NowThis is the #1 mobile news publisher in the world. We have a singular mission: to make news engaging and relevant for young adults by humanizing our complicated world. By providing insightful context from a youth perspective and delivering content primarily through social media platforms, NowThis has revolutionized how news is delivered today. Launched in 2012, NowThis’ entertaining, inspiring and informative videos are created for a mobile generation who consistently spend nearly 20M hours every month watching its content.
More often than not, news surrounding the climate crisis appears to reveal an insurmountable challenge — the need for mankind to recalibrate its impact on Earth. NowThis’ original series, One Small Step, aims to make the climate crisis personal by empowering and educating our young audience to take small steps toward helping solve climate change. One Small Step’s hopeful tone turns viewers’ fear into power -- with each episode, our goal is to show that we can make a big difference with the choices we make every day. We break down the issue of waste and sustainability piece by piece to answer one of the most important questions facing the world today: How do we save our planet?
After covering the Standing Rock protests in 2015, NowThis producer Lucy Biggers decided to go further to better understand human impact on the environment and explore what could be done to help educate youth about the climate crisis. NowThis debuted One Small Step in January 2019 with the objective of pivoting energy into action -- all with a hopeful, positive attitude. The original series, published across YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, IGTV and Snapchat, follows Lucy as she travels the U.S. and explores different ways to live a more environmentally friendly life. From going a month without single-use plastics to learning how concerned citizens got St. Petersburg Florida to commit to renewable energy, One Small Step takes the fear out of the climate crisis and gives its audience one small step they can take to help make the world a better, cleaner place.
In our most-viewed episode to date, Lucy explores how we can responsibly dispose of clothes. After visiting a thrift shop, meeting with a clothing recycler, and speaking with a fast-fashion rep, Biggers brought viewers more options and crucial info on discarding clothes sustainably. The episode has garnered more than 2M video views (and counting) and viewers spent more than 40K hours watching it across platforms.
We strategically choose timely and highly-relevant topics that align with conversations our audience is having now -- and in many cases NowThis covers newsmakers and topics before they enter the zeitgeist. One Small Step interviewed Greta Thunberg, a teen climate activist, three months BEFORE she gained wide-spread attention after sailing from the UK to New York City in an effort to reduce her carbon footprint. Additionally, we respond to our viewers’ direct questions and suggestions on topics that they’re looking for more information on.
One Small Step has created a community of engaged viewers who are taking action to make a big change for the environment. Lucy regularly gets messages from viewers sharing that they have started taking action - from recycling and composting to even starting a garden. We often receive feedback that this is the first time viewers are starting to feel hopeful around the climate crisis. One Small Step shows viewers that they are not powerless in making our world a better place.
Over the course of two seasons and 16 episodes, One Small Step has seen the following success:
One Small Step has garnered nearly 12M total views, over 240K hours of watch time, and 220K engagements (share, comments, reaction, like, etc.) across Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.
American Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY) retweeted an episode of One Small Step that showed viewers the benefits of turning your lawn into a food garden and called on her followers and the government to support similar initiatives
After the quick success and deep fan engagement, One Small Step was re-upped for a third season, which will premiere later this year.
