content
• Social video distribution across CNN LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram stories and feed – driving traffic to the content hub
• Geotargeted paid media in the US and key European markets, reaching verified healthcare professionals and senior decision-makers
• Retargeting using CNN’s first-party data and lookalike audiences to optimise for high-intent viewers

A key innovation was placing the 30s cutdown film within CNN’s 2024 Olympics and US Election coverage – two culturally significant moments where purpose-led messaging could resonate at scale.

This wasn’t just media distribution. It was a precision-targeted, insight-led content strategy – placing ViiV’s message in front of those who could amplify it further, from clinical leaders to cultural changemakers.

This campaign set out to do more than raise awareness – it aimed to drive cultural change and social impact, by challenging outdated narratives around HIV and directly addressing the stigma that still isolates millions.

Reach & Engagement

The campaign delivered exceptional visibility and engagement across CNN’s global platforms:

• 12.4M impressions
• 1.2M video views, with 974K full completions
• 51K article page views, with an average dwell time of 2:06 mins (vs. CNN benchmark of 1:10 mins)
• 28.4M additional reach via CNN’s Olympics and US Election TVC placements
• +46% over-delivery on social, +21% over-delivery on site media

Shifting Perception & Tackling Stigma

Critically, the campaign didn’t just reach people – it moved them:

• 90% reported a positive shift in perception of HIV treatment companies like ViiV (+19pts above CNN benchmark)
• 96% of respondents said the content helped them better understand HIV-related stigma
• 88% found the content informative and engaging, reinforcing its educational and societal value
  These results demonstrate the campaign’s success in delivering measurable social good – by using storytelling not only to inform, but to build empathy and challenge discrimination.

Endorsement & Continuity

Internally, ViiV circulated a bespoke film to Global Senior Leadership, showcasing the purpose-driven impact of the partnership and reinforcing the campaign’s strategic value. Externally, the campaign has been renewed for Phase 2, launching in July 2025, focusing on the real-world impact of ViiV’s innovations on people living with HIV.

This is not just a campaign – it’s a long-term platform for awareness, advocacy, and tangible social progress in the fight to end HIV and the stigma around it.

Ending the Endemic

Our campaign research showed strong public appetite for Mercator’s story: one in two people actively seek out ocean stories; 66% want to know more about marine conservation; and BBC audiences in particular are deeply engaged with sustainability and environmental issues.

To tap into this appetite, we developed a content solution that balanced scientific integrity with emotional resonance, delivering a campaign that was both authentic to the brand and innovative in execution.

Harnessing the BBC’s storytelling power to humanise the science, we transformed data into emotional, accessible narratives, anchored in real-world impact, aiming to connect audiences to the ocean’s story in a way that felt personal and urgent.

At the heart of the campaign was, our hero film, “If This, Then What?”, a playful yet poignant exploration of cause and effect. Our creative concept hinged on making ocean health personally relevant. By drawing unexpected links between marine degradation and everyday life, we aimed to spark curiosity and provoke deeper reflection. The narrative moved through a series of imaginative leaps: from the obvious to the absurd, the beautiful to the unsettling, illustrating how our lives are more entangled with the ocean than we might realise.

To achieve this ambitious vision, we chose a mixed-media animation approach. This freed us from the storytelling constraints of live shoots and allowed us to blend premium stock footage with bespoke graphic design and animation to tell the whole Mercator story. The result was a fast-paced, visually rich film that conveyed the urgency and complexity of the issue, while maintaining a tone that was engaging and accessible for a broad audience.

Complementing the film, we produced an in-depth journalistically led piece titled “A Sea of Change.” Here, we unpacked key findings from the Copernicus Ocean State Report, transforming complex data into a clear, compelling narrative. Recognising that awareness was a primary objective, our editorial team simplified the science without diluting its impact, ensuring relevance for newer audiences unfamiliar with marine policy or environmental data.
Visual storytelling was a cornerstone across formats. Working closely with our design team, we developed a suite of graphics that distilled critical data into memorable visuals. These assets echoed the film’s aesthetic, creating a cohesive visual identity across the campaign.

By combining powerful editorial storytelling with dynamic visual content, we invited audiences not just to learn about the ocean’s challenges, but to care about the personal effects of ocean change.

To effectively engage audiences with the campaign, we implemented a highly targeted, paid media strategy across the BBC ecosystem – designed to drive reach, relevance, and impact. This multi-channel approach, blending precision targeting, high-impact formats, and editorial alignment, ensured the campaign cut through and reached audiences with relevance and credibility.

Content was promoted on BBC.com using audience, contextual, and geo-targeting powered by BBC’s first-party data. This ensured we reached environmentally engaged users in key markets, delivering the campaign to those most likely to connect with its message.

In addition to standard media formats, we created a bespoke video interscroller unit – a dynamic, custom-designed format that allowed users to view highlights from the hero film directly within the ad space. This innovative unit helped bridge the gap between media and content, increasing dwell time and engagement.

To further expand reach, we distributed campaign assets across BBC StoryWorks’ social channels, including Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. These platforms allowed us to connect with audiences in a more casual, mobile-first environment, using adapted creatives to suit each platform.

A standout element of the campaign was the exclusive sponsorship of the BBC Earth vertical on BBC.com where Copernicus Marine and Mercator Ocean received 100% share-of-voice display ads and logo accreditation. This premium placement aligned the brand with the BBC’s respected climate journalism and reinforced its authority in ocean science.

A Sea of Change delivered a campaign that surpassed performance benchmarks, audience engagement expectations and delivered impactful action from audiences who clicked and read the report.

The campaign attracted 90,121 visitors on BBC.com and delivered 96,478 page views – achieving an outstanding 276% above the original target KPI.

Engagement quality was equally really strong, with users spending an average of 93 seconds per session, showing a deep interest in our storytelling.

Our hero film, generated 3.8 million video views — incredible results for a campaign of this size and a testament of how informative, engaging and premium our content is A total of 28,069 views came from our ultra-premium audience on BBC.com.

On social, we achieved 1.3 million views on TikTok, hugely extending reach to younger audiences. On Facebook, we saw 2.56 million 3-second video plays from 3.5 million impressions, with healthy retention throughout. On Meta, our link clicks were 67.1% higher than other campaigns in the same 30-day period, reflecting an informative, urgent and relative campaign for audiences.

Our ad campaign generated 1.2 million+ impressions and up to 5.75% CTR in key regions such as France and Belgium. Innovative ad formats, including impactful interscrollers and 10×10 creatives, contributed to high engagement, with CTRs reaching 0.48%.

The most impressive result of all, was our ability to translate audiences into passionate advocates for ocean change. Our content campaign drove a hugely impressive 9855 clicks through to the Ocean State Report, generating new leads for Mercator. This is our most successful lead generation campaign in ten years of StoryWorks content history!

Overall, the campaign’s blend of video and written worked seamlessly in tandem, thanks to the many internal resources we applied to enhance and expand our offering, that successfully delivered real value for Mercator Ocean and their mission to highlight and share oceanic change.

Video content

Bupa’s brand campaign aimed to inspire people to reflect on their personal relationship with health by showcasing what health means to some of the world’s most remarkable athletes. The inspiring stories of powerful athletes meant we had the perfect conversation kick-starter to encourage people to take a deeper look at their relationship with their health and what health means to them.

Key for the strategic direction was utilising the incredible images created by photographer Annie Leibovitz, who had previously captured the health story of each Para athlete through her striking portraits.

Using the images as a jumping off point for the National Geographic content, we could dive deeper into two of the featured Para athlete health journeys, as an authentic linkage to Bupa’s ‘Picture of Health’ campaign. Portrait storytelling allows the audience to follow Sara Andrés and Emmanual Oyinbo-Coker’s health journeys from their early beginnings, understanding their personal stories through videos and articles. The story arc was crafted to offer audiences insight into their lives and shine a light on opportunities to understand and apply learnings to their own lives, regardless of having levels of health associated with high-performing athletes.

The team produced compelling, high-quality visuals that showcased real-life stories, health journeys, and the beauty of nature in our human experience. The ‘Picture of Health’ campaign on National Geographic conveyed the core thought that health is multifaceted—encompassing physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing.

