Awards finalist (2026)
Bupa: Living Without Limits
Brand:
Bupa
Entered by:
National Geographic Creative Works
Credits:
National Geographic Creative Works, Disney +
Category:
Brand & Media Owner Partnership (Over €1m)
Content Solution
The teams at Bupa and National Geographic recognized there was a natural synergy between National Geographic’s Limitless: Live Better Now docuseries airing on Disney+ and Bupa’s mission to help people live longer, happier, and healthier lives. The audience attracted to the docuseries would be the prime target audience for Bupa’s new product, either to talk about it or adopt for their own use.
The docuseries “Limitless: Live Better Now” highlights the importance of a proactive and preventative approach to health – something Bupa is committed to providing their customers via Blua, which offers virtual doctors appointments, online health programmes and remote healthcare.
National Geographic proposed a thematically-tied custom content series produced by the National Geographic CreativeWorks production team so ‘Living without limits’ was born. Four extraordinary individuals revisited the pivotal moment that redefined their limits, revealing that health setbacks don’t have to be barriers – they can be the beginning of a transformation:
- Yagazie Emezi, National Geographic Photographer learns to manage her relationship with pain after a debilitating childhood accident
- Dr. Romain Pizza, Wildlife Veterinary Surgeon discovers the technique of mental visualization to overcome fear and stress in the field
- Stewart Roberts (MBE), Haircuts4Homeless Founder overcomes addiction by connecting with others through acts of kindness
- Ruby Tui, Black Ferns International Rugby Player and World Champion combats overwhelming energy by regaining control over her breath
Through immersive visuals and direct-to-camera reflections, we step inside their experience as it happens. This is raw, cinematic storytelling that reminds the audience: if they can do it, so can we.
Thematically-aligned to Limitless: Live Better Now docuseries episodes, each piece of custom content produced by National Geographic CreativeWorks was created to inform and educate by including the following elements:
- A Moment of Change: Every episode unfolds around a single transformational moment, rather than a full biography
- Immersive Cinematic Style: A mix of unfolding action, abstract reenactments, and emotional direct-to-camera storytelling
- Tangible Lessons: Every episode leaves audiences with an actionable takeaway they can apply in their own lives
National Geographic CreativeWorks produced assets for use on nationalgeographic.com in video articles as well for use in the content promotion. A ‘Living without limits’ video article included a 3.5’ hero video with Individual storyline videos produced in three edit lengths: 90”, 60”, 15”.
Media/Content Amplification Solution
Marking the first-ever multi-market Disney+ sponsorship, Blua, digital health by Bupa partnered with National Geographic as the official global sponsor of Limitless: Live Better Now, placing the brand at the center stage of one of National Geographic’s biggest shows in 2025.
Leading up to – and beyond – the docuseries launch, Blua-presented idents, brand video, and tagged tune-ins ran on Disney+ across 12 markets. National Geographic built a custom new social promo ad format for Bupa to leverage – essentially a trailer for the content that runs in paid social media and Disney+ with a Bupa Blua tag, targeting Bupa audiences. All content included subtitles for Disney+ Spain, Turkey and Latam Markets.
Blua’s sponsorship extended from the screen to in-person at the London premiere for Limitless: Live Better Now, attended by docuseries lead Chris Hemsworth. At the premier, Bupa had prominent branding throughout the event (including collateral) and were able to invite corporate guests and relevant journalists to access the “yellow” carpet for a B2B and earned media component. This generated an interview with the docuseries lead and the opportunity to create social content custom for Bupa.
Given that the campaign objective was to drive awareness through informing and educating, a multi-channel approach to the media plan versus a singular sponsorship focus was essential. Beyond the series sponsorship, the four National Geographic CreativeWorks ‘Living without limits’ 60” custom content videos ran on the Disney+ platform in Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Portugal, Turkey, Spain and UK.
On Facebook @NatGeo account, 60” dark video posts targeted people interested in health, serving as traffic drivers to the nationalgeographic.com video article. 90” organic Instagram Reels generated video views in tandem with organic multi-chapter Instagram stories (both on the @natgeo account) to maximise reach.
On YouTube, the full-length 3.5” hero video was published on the highly subscribed @natgeo providing significant built-in reach. It was supported by a TrueView boost, driving audiences across YouTube in the target markets UK, Spain, HongKong, Brazil, China, Mexico, Australia and Turkey to the hero video on the channel.
To maximize engagement, the team leveraged 4x organic 90” TikTok video posts on the @natgeo profile.
Rounding out the holistic media plan, ROS display content banners appeared across nationalgeographic.com and 15x Health newsletters promoted Limitless on Disney+ and the custom produced Bupa content. Finally, a full-page print ad for Limitless, with Blua sponsorship, appeared in the October 2025 issue of National Geographic.
Results
As the official global sponsor of the Limitless: Live Better Now docuseries, Bupa received visibility in over 1,500 pieces of press coverage from the premiere event (241m estimated views), including 25 interviews and broadcast coverage from ITV and Good Morning Britain.
Twenty Bupa-tagged organic editorial posts across a variety of National Geographic social accounts generated 5m impressions, while the brand new social format bespoke for Bupa on Disney+ Instagram generated 5.2m impressions in key markets of UK, Spain, and Australia.
The Blua-presented Limitless: Live Better Now idents, brand video, and tagged tune-ins that ran on Disney+ provided significant reach via 14.7m impressions.
The custom content media as a whole demonstrated success across formats and channels, with impressions overdelivering by 50%, 7x more clicks than planned, 30% more video views than forecasted, and social engagement volume more 2x higher than planned.
The ‘Living without limits’ video article attracted over 106,000 page views, 9 times more than forecasted, with an exceptional dwell time over 4 minutes, triple the National Geographic average.
On Youtube, the hero 3.5” video quickly became the most-viewed National Geographic CreativeWorks upload on the channel, generating over 2.7 million views. Engagement was equally strong, with the video achieving a 65% completion rate, significantly outperforming the 40% benchmark.
In total, consideration for Blua (among those aware of Blua) rose throughout and following the campaign period. (Source: May 2026 Bupa research).
