Hurtigruten Expeditions renews partnership with Sky Nature!

HX (Hurtigruten Expeditions), the world’s leading expedition cruise company, announced it has renewed its broadcast sponsorship of the Sky Nature channel for 2024, following a successful partnership in 2022. The partnership will help to continue driving awareness for the protection and conservation work of HX in the places it travels.

Sky Nature is home to over 500 episodes of incredible shows, including Shark with Steve Backshall, Wild Animal Babies hosted by Patrick Aryee and exclusive David Attenborough’s Shows, and works to highlight the importance of protecting the natural world around us. Similarly aligned to these values, HX is committed to bringing adventurers and explorers closer to the natural world through sustainable and knowledge-enhancing expedition cruises – all guided with science and sustainability at its core. These expeditions are focused on leaving a positive impact and footprint to be proud of in all destinations, ensuring the protection of the wildlife and communities visited.

Suzanne Hall, European Marketing Director at HX said, “The partnership between HX and Sky Nature has already proved a great success and saw us reach 20% of adults with our campaign, with an uplift to 23% of those over the age of 55 – a core audience for us. We have strong synergies when it comes to our sustainability ambitions, and both us and Sky Nature remain dedicated to protecting the wonder of the natural world around us. At HX, we continue to strive to lead the way when it comes to sustainability. We were the first cruise line to remove single-use plastic from operations, and our hybrid-battery ships are helping us to reduce carbon emissions. We’re looking forward to working again with Sky Nature this year and inspiring more people to engage with the natural world in a meaningful way.”

Karin Seymour, Director of Client and Marketing at Sky Media commented, “HX’s decision to return showcases the continuing power of TV to build brand fame and reach premium audiences. With Sky Nature’s world-class content together with HX and Sky’s commitment to sustainability, this collaboration will put the new HX brand on the map and engage viewers who are passionate about the natural world”.

To learn more about HX’s pioneering expedition travel and its sustainability projects, please visit travelHX.com.

Persil And Sky Nature Inspire Young People To Take Action On The Issues They Care About With New ‘Changemakers’ Series

The ‘Changemakers’ short film series aims to inspire young people to take action on the social and environmental issues they care about, fronted Ashley Banjo

Persil and Sky Nature launch their new ‘Changemakers’ short film series, which aims to inspire young people to take action on the social and environmental issues they care about, fronted by family favourite, Ashley Banjo.

The series is part of the Persil Dirt Is Good Project, which aims to unite young people who want to roll up their sleeves and  help create a better world.

The short film series will be hosted on Sky Nature (VOD and linear) and the TVCs will be shown across all Sky owned channels until the end of August. Each short film is told from the perspective of a young person. Ashley Banjo shows that taking simple actions on environmental issues can make a big difference to individuals and their communities. The series aims to showcase the range of different causes that young people can get involved with, highlighting that everyone can play a role. For example, the first creative shows young changemaker, 13-year-old Will, express his passion for wildlife as he shares the actions he is taking to help prevent the loss of our natural spaces.

The series was inspired by recent research* by Persil that found  the reason young people aren’t fighting for causes they believe in is not because they don’t care, but because they think no one else does. The Persil “Changemaker series” with Sky Nature and AdSmart from Sky, is launching to inspire young people to  start taking action together and recognise that many others share their values. This  can have a positive impact on their mental well-being, their community and the planet.

Ashley Banjo comments, “Children today have many real fears about the world they are growing up in and they feel alone when dealing with this anxiety. But when young people take action on issues they care about, this has a positive impact on their mental well being and helps to overcome the fears about the world they are growing up in.”

Three 30 second adverts will encourage viewers to watch the series’ full-length episodes on Video on Demand (VOD). The campaign will feature across various platforms including TV, VOD and Sky’s YouTube channels.

Using AdSmart’s audience data, Persil has also identified the most relevant audience for the campaign, targeting households who show eco-friendly behaviours such as being keen recyclers. As well as targeting this audience, it also aims to convert others into making conscious environmental decisions and taking action accordingly. With this  audience tactically identified for targeting, the campaign will run across a clean sweep of Sky Media wholly-owned channels, all presented together by Sky Nature. Through licensing the Sky Nature brand, Persil unifies its messaging with a channel that shares the same sustainable values at its core.

“Persil is a strong advocate for sustainability and that aligns perfectly with Sky’s wider commitment to a better future, so we’re delighted to pair them up with Sky Nature for its first licensing agreement. Our platforms and capabilities will ensure Persil’s message reaches the right households to drive real behavioural change and increase resonance with their core audience,” says Sarah Jones, Director of Planning, Sky Media.

Karen Lewis, Persil Marketing Manager, said: “Persil has always supported parents on their journey of raising children, no matter how messy the process! We know that young children want to take action on the social and environmental issues they care about, and our role is to inspire families to act on the issues which are important to them. So whether a big or small step, one taken in the home or in their community, we want to encourage young people to roll up their sleeves and be ‘changemakers’. Not only is this beneficial to children’s mental wellbeing, but we know that by taking action together we can have a bigger impact on the world around us.”

Persil recently announced the launch of its new liquid formulation in packaging that is 100% recyclable, made using recycled plastic, and is boosted with effective plant-based stain removers and biodegradable ingredients. The re-launch is part of Unilever’s new ‘Clean Future’ strategy and ambition to eliminate fossil fuels in their cleaning and laundry formulations by 2030, replacing them with 100% renewable or recycled carbon.

Persil and Sky Nature’s campaign was created by Sky Media Creative Solutions and produced by Recipe. It runs from 22^nd February until the 31st August 2021.

Zurich Insurance launches new brand purpose with year-long sponsorship of Sky Nature and National Geographic

The partnership will communicate the insurer’s brand purpose to create a brighter future together.

Sky Media have announced that insurance group, Zurich, will become channel sponsor of the newly launched Sky Nature and National Geographic Primetime. The sponsorship brings to life Zurich’s new global brand purpose and commitment to an optimistic, sustainable future, ‘creating a brighter future together’.

The 15 second and five-second-long creative will broadcast across both channels for 12 months on linear, VoD and Sky Go, and will be amplified through Zurich’s digital channels. The creative draws on powerful and heart-warming examples of animals in the natural world to help tell Zurich’s story of expertise and inherent sense of optimism. One advert sees a bear patiently waiting in a river to catch its salmon dinner, which eventually turns up right under its nose.

Tracy Waxman, Head of Marketing Communication at Zurich, said, “The content on Sky Nature and National Geographic perfectly aligns with our new brand purpose and ambitions around sustainability, so we’re thrilled to be the channel sponsor for this coming year. Reaching a likeminded audience through this sponsorship will help us to amplify our brand purpose and lead the industry in creating a brighter future for our customers, our people, our communities and our planet.”

The UK is the first country to launch Zurich’s global brand identity, with the TV partnership playing a pivotal role in the rebrand timing. Zurich’s commitment to sustainability and brighter future will be established from the beginning by reaching an authentic audience, who equally share a passion to preserve and explore the beauty and wonder of the natural world.

Sarah Jones, Director of Planning at Sky Media, added, “This sponsorship is the perfect fit for Sky Nature and National Geographic, and we’re pleased to be helping Zurich deliver this positive and important message to our audiences.”

Rob Bellass, Managing Partner, Client Services at UM, said, “Working with Zurich and Sky Media on this exciting and bespoke sponsorship has been an absolute pleasure, we can’t wait to see it go live.”

The campaign, which was identified and negotiated by UM, launched on 1st November 2020 and will run until 31st October 2021.

Sky announces the launch of Sky Documentaries, Sky Nature and Sky HISTORY.

Sky Documentaries and Sky Nature will be launching on 27th May 2020 alongside Sky HISTORY, a co-branded venture between Sky and A+E Networks previously known as HISTORY.

The new channels will include extensive on demand libraries and offer hundreds of hours of factual programming, providing an unmissable mix of premium, original commissions and acquired content.

The channels will be available to Sky customers at no extra charge through linear and on demand. They will also launch on NOW TV, available as part of the NOW TV Entertainment Pass.

Sky Documentaries will be the home of world-class, real life stories from award-winning film makers, including HBO, SHOWTIME® and Hulu exclusives and new Sky original documentaries. With a mix of feature length documentaries and series that will challenge, provoke and entertain, the channel will house 100 on demand titles. The channel will cover a wide range of topics from sport, to politics, to real-life controversies. Hillary (TX 11 June) provides a remarkably intimate portrait of public woman Hillary Clinton; McMillions (TX 27 May) tells the story of a gaming scam that lasted a decade; Ali Vs Cavett (TX 29 May) portrays the life of boxing legend Muhammad Ali through the lens of his frequent appearances on the Dick Cavett Show; Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men (TX 24 June)  looks back on the group’s career combining intimate and reflective interviews from each of the nine living members, and The Plastic Nile (TX 1 June) looks at the devastating effect of plastic pollution on the world’s longest river.

Sky Nature will be home to breath-taking natural history programming, dedicated to exploring the beauty and wonder of the natural world and inspiring us all to do more to look after it. The channel will feature landmark Sky original series Wild Animal Babies (TX 30 May) which follows Patrick Aryee and an adorable cast of baby animal characters as they face their first days, weeks and months on planet Earth. The channel will feature Sky’s existing David Attenborough collection and be the home of Love Nature programming with shows including Gangs of Lemur Island (TX 27 May), Africa’s Underwater Wonders ( TX 27 May) and Mysteries of the Mekong (TX 28 May).

Sky HISTORY tells ground-breaking stories full of colourful characters through a mix of award-winning, talent-led UK commissions, premium innovative documentaries and global hit franchise programming. Join host William Shatner and discover stories that have mystified mankind for centuries in The UnXplained (TX 9 June); explore the unique investigations into the engineering mysteries behind the world’s most breath-taking ancient monuments in Ancient Superstructures (TX 1 June). Secret Wars Uncovered (TX 19 June) reveals the facts behind battles that were shrouded in corruption and misinformation and Washington (TX 4 July), produced by renowned historian Doris Kearns Godwin and narrated by Emmy award-winning actor Jeff Daniels, chips away at the marbled image of America’s first president to seek the truth behind the legend.