CASE STUDY: National Geographic garners 35,000 entries for its 'Live Curious' awards

Background
National Geographic Channel (NGC), a flagship channel for Fox International, has been running an annual documentary-making competition in Hong Kong for the past four years. From 2007-2010 the competition drew a total of 5,500 submissions but NGC was after much higher numbers.

Aim

Rebranding the competition as ‘The Live Curious Awards’ – based on the channel’s tagline and its dedication to 'discovery' – the NGC sought to expand the contest and raise participation levels.

Execution
The contest was broadened to include both the traditional documentary field and, drawing on the visual emphasis of the NGC, a new photography contest. Both fields were also opened up to the general public as on-air promotions, live workshops, social media activities and website development sought to spread awareness of the newly renamed competition.

Along with working with the Hong Kong Education Bureau to get word of the award into schools, the contest also developed a strong presence online. Standalone 'Live curious' Facebook tabs were created within the existing NGC Facebook page as the company identified simple, innovative photo and video submission and browsing tools as essential to the award’s propagation.

Results
The Live Curious Awards 2011 generated more than 35,000 submissions, over seven times the cumulative total for the last four years that the contest has run. This significant increase in participation came as the result of including a photography award, word-of-mouth recommendation in schools as much as the success of moving to more digital marketing platforms.