The National Parks are among America's most cherished treasures, drawing 300MM+ recreational visits each year. Since the pandemic, their popularity has skyrocketed, leading to infrastructure strain exacerbated by budget constraints in Washington, most of which has been placed on the “big name parks” (i.e. Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, etc.). By 2024, the National Parks Service, and their non-profit arm, the National Park Foundation, were seeking innovative ways to introduce less well-known yet equally impressive Parks to a wider audience. They were also looking for additional funding to preserve these Parks for future generations, recognizing the need for a creative strategy to expand park access without increasing physical visitation.
Meanwhile, and worlds away, Paramount+ sought to differentiate themselves from other streamers to drive awareness and foster brand loyalty. A core tactic in recent years had been a national ad campaign, titled “A Mountain of Entertainment,” in which top talent from across their platform, including the likes of MTV’s Snooki, and Star Trek’s Captain Picard, gather at the summit of the fictional “Paramount Mountain.” Paramount+ sought to double down on their “Mountain of Entertainment” positioning and came to us to extend their media campaign, with an openness to whichever advertising/marketing tactic or platform would get them there.
We aimed to build a bridge between the “Mountain of Entertainment'' campaign and real mountains by aligning the National Park Foundation and Paramount+. The win-win strategy was to lean into the mountain metaphor and make a statement about the diversity and splendor of Paramount+ content, while leveraging the power and scale of Paramount+ and its 70MM+ subscribers to achieve the Parks’ goals. Specifically, we wanted to do something show-stopping that engaged people where they already were - in their homes.
To make it happen, we brokered an on-going, annual partnership between Paramount+ and the National Park Foundation, making Paramount+ the Foundation’s “first official streaming partner.” Paramount+ committed to partnering with the National Park Foundation to support the Parks in two key ways:
By leveraging the Paramount+ streaming platform and YouTube channel, we coordinated live streams of the most dramatic and inspiring vistas for free to everyone in the United States and worldwide.
Launched on Earth Day 2024, we broadcast content from seven national Parks over seven days, featuring views from both popular and lesser-visited Parks. To ensure we protected the Parks for future generations, we included fundraising QR codes within the live broadcasts, which allowed people at home to donate to the National Parks. Featured Parks Included:
Pulling off this one-of-a-kind collaboration required overcoming several hurdles. For one, working in collaboration with a federal government agency in some of the most remote locations in the country usually takes years to execute. Despite being told in early 2024 that this project was very challenging to complete by Earth Day, we made it happen in a truncated timeline. Additionally, our camera crews were pushed out beyond the reaches of any sufficient, existing internet connectivity, so we opted for Starlink satellites for their portability and reliable streaming bandwidth.
In the lead-up to launch, the live streams were announced through a PR campaign and media partnership with The New York Times, using the tagline, "Yes, You Can Literally Stream a Stream. Enjoy." Paramount+ and the National Park Foundation promoted the partnership through a social media campaign across Instagram, X, and Facebook. As bonus, evergreen content for Paramount+, 8K footage from each Park was edited into “Moments of Zen” - i.e. calming meditative video clips of the Parks’ splendor to support mental health.
