Shortlisted 2020

LIFESTYLE, LUXURY AND FASHION

Brand

Prada EcoNyl

Entered by:

National Geographic Partners

Credits:

What We Carry

The Challenge

  • The world of fashion is one of the single largest contributors globally to landfill. As fast fashion grows into a multi-billion dollar industry, it’s a hot button issue that we aren’t talking about enough.
  • But luxury Italian fashion brand Prada is tackling the issue head on with a bold new initiative called ”The Re-Nylon Project”.
  • To showcase Prada’s first step in the right direction and their commitment to pursuing sustainable practices in their products, they approached National Geographic for a global content partnership.
  • Together we told the story of the creation of their first line of eco-friendly products: a range of nylon bags based on their timeless classic bag collection.
  • But these weren’t just any bags. The capsule collection of bags, totes and backpacks are all made using a reconstituted nylon yarn called EcoNyl.
  • EcoNyl is obtained through recycling and purification of plastic waste from all around the world: plastic from our oceans, fishing nets, textile fibre waste and factory offcuts .
  • These pieces of trash are depolymerized and repolymerized into treasure, meaning they can now be recycled indefinitely with no loss of quality.
  • By 2021, Prada plans to have all nylon in their products replaced with EcoNyl.

The Creative Solution

  • To tell the story of where the component parts of EcoNyl come from, we went to all corners of the world to find out where they come from ; and the real human stories behind them.
  • We visited Arizona to discover the untold story of carpets and their catastrophic presence in landfills all over the globe.
  • We visited Cameroon and met local fisherman who survive by finding food in a lake that is also home to endangered species.
  • We visited New Zealand and accompanied a team of dedicated volunteers as they salvaged a dangerous ghost net at the bottom of the ocean.
  • We visited a clothing factory in China to discover what happens to the endless offcuts of fabric that fall to the factory floor.
  • Finally we visited Slovenia where all these pieces of trash arrive from all over the floor and are transformed into pure, recyclable EcoNyl thread.
  • On the journey, were five highly esteemed National Geographic Explorers who were experts in specific fields related to the components being featured.
  • They were also accompanied by a high-profile eco-conscious Prada Ambassador – fashion models, actors and poets.
  • Holding the campaign together, and inspired by the collection’s conscious approach to product design & manufacturing with sustainability and social responsibility woven into its very thread, we gave the campaign the title “What We Carry”.
  • “What We Carry” represented the collective responsibility we all share to understand the stories behind the products in our lives and how every Prada Re-Nylon product carries a positive story for National Geographic to tell.

The Media/Content Amplification Solution

Consumers are speaking with their wallets – 88% of consumers would buy products from a purpose driven brand and 73% of millennials are willing to pay more for products from socially responsible companies. NG in the business of saving the planet – 47m+ NG consumers agree with the statement “I’m more likely to purchase brands that support a cause I care about” and 46m+ NG consumers agree that “A company’s environmental record is important to me as I make purchasing decisions”

To reach them, we gathered all the content together on a National Geographic owned hub, featuring an interactive map of the world, allowing people to engage with the countries we visited on our journey.

On this hub, you could watch all 5 3-5 minute videos; as well as find out more information on both the National Geographic explorer and Prada celebrity ambassador featured in it.

Each video linked to a rich long form digital article, written by our journalists, giving more detail and backstory to the story told in the video.

A listicle also listed other stories, products and concepts in the videos -from communities living in harmony with nature; to other products made from similar materials.

As you would expect from National Geographic, we also leaned heavily on photography, and created a bespoke interactive gallery for each location , featuring 10-12 images that told a visual story through intimate editorial images. We even captured a separate suite of equally high quality product shots on location for Prada’s use on e-commerce and in PR.

Finally we captured the largest most engaged audience on lnstagram with a monthly lnstagram story reaching our 130 million plus audience on the channel; as well as social amplification across Facebook and lnstagram.

We leveraged position as no. 1 brand on social in both reach and engagement to maximise engagement with the What We Carry content. Developed a detailed social calendar, utilising most relevant social accounts. Distributed content via the Hero FB account – always-curious audience, interested in understanding our world, mesmerising content, newsy science and discoveries and natural phenomena.

Through lnstagram stories from NG Hero – our largest account – we launched each new chapter with impact, delivering in excess of 1Om impressions per story.

Bespoke banners, using high quality imagery from the partnership to build awareness of the partnership within NG ecosystem, drive frequency of messaging and click-throughs to content. The average CTR was 0.33% vs IAB benchmark of 0.05%.

The Result

209k page views with over 140k unique visitors.
2.7million video views, with 551,000 of them reaching 100% completion.
35% higher dwell time than any other NG.com  content of 3 mins and 24 seconds (our average is 2.31). Display CTR of 0.33%,6.6x higher than the industry average and 74% higher than our own NG.com avera ge. Pre-roll CTR of 3.08%.
88.9 million impressions against only 56million planned largely due to a massive over delivery on our lnstagram Stories, which reached over 2million unique users per chapter.
Our engagement on Facebook was 97% higher than the industry average.