Car SOS

National Geographic is a brand that needs no introduction. Its audience, across geographies, engages with the brand's content on social media channels very well. But when it comes to the Nordics (Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway), audience engagement has been very low. So, when NatGeo's very popular show - Car SOS - was premiering in the Nordics, the team wanted to make some noise in its local markets by producing four, original videos for four countries and then cross-promoting the localized version of each video across four countries. The main motive was to activate and engage with its local audience on social media.          

Pegging on the concept of the show, which is about two hosts (one master mechanic and the other, a parts manager) restoring vintage cars, we decided to find two talents in each country and give them a challenge to build a vintage car model using local props. We paired a prop-expert (who knows how to build using props) with a vintage car specialist (who knows a lot about vintage cars) to give the narrative a striking resemblance to the show but still retain the local touch. 

The idea was unique because the props, the talents, and the language were all local. 

The Swedish team was asked to build a model of Messerschmitt KR200 using IKEA materials, the Finnish team a model of 1969 Buick Electra 225 Convertible using ice, the Danish team a model of Opel Corsa A-model using bicycle parts, and the Norwegian team a model of Renault 4 from 1980 using wood.

All the four videos displayed a heightened sense of urgency and intrigue, which, as we had planned, caught the viewers' attention. Spoon then localized all the videos and promoted them on the local Facebook pages. When published, the engagement went through the roof. The videos managed to start conversations on National Geographic’s FB pages, where people were tagging each other and talking to one another in the commenting thread. Perfect engagement!  

This was one of National Geographic Nordics’ most successful campaigns.