No ambassadors, naturally

MOST FOLLOWED NON-CELEBRITY IN THE WORLD ON INSTAGRAM

When Kylie Jenner became the youngest selfmade billionaire in history the world scoffed. There’s no doubt the Kardashian name helped establish her as a make-up mogul. Brands need celebrities to promote their products and Jenner managed to use her notoriety to sell her own products.

But one brand that has never needed celebrity ambassadors is Mother Nature.

National Geographic is the most followed non-celebrity in the world on Instagram, and the channel’s reach is staggering.

Every month, excluding programming, the channel reaches 423 million followers globally across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, their magazines reach 54 million, which includes a print run of 15 000 in South Africa of Nat Geo Kids.

South Africans contribute one million likes to National Geographic, and comprise 100 000 of its Instagram followers.

“We are the largest TV network on Facebook, and one of the 50 most followed pages,” says Evert van der Veer, general manager for Fox Networks Group Africa.

Leading a showcase of some of the group’s new shows and highlights of the channel on August 7, Van der Meer divulged how it’s changing to accommodate the shift from linear broadcasting to non-linear options like streaming services. The changes started in 2016 when National Geographic released Mars. The show was part of a global event series that became the most DVR-ed series in the network’s history. It was part scripted, part documentary. One half of the show explained how humans could get to Mars and what would happen once they got there. The other half was a fictional journey about the first group of Mars colonisers. That success led to last year’s first installment of Genius, the first scripted series for the channel. It received 10 Emmy nominations, including for Best Limited Series. Genius also garnered the network’s first-ever Golden Globe nomination for Geoffrey Rush’s performance as Einstein. The second season of Genius premiered in April this year starring Antonio Banderas and followed the life of Pablo Picasso.

The third will be based on the life of iconic author Mary Shelley, best known for her Gothic novel, Frankenstein.

How National Geographic is ensuring its ongoing domination AFP as a nature entertainment provider is via National Geographic+, an on-demand factual service of some of the best programming of its kind.

The content is curated to be relevant and timely, but also allows viewers to be able to reflect and engage, reacting to the world in which they live.

That doesn’t mean nature isn’t still at the core.

Events like SharkFest become cornerstone entertainment onNational Geographic channels.

In sub-Saharan Africa shows about snakes are more watched than anywhere else in the world, Van der Meer revealed.

Upcoming shows on Nat Geo Wild include a new season of Snakes in the City and Africa’s Deadliest: Botswana, which seem to appeal to audiences locally.

Although it was slated for packaging an edition of National Geographic magazine in plastic this year, in 2018 National Geograpic is focusing on plastic reduction.

One of their main points of entry is shining a spotlight on single-use plastics. National Geographic is sharing 40% of plastics used once then tossed out, which sees nine million tons of plastic waste going into the ocean each year, in addition to the plastic islands that already exist .

Pictures: National Geographic SA’S FAVOURITE. Susan Gillett handles a boa constrictor in a scene from She and her partner Simon Keys catch snakes in human habitats in and around cities and translocate them to areas where they are less likely to come into contact with people.

IS THERE LIFE ON MARS? Sammi Rotibi, as Robert Foucault, meets with Lukrum Commander Kurt Hurrelle, played by Jeff Hephner, On season 2 of which will be launched globally on October 8.

SA INPUT. Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, will again be a panelist in the second season of discussing what humanity’s first contact with the planet will be like.