Why do we explore? In collaboration with Costa Sunglasses, National Geographic CreativeWorks set out to explore what draws modern-day adventurers to life on the water and what gives their journeys meaning as part of Costa’s “See What’s Out There” campaign–an invitation to explore every stretch, bend, and corner of our watery world. Our goal was to position Costa not just as a high-performance eyewear company, but as a brand that inspires exploration and champions the protection of oceans and waterways.
By telling the story of a purpose-driven National Geographic photographer and integrating Costa products organically into our storytelling, we aimed to connect the brand with conservation, adventure, and the spirit of discovery while aligning our custom content rollout to the launch of Costa’s new Untangled™ Collection, crafted from recycled fishing nets.
To achieve this, we enlisted National Geographic photographer and Costa Sunglasses ambassador Andy Mann. Prior to this campaign, Mann had spent months organizing a personal expedition to Chile’s Juan Fernández Islands, a remote archipelago known for its exceptional biodiversity. His goal for the two-week expedition was to spotlight efforts by the local community to expand marine protected areas.
Once we received the green light to begin campaign pre-production, we reached out to Mann about capturing content for this campaign during his expedition. One of our key challenges was executing on a tight timeline: Andy returned from Chile in late April 2025, and we launched our first custom content elements in late May. By leveraging Mann’s pre-existing trip, we tapped into months of prior planning, and the result was exclusive, impactful, cinematic content that resonated with audiences.
Our hero storytelling pieces consisted of two vertical video shorts published across @NatGeo and @NatGeoAdventure Instagram/Facebook Reels, YouTube Shorts, and TikTok. The first centered on the Juan Fernández fur seal population, which has rebounded from near extinction, highlighting why Mann is drawn to explore the world’s oceans. The second, published on World Oceans Day, showcased the role of fishermen and the local community in safeguarding marine protected areas. Instagram photo posts, vertical stories, and a narrative digital article extended and deepened the campaign’s storytelling. Across all content, Costa Sunglasses products were integrated organically. We also produced two shoppable products: a shoppable Instagram carousel post featuring custom photography of Mann wearing Costa products, and a shoppable streaming ad on Hulu.
A Nat Geo unit on Hulu streaming sponsorship, targeted brand media, and sponsorship of NatGeo.com’s editorial Adventure hub complemented the custom content campaign and extended Costa’s reach.
This multi-platform approach combined world-class content capture, compelling storytelling, strategic timing, and e-commerce to reinforce Costa’s mission of inspiring exploration while championing the protection of our oceans and waterways.
RESULTS:
Through authentic, impactful storytelling, we successfully drove brand love and brand lift for Costa. This campaign resonated deeply with our audiences, meeting or exceeding engagement and clickthrough performances benchmarks in almost every category across National Geographic’s social and digital platforms and Disney+ and Hulu streaming.
Notably, 21 social posts received 11.85M social views, 141K engagements and 62.8K clicks on content, and the shoppable streaming ad unit garnered 1.2M impressions, with above- benchmark video completion and QR code scan rates.
According to a streaming brand lift study measuring the campaign, the custom ad unit and brand ads achieved above-benchmark lifts in awareness, consideration and recommendation, as well as brand perception across almost every attribute. Among core GenZ and Young Millennial audiences, the campaign achieved 13x the category benchmark for awareness lift and double-digit lifts in nearly every metric.
According to a social brand lift study measuring the campaign, social content achieved full-funnel lift across every attribute, generating positive sentiment and halo effect on Costa’s owned social accounts with 27K new followers, 15x engagement, and 176% more content views. Our content effectively captured attention and boosted interest, with 62% of exposed audiences expressing increased interest in the company/product after seeing the National Geographic campaign.
Finally, following the publication of the custom digital article and first vertical video, the president of Chile announced his commitment to expand marine protections around the Juan Fernández Islands, in a huge win for conservation.