In addition to the inclusion of Annie Leibovitz’s photography, we invited audiences to submit their own portraits through a photo competition across our social channels, launched and moderated by esteemed National Geographic Photographer Anastacia Taylor-Lind. Selects from submissions were posted on our social channels with input and commentary from Anastacia.

A central hub on nationalgeographic.com provided a home for two 3” videos with associated articles. Cutdowns at 15”, 30”, and 60” were created for media placements on the website and in social media. Additionally, a set of banners were created for driving native content across nationalgeographic.com.

The National Geographic and Bupa ‘Picture of Health’ collaboration was authentic to Bupa because it aligned with the brand’s mission to build global recognition as a brand that understands health is unique to each of us.

Through world-class video, written content, and a global photography challenge, our campaign emphasized the importance of living a healthier life, and supported a community platform to help people achieve their best health outcomes.

Bupa approached National Geographic CreativeWorks due to their expertise in world-class video production and storytelling, and because they required a media plan to extend the reach of their brand campaign.

Bupa sought a partner to both amplify these important stories and spark a meaningful global conversation about the deep connection between health and self – with main KPIs being mass awareness and engagement.

Bupa was looking to specifically target audiences in the UK, Australia and Spain, where the National Geographic brand is strong, so we utilised four specific strengths of the National Geographic ecosystem:

1. We leveraged National Geographic’s own YourShot community on Instagram.
2. We used organic and paid tactics on our earned social media channels, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
3. We extended the campaign to Disney+ which not only increased reach but also excelled at delivering high video completion rates in the streaming environment.
4. We drove all placements and social posts across the platforms to the new branded content hubbed on dedicated pages on nationationalgeographic.com.

National Geographic’s YourShot is a highly engaged global photography community proprietary to National Geographic on Instagram. We launched a hashtag challenge and asked the @NatGeoYourShot Instagram community of amateur and professional photographers to share their own photos that captured their picture of what health is and what it means to them, using our unique hashtag. #BupaPictureofHealthChallenge.

In-feed photo posts, utilizing archival National Geographic photography around the topic of health, encouraged entries along with four call-out photo posts from editor Anastacia Taylor-Lind (which were then boosted to reach a wider but targeted audience). The selected top six stand-out images were posted to the YourShot feed, with Bupa tagged in the branded content tool and sponsor copy.

To maximise engagement, we distributed Instagram Reels and Facebook video posts to all National Geographic active social accounts. To maximise video completes, we ran the 60” versions of the Sara and Emmanuel videos across the Disney+ platform in the UK.

With strategic optimisations in mind, we created multiple ad sets with the Sara and Emmanual videos. For example, dark Facebook posts are a key website traffic driver, enabling us to continuously test and refine messaging optimising toward click through rates to maximise page views. The interest and contextual targeting focused on health and wellness, wellbeing, nature, healthy diets, science, psychology, National Geographic, National Geographic Society, fitness and wellness, and physical exercise.

Strong engagement rates and a remarkable 96% positive sentiment in social commentary evidenced the Para athlete’s stories made a deep audience connection, sparking the conversation on the connection between health and self.

Bupa saw increases in all 11 brand metrics amongst people recalling the National Geographic campaign, with a significant perception uplift in Spain and Australia in seeing Bupa as a wellness brand.

Brand tracking indicated the campaign reached 4 of 10 in their target audience, suggesting the unique creative increased reach and likely garnered earned media too.

Media delivered 5X more article pages views than the expected 44,000, with 37+ million impressions and 9 million video views, demonstrating quality traffic and strong audience engagement across formats and channels. The Instagram Reels, Facebook video posts, National Geographic YouTube network and Disney+ platforms all contributed to above-average engagement, generating over 230,000 interactions.

The stories of Sara and Emmanuel had close to 3X higher-than-average dwell times on both video article pages, and the YourShot challenge reached 8.6+ million people (44% of campaign total), with over 600 images shared. The six finalists’ photo posts significantly drove engagement levels 3.7X higher than benchmark.

On Instagram, we saw the highest engagement with the organic National Geographic audience, as photo posts delivered close to 4X more than other channels. The two Reels delivered 6.5M views.

The dark Facebook video posts, showcasing 60” edits of the Sara and Emmanuel videos, delivered 30% of total engagements, with many positive comments.

The UK Disney+ placements with the 60” versions of the videos had completion rates of 92% (90% NG benchmark). The shorter 15” video versions in the UK, Spain and Australia across the National Geographic YouTube network also had a very strong completion rate of 93% (85% NG benchmark).

NGCW Bupa Picture of Health content hub

NGCW Bupa Picture of Health video

Destination Canada invited National Geographic CreativeWorks to explore the concept of openness in remote locations. The campaign goals were to communicate to the target traveller that Canada offers a unique blend of openness—open spaces, open hearts, and open minds—offering space for growth and enrichment. Specific communication goals were:

• Inspire awe with Canada’s open spaces.
• Fuel refreshing perspectives with open minds.
• Foster a sense of belonging with open hearts.

Through customer research, Destination Canada has carefully defined and refined target audiences from key markets. Specifically, their core target Outdoor Explorer visitor seeks adventure, wildlife, and nature, actively seeking to explore remote and less-travelled locations. The stated benefit for these travellers was “In a world that makes us feel trapped, Canada’s openness helps us break free”.

These preferences align strongly with both National Geographic’s consumer audience and its own Explorer community, and it is the latter that share the same mission – to connect travellers with indigenous peoples, uncharted journeys, wellness, and sustainable travel.

With a great natural fit between the two brands’ missions, National Geographic CreativeWorks saw an opportunity to take a different approach to a traditional content production shoot. Instead, they gave three National Geographic Explorers an open brief to create inspiring stories with meaningful narratives, beautiful photography, and video footage.

The Explorers were given just two parameters:

1. Choose locations that reflect their authentic experience of Canada’s openness whilst highlighting diverse experiences, sustainability initiatives, and are respectful of all local cultures.
2. Focus content on seasons inspired by Canada’s Indigenous Peoples calendar, which is informed by nature and the world around them.

With the added luxury of 15 days on the road, the ever-curious Explorers’ aim was to produce video, audio and narrative content which would support a fully integrated multi-channel campaign encouraging visitation and inspiring love for Canada.

The photo assignment for the National Geographic Explorers, entrusted with complete creative freedom to tell the stories they lived during their defined season in their own way, was a first. By giving them the time to really connect with the people, land, flora, and fauna, the aim was to capture the spirit and openness of the people and spaces across Canada.

The distinctiveness of this approach was in the choice to have three photographers with three unique perspectives on the world, a lengthened production duration, and giving the artistic vision and direction to the photographers in the field.

To ensure there was a strong compelling narrative that would thread the stories together, the CreativeWorks team supported their research around the elements of the Canada’s Indigenous Peoples calendar ensuring each photographer had a guide to connect the stories.

The three seasons were:

• Season of Bounty: A time of coming together before the winter freeze. Harvest, festivals, family celebrations, bears and salmon.
• Season of Twilight: A time of relaxation, silence, clean crisp air, magical lights, night time adventures.
• Season of Wonder: A time of excess. Abundant sunlight, outdoor activities, kayaking, epic hiking, vast blue skies and balmy long evenings.

For each season, the photographers captured 50 images, along with ambient video clips designed to highlight Canada’s openness in hearts, minds, and spaces.

The campaign was highly relevant for Destination Canada because of the depth and diversity of the content enabled through the thematic and time-based stories. Importantly the content featured Indigenous perspectives and working with local guides we ensured these voices were heard and represented in tourism. It also promoted Canada’s authentic identity, presenting a fuller picture of the country’s urban culture, culinary richness, and deep connection between people and the land.

There was a focus on sustainable and responsible travel, showcasing eco-friendly and culturally respectful experiences and the location choices encouraged exploration of lesser-known regions like the Yukon and Northern Canada.

When developing creative for the media traffic-driving assets specifically, the team focused on what resonates most with our travel audience: adventure, immersive experiences, breathtaking visuals, and authentic, social-style content. As a result, we ensured our media creatives accurately captured our photographers’ journeys, with a heavy emphasis on wildlife imagery based on previous campaign learnings.

National Geographic is a long-time media partner of Destination Canada as they share heavily-aligned target audiences and a mission to tell destination stories beyond the obvious, highlighting the sense of place. Destination Canada sought a leading media brand to benefit from excellence in creativity, high-quality production, valuable research, and the opportunity to extend into events, social platforms, and Disney+ streaming.

By leveraging a mix of platforms and formats across the Disney ecosystem, including National Geographic, and compelling storytelling, we delivered a holistic approach that resonated with audiences on multiple levels. The diversity of platforms provides extensive reach and meaningful engagement, optimizing for frequency while minimizing wastage to deliver efficiency and effectiveness.

A balanced organic and paid approach was strategically chosen, with National Geographic’s large and loyal following fostering trust and driving organic interactions. Paid promotion boosted highly targeted traffic and visibility of high-performing creative.

Each platform and creative asset combination was selected based on previous learnings to optimize different aspects of the campaign according to the campaign KPIs.

Nationalgeographic.com hosted long-form articles, videos and photo galleries on our dedicated Canada Travel guide, along with editorial content, providing a more interactive and engaging experience.

Instagram was essential for driving video views and engagement metrics. With visual-first creative formats such as reels, posts, and carousels, it effectively told stories through imagery and short-form videos, fostering community interaction through organic formats.

Facebook drove traffic to article pages on nationalgeographic.com. We targeted adventure travellers, ecotourism enthusiasts, and frequent travellers. We used a combination of image and link posts, focusing on wildlife imagery, which resonated best with our audiences. Facebook’s combination of broad reach and precise targeting made it an ideal choice for content discovery and driving traffic back to our long-form articles

YouTube was a natural choice to host our hero videos, given its long-established National Geographic audience primed for consuming long-form content. Additional amplification through in-stream ads targeted YouTube’s vast and enthusiastic reach for adventure travel. By complementing organic efforts with paid amplification, we were expecting to scale engagement without sacrificing the authenticity of the content.

Finally, Disney+ added a further layer for increased visibility, amplifying and reinforcing the campaign messaging in a more immersive environment.

So did we inspire travellers to act? We did! The campaign impacted both top and bottom funnel metrics with statistical significance.

• 12% increase amongst campaign recallers when stating they were likely to start planning a trip to Canada.
• Awareness levels of Canada as a destination increased by 12 percentage points and the appeal of lesser-known regions improved with strong appeal for both Québec and the Maritimes.

Post-campaign sentiment analysis demonstrated the content successfully promoted a greater desire for new and unexplored destinations. Specifically, there was an increased appetite for active and adventurous experiences and interest in natural wonders, wildlife, cultural heritage, and local cuisine. This is completely aligned with the values of open minds, open spaces and open hearts.

We consistently saw above benchmark performance on nationalgeographic.com and in the media plan as follows:

• 2.5X average site dwell time as a result of the combination of text and multimedia content.
• 1.5X target engagements achieved with Instagram Reels accounting for 74% of total video views, of which one adventure focused reel featuring travel by a floatplane reached 2.5m views.
• The Insta carousel format also performed exceptionally well, with the stunning photography achieving significantly higher than industry average engagement rates.
• Facebook drove 89% of clicks and exceeded the page view target by 40,000. The best performing Facebook dark post was a stunning image of a local Wild Mountain Tours horse guide resting her face against her horse’s face in the wilderness of the Yukon Territory – CTR of 2.02% and engagement rate of 2.72%.
• The YouTube activity significantly boosted views by 9X. 1m people viewed at least one of the three five-minute hero videos via instream ad amplification.
• Disney+ saw a 94% video completion rate for 60” video length.

NGCW Destination Canada -Season of Wonder video

NGCW Destination Canada – Season of Bounty gallery

NGCW Destination Canada – Season of Twilight gallery

From Legacy to Leadership: Nokia’s Network Narrative

Nokia, a network technology titan hidden behind a phone-shaped shadow, needed a powerful reintroduction. Our strategic solution: illuminate Nokia’s role in shaping tomorrow’s technologies, directly addressing the ambitions and challenges of enterprise decision-makers.

Enter The Exponential Era, a content series designed to unveil the invisible force driving innovation: networks. We focused on sustainability, industrial digitalization, and quantum technology – themes resonating deeply with our audience. Through compelling narratives, we demystified complexity, showcasing Nokia’s expertise and positioning them as the driving force behind progress, powered by advanced network solutions.

