Savage Kingdom on Nat Geo Wild follows groups of lions, hyenas and leopards as they attempt to survive the African Savannah. With Season 2 premiering on Black Friday, we leveraged the proximity to Thanksgiving with a buzz-worthy stunt to amplify our social campaign built around a core idea:
Wild Animals, Human Drama.
Wildlife produced and directed an Interactive Live Stream that put an original spin on a traditional meal. We invited the world-famous Columbus Zoo and their pride of Lions to be our guests of honor as we set out to orchestrate a compelling display of savagery around the dinner table and turn it into an interactive experience for a live audience.
Knowing the week of Thanksgiving was a perfect opportunity to take advantage of the country’s focus on family dinners, complicated relationships and less-than-civil interactions, we devised an impressive Thanksgiving feast of our own to bring attention to Savage Kingdom.
Before the rush of holiday travel, folks are stuck at work, grinding out the last few days before they gather with family around the table. We knew that people would be looking for something entertaining to kill time at work and that they’d have food on the brain. What better way to remind people of our animalistic urges than to unleash a family of lions on a bountiful Thanksgiving meal and see what happens?
As the stream began we built tension, showing the zookeepers setting the table and placing the last elements before dinner time. We asked viewers to weigh in on the menu, predict what food our guests would eat first and even used a starting lineup graphic to introduce the wild participants.
Picture in picture and full-screen graphics showcasing the recipes for certain dishes provided an in-depth experience, enhancing the action as we answered the audience’s burning questions. Moments before the big event, we ran an exclusive promo for Savage Kingdom to get fans’ adrenaline pumping before we unleashed the lions on their feast.
We incorporated the TV show’s intense musical score during the feeding as well as live-audio from within the exhibit to heighten the drama. Just two days before Thanksgiving, we delivered a livestream built to appeal to a ravenous audience with the kind of content the Internet yearns for. Lion experts were on hand to provide real-time insight and respond to user comments from the Facebook feed, with answers appearing on-screen via our custom lower third graphics and tickers.
Remote cameras inside the enclosure allowed our crew to capture the action from every angle and keep our team from becoming appetizers. We broadcast all the action from 4 intimate camera angles and a bonus GoPro positioned in a tree — only barely out of reach of the pride! The lions proved up to the task as they devoured the food, toppled the centerpieces and rewarded eager fans with highlight reel interactions. Additional cameras outside the enclosure gave us flexibility to capture whatever transpired.
Safely on the other side of the glass, we kept the show humming in our impromptu control room as the Facebook Live audience continued to grow. The lions enjoyed Thanksgiving staples like stuffing, creamed corn, turkey and pumpkin – faithfully recreated and carefully prepared with the help of the zoo’s nutritional staff.
The zoo’s lion experts were on hand to provide real-time insight and respond to user comments from the Facebook feed, answered back on-screen with our custom graphics and tickers.
Amidst plenty of growls, snarled warnings and swipes of their claws, the animals showcased their savage side and destroyed the feast appropriately. One lioness even walked away with a gold plate! The high-quality production values and rare look at pride dynamics during feeding time hooked our audience and propelled the live-stream to more than 596k views and a reach of almost 2 million people. #SavageThanksgiving became a trending topic during our one-hour live stream.. Our viewers engaged with 8.2k+ reactions, 1.4k+ shares, 3.9k+ comments and generated a sizeable audience for the season premiere just a couple days later.
ABC News visited us at the Columbus Zoo and ran a story about the unusual event, earning air-time for our client and a chance to talk to a wider audience about the stunt and Savage Kingdom itself with awareness for Thanksgiving dinner peaking. We reached existing fans of the show, branched out to new demographics and even got a re-tweet from celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay. Savage Kingdom: Uprising premiered to strong numbers and secured a season three renewal for the series with the promise of more incredible encounters in the African Savannah!
Ranging from character profiles to recaps of Season 1 and week-to-week episode highlights we engaged a broad range of fans including wildlife buffs and those who might be drawn into the show by Charles Dance’s (Game of Thrones’ Tywin Lannister) silky narration.
Our designers crafted intense visuals that highlighted the environment where the many tribes in the Savage Kingdom fight for survival. Animated infographics highlight the scientific data that makes each species so deadly while more narrative driven stories explore the complex dynamics of each conflict, both between families and enemies spread across the land.