What makes a city happy? San Diego Tourism and National Geographic CreativeWorks embarked on a collaboration to explore that question through a cinematic look at how joy is lived, shared, and rooted in a place. The objective was to redefine San Diego via the lived experiences of three San Diegans whose lives embody the city’s spirit: Explorer Albert Lin, chef Tara Monsod, and legendary surfer Rob Machado. Through their voices, the campaign set out to show how nature, culture, food, and community intertwine to create San Diego’s distinctive “culture of happiness.” The campaign focused on themes of connection: the meditative rhythm of paddling into a wave, the rediscovery of ancestral history, the joy of infusing a meal with fresh, local ingredients. These moments form a portrait of a city where happiness is cultivated and lived with intention every day. To inspire travelers by capturing San Diego’s happiness, we paired these locals with world-traveler and photographer Kiliii Yüyan, whose intrinsic happiness is infused into every conversation and experience. In a landscape crowded with glossy tourism videos, we created a film that makes audiences feel something real.
Our strategy was to move beyond conventional tourism video tropes by leaning heavily on National Geographic’s reputation for authentic travel storytelling. The selection of local icons—Albert Lin (exploration/ancestral history), Tara Monsod (food/agriculture), and Rob Machado (nature/outdoor meditation)—was strategic, ensuring the narrative spanned San Diego’s varied ecological terrains (ocean, mountains, desert) and social pillars, comprehensively answering the question: “what fuels a city’s culture of optimism?” By pairing these locals with photographer Kiliii Yüyan, we ensured the resulting film felt like an authentic discovery process, allowing Kiliii’s curiosity to guide the narrative. The hero film was distributed via Nat Geo’s YouTube and Facebook platforms, within NatGeo.Com digital content, and was premiered at an event in NYC in May. Film cutdowns were showcased within a Disney Streaming Max Selector Ad Unit, Kerv units, and within a company-first high-impact YouTube Masthead ads.