For Nokia, choosing the right platform was paramount. Our data, gleaned from Global Business Influencers, pointed unequivocally to Bloomberg. Reaching a staggering 77% of their enterprise audience, Bloomberg wasn’t just a media outlet; it was a technology company in its own right, constantly pushing the boundaries of innovation. This inherent credibility with tech-focused leaders made them the perfect partner to tell Nokia’s story. Together, leveraging Bloomberg’s deep insights, we crafted a cross-platform strategy, delivering content in the formats enterprise leaders craved: immersive video, insightful podcasts, and engaging interactive experiences. It was a partnership built on shared values and a mutual understanding of the audience, ensuring Nokia’s message resonated powerfully.

The Exponential Era wasn’t about hype; it was about showcasing Nokia’s real-world impact, deep expertise, and bold ambition. Just like Nokia itself, the campaign was engineered to lead the way forward, rewriting the narrative and establishing Nokia as the architect of the future.

The Exponential Era: Seeing the Future, Powered by Nokia

To truly shift perceptions, we brought the future to life. The Exponential Era immersed enterprise decision-makers in a vivid, data-driven vision of how Nokia’s networks are already shaping tomorrow’s world.

Hosted by acclaimed mathematician and broadcaster Professor Hannah Fry, our custom video series featured in-depth interviews with Nokia Bell Labs experts. Set in a bespoke futuristic virtual environment created with Unreal Engine, the series offered a dynamic and engaging way to communicate complex technological innovations. By using immersive visuals combined with expert insights, these videos not only captured attention but also educated audiences on cutting-edge solutions that could transform industries.

Content include:

• Thierry Klein discussed how Industry 5.0 can transform jobs, enhance workplace safety, improve work-life balance, and boost business resilience.
• Liana Ault explained how digitalization accelerates the decarbonization journey.
• Michael Eggleston highlighted quantum technology’s potential to revolutionize drug discovery and data security.

Premiering during commercial breaks of Bloomberg’s Emmy-nominated The Future which was also hosted by Hannah Fry, the branded content aligned seamlessly with editorial programming, creating a unified narrative arc across both worlds. This blurred the lines between entertainment and thought leadership, amplifying Nokia’s story through Fry’s cultural credibility and global reach.

Beyond television, the campaign extended across digital, social, and on-demand platforms. Each theme was explored further through targeted LinkedIn content, long-form videos on YouTube and audio micro-casts.

Our videos were also further supported by a series of data-led digital articles. The written content, such as “Quantum Technology is a Threat to Data Security. It’s Also Part of the Solution” and “How the Grid is Helping Industries Shift”, helped cement Nokia’s position as a thought leader in network science, offering valuable technical perspectives for those looking to understand how emerging technologies could impact their enterprises and industries.

We also brought the narrative into the physical world. As a headline sponsor of the Bloomberg Tech Summit in London, we held a fireside chat with Professor Hannah Fry and a Nokia executive, curated an editorial breakout session, and launched Exponential Connections, an experiential game. This immersive installation allowed decision-makers to explore real-world applications of next-generation networks through a competitive and engaging game.

The creative solution was driven by data and powered by storytelling, to build trust and understanding. It gave Nokia a new voice, positioning the company not just as a technology provider, but as a visionary shaping the next era of business, society, culture, and the planet.

Amplifying Nokia’s transformation required a unified media approach that delivered consistent messaging across every environment where enterprise leaders engage. We built an integrated media ecosystem that combined premium content, editorial alignment, high-impact advertising formats, and real-world experiences.

At its core was a strategic partnership with Bloomberg, enabling full-spectrum distribution of our custom videos through the Bloomberg Video Everywhere network. This ensured Nokia’s story was seen by influential business audiences across linear television, over-the-top platforms, Bloomberg.com, the Bloomberg app, and curated social channels. Our sponsorship of The Future with Hannah Fry embedded Nokia within trusted editorial content, reinforcing credibility and extending the campaign’s resonance.

To broaden the impact, the campaign content was repackaged into channel-specific assets, including high-visibility Ad.Apt Play video units, native display formats, interactive Storycards, and contextually aligned touts across Bloomberg’s ecosystem.

We mirrored this approach across social platforms, deploying dynamic social formats such as carousels on LinkedIn and Facebook, as well as leveraging strategic audio extensions through radio placements and podcast sponsorships. This omnichannel strategy was designed to reach technology leaders where they spend their time and in the formats they prefer.

To drive traffic to a dedicated Bloomberg microsite, we employed a smart mix of audience and contextual targeting. First-party data from Bloomberg’s subscriber base enabled hyper-targeted delivery, while channel-level contextual targeting ensured that Nokia’s message appeared within relevant, high-attention environments.

Live activations at the Bloomberg Tech Summit extended this amplification into the physical realm. Onstage dialogue, curated networking, and the interactive Exponential Connections installation created shareable, high-impact moments that attendees further amplified via social media, linking Nokia’s physical presence to digital momentum.

We continuously optimized performance in real time by analysing engagement data across platforms to refine placements and creative executions. This iterative approach ensured we reached our audience with the right message, at the right moment, in the right format.

By combining owned, earned, and paid media, we created a flywheel effect in which each element reinforced the next. Nokia’s transformation story did not simply reach decision-makers; it resonated, compelled, and drove action across every touchpoint.

The Exponential Era delivered measurable brand transformation and exceptional engagement across all key metrics.

The campaign generated 14.2 million video views and 82,161 article views, resulting in a total of 2,420 hours of brand exposure. The average video completion rate was 84 percent, which was significantly higher than the industry benchmark of 61 percent. The content successfully captivated this high-value audience.

455 In-Person attendees were exposed to our Nokia messaging, fireside chat and experiential space at the Bloomberg Tech Summit with 30 highly curated executives also attending their lunchtime editorial session.

This engagement translated into powerful brand lifts among global enterprise decision-makers:
• +23 pts in brand awareness (spontaneous and prompted)
• +26 pts increase in selecting Nokia as a preferred supplier
• +30 pts in likelihood to recommend Nokia to peers
• +28 pts in consideration of Nokia for future enterprise needs

Nokia also rose from seventh to fourth place in its competitive set—an exceptional movement in a B2B category where perceptions typically shift slowly.

Brand attribute perceptions soared:
• +25 pts increase in agreement that Nokia is “a brand I trust”
• +29 pts in “a leader in networks”
• +32 pts in “has a clear vision for the future of networks”
• +34 pts in “is a technology innovation leader”
• +31 pts in “is an enterprise network provider”

Creative diagnostics showed extraordinary persuasion levels: over 90% of exposed respondents said the content made them more likely to consider or recommend Nokia. Even more compelling:
• 95% said Nokia is influential
• 96% viewed Nokia as expert
• 96% considered Nokia reliable

The Nokia-Bloomberg partnership earned a 9.3/10 fit rating, validating its strategic value.

The Exponential Era didn’t just communicate a message; it rewrote Nokia’s narrative, setting a new benchmark for B2B brand transformation and solidifying their position as a leader in the enterprise future.

The Exponential Era

UBS Group AG is a multinational investment bank and financial services company founded and based in Switzerland. It manages the largest amount of private wealth in the world, counting approximately half of the world’s billionaires among its clients.

In March 2023, UBS agreed to buy Credit Suisse, one of its main competitors, for $3.25 billion (CHF 3 billion), in an emergency rescue deal brokered by the Swiss government that entailed UBS inheriting Credit Suisse’s private clients. Under the global spotlight, the brand needed a new campaign platform to:

1: Reassure existing clients that the bank’s increase in scale would not impact the quality of service they receive.

2: Persuade clients inherited from Credit Suisse to remain with their new bank and avoid a run on the bank’s reserves.

3: Enable UBS to continue delivering on its growth strategy and attract new HNW clients in established and emerging markets.

4: Re-inspire trust in the brand among the global financial community.

Pre-campaign analysis of our pre-existing communication assets highlighted the need for audience development and refinement to better align with UBS’s objective of targeting high net worth individuals (HNWIs) – an extremely small consumer segment.

