National Geographic’s PR team created a #GENIUSAF PR campaign, driving awareness and viewership for the third season of GENIUS, the network’s anthology series that dramatizes the fascinating stories of the world’s most brilliant innovators and their extraordinary achievements and complex personal relationships. After winning 17 Emmys for the first two seasons, its highly-anticipated third season GENIUS: ARETHA tells the story of Aretha Franklin, The Queen of Soul, with Cynthia Erivo playing the musical genius. Under COVID-19-safe protocols, the PR team implemented creative tactics driven by strategic partnerships that led the series to much acclaim, press coverage and record-high viewership.

National Geographic premiered GENIUS: ARETHA, the third installment of the Emmy-award winning series, featuring Cynthia Erivo as Aretha Franklin on March 21. With the objective to deliver new audiences to National Geographic and drive series tune-in night over night, Nat Geo sought a buzzworthy idea that not only celebrated the life of the show’s profiled genius, Aretha Franklin, but did so while respecting the new boundaries of the COVID-impacted media landscape. The team gravitated toward live venues; Aretha Franklin was the ultimate headliner of headliners, turning past performances across the country into pieces of history. Precluded by Covid from putting on live concerts for IRL audiences, the Nat Geo team still wanted to leverