National Geographic has captured many natural wonders of the world and shared them through its breadth of content, and at Disney’s D23 superfan event in Anaheim, CA, attendees got a chance to plant themselves in the middle of it all at the “Hexadome.” To remind fans that Nat Geo offers a diverse collection of content and that it all falls under the Disney umbrella, the brand built a spherical theater installation that enveloped viewers in its top series and transported them around the planet with the help of six massive screens and 52 speakers.
From Aug. 9-11 at the Anaheim Convention Center, attendees consistently lined up to take part in the 360-degree Hexadome experience, with many fans becoming repeat visitors in order to view the 12-minute spectacle from a different angle. The all-ages-friendly experience offered a little something for everyone with a mix of past and present content that featured appearances by Nat Geo staples like Jane Goodall and Jacques Cousteau, along with footage from current series that took fans on a journey from the highest mountain peaks to the depths of the ocean.
“We sent the edit team hundreds and hundreds of hours of footage because they were the experts in what would really work in the Hexadome environment,” says Chris Albert, former evp at National Geographic. “And we have such great IP, past, present and future. So you felt like you were hanging off the cliff with Alex Honnold from ‘Free Solo,’ or you were swimming with a stingray with Bertie Gregory, or you were walking on the side of a volcano with Katia and Maurice Krafft from ‘Fire of Love,’ or you were rappelling down a cave with Will Smith.”
Nat Geo enlisted the Berlin Institute for Sound and Music to develop the Hexadome, which featured more than 520 audio tracks mixed into the experience. The institute first built a mini version of the structure in Germany, where Albert and a colleague spent five days viewing the content, giving feedback, brainstorming and discussing the installation. Then, while the sound team slept, the edit team in Australia made revisions.
“It’s not like you’re editing for a television screen,” says Albert. “You really have to think in this three-dimensional, six-screen experience [way] as images move from screen to screen, and how that works.”
Beyond the core Hexadome experience at D23, which housed 200 people per hour all weekend, fans could engage in two photo moments developed by Nat Geo’s expeditions team. They could also participate in an event-wide Great Pin Collection (D23 attendees love collecting pins, Albert says). At every Disney Entertainment booth, National Geographic included, attendees could snag a themed pin. Naturally, Nat Geo’s was a penguin.
After 20 years with Nat Geo, Albert is exiting the company this week, and says producing the 2024 D23 experience was a “very exciting and fulfilling swan song for my time here.”
The brand’s presence stretched beyond the convention center, however. On the first evening of D23, Nat Geo delivered an interactive audience activation featuring David Blaine during Disney Entertainment Night at the Honda Center. To give its upcoming show “David Blaine: Do Not Attempt” a boost, the brand invited the magician to perform a card trick that involved all 12,000 people in the audience.
A quick snapshot: Attendees first viewed a teaser trailer for the new show, then were surprised to see Blaine in the flesh as he took the stage. Meanwhile, they had each received a custom D23-branded deck of cards (hello, collectible) sealed inside an envelope that read “Do Not Open.” When Blaine gave the green light, participants opened their card decks and were instructed to shuffle them around, then choose a single card without looking at it and slide it under their leg. Long story short, by the end of the trick, every single person had discovered that the card they drew was a three of hearts.
All told, Albert says the campaign was a definitive success, noting that attendees consistently waited in line for an hour in order to experience the Hexadome installation.
“Our KPIs were to bring our brand to D23 in a bigger, better, smarter, more innovative, creative way than we had in the past,” he says. “To bring something that people would be willing to stand in line for an hour and be excited about. To have something that people would want to see more than once. And really an experience that reminded all these amazing fans that National Geographic is part of the Walt Disney family, and that our storytelling is unique in the Disney portfolio.” Agency: Little Cinema.
Photo credit: Little Cinema for Nat Geo