UBS understands this demographic better than any other bank or luxury brand. Clients with over 1 million dollars of investible assets form the brand’s customer base. Our strategy was to combine internal research, market analysis, and our first-party data to unlock the value of this knowledge while respecting Switzerland’s strict banking confidentiality laws.

By leveraging data clean rooms – a privacy-safe, next-generation targeting solution – we redefined what’s possible in financial services marketing. This allowed us to precisely reach high-value audiences while fully respecting strict privacy laws. In a compelling juxtaposition, a legacy industry embraced cutting-edge technology not to bypass regulations, but to honour them in smarter, more future-ready ways.

The central creative idea of this work was to position UBS’s wealth management services under the concept of ‘craft’ with the platform “Banking is our Craft”.

As a Swiss bank with a 160-year heritage, UBS was in a uniquely credible position to claim this brand truth.
The campaign needed to activate the concept of craft at every communication level, helping the brand to position its financial services as a bespoke luxury experience. This demanded an overhaul of the brand’s client-facing language.

Four short films were produced, as well as a series of powerful stills shot in Los Angeles, Vancouver and Tokyo, creating a campaign that visually and narratively embodied the very qualities of craft it promoted.

Content partnerships were developed to make the craft story come to life and engage our audience through editorial, video, and interactive games.

Exclusive money-can’t-buy experiences were developed that bring target segments closer to the craft they are most passionate about, with untold stories that go deep into the craft of our partners, ambassadors, employees and clients.

For 2024, we developed an audience-led, connected journey, supported by a full-funnel strategy that was three-part:

1: Prime our high-net-worth target in environments that communicate stature and value of the brand, through highly-visible channels (e.g. OOH, Print, Digital, Content Partnerships). This would create more people who are familiar with UBS, and more likely to be predisposed to UBS when they are in-market.

2: Nurture the target through the journey by using data signals and triggers that indicate in-market potential, inviting the target to spend time with the brand through a value exchange. This would create more people engaging with the brand, and more people considering UBS as a preferred / potential option.

3: Convert interested audiences by using behavioural triggers and calls-to-action to entice the target to get in touch and experience our craft in action. This would generate more leads for UBS to convert to clients.

And this was powered by a world first for our category.

Using Decentriq’s data clean rooms – a privacy-safe, next generation targeting solution – we gained deep behavioural insights into our target audience. These were scaled up to create new lookalike audiences, allowing us to precisely reach new high-value targets while fully complying with data privacy laws.

We fully embraced machine learning to help us execute our targeting strategy. With our, and our publishing partners’, encrypted first-party data, we created AI-based “lookalike” audiences to guide our targeting. Then, we enabled systems to monitor the audiences and assign budget to those performing best.

As a global initiative covering all markets and campaigns, our approach evolved iteratively, analysing responses and user interactions (e.g., landing page visits, form submissions) from lookalike audiences to refine future targeting in a continuous optimisation loop.

By reframing its existing partnerships and sponsorship engagements through the lens of the campaign, the brand was able to guide conversations on the craft behind fashion, art, Formula 1, and other fields.

A truly global campaign, it reached high-net-worth-individuals across key markets including the United States, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Australia, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Brazil, and Mexico.

+9% increase in brand familiarity
+13% increase in brand preference

+98% onsite engagement lift in Singapore with SPH publishing partner
+52% onsite engagement lift in the US with Wall Street Journal

• 87.84% of all leads and 79.24% of quality visits came from AI-lookalike audiences
• 46% percent drop in Cost-per-Quality Visit
• 50% drop in Cost-per-Form Success
• 19% of clicks from the lookalike audiences resulted in a quality visit, the highest conversion rate across all targeting methods

Double digit growth in all advertising metrics:
(Average increase across all Tier-1 markets (US, HK, SG), year-on-year)

Ad Performance (+16%p)

• Ad awareness (+15%p)
• Tagline awareness (+23%p)
• Tagline association to UBS (+19%p)

Creative Evaluation (+11%p)

• Appealing (+19%p)
• Relevant (+14%p)

Conveyed Image (+16%p)

• High quality (+20%p)
• Innovative (+15%p)

Brand Fit (+14%p)

• Ads make sense (+13p%)
• Makes me curious (+11%p)

Client Global Website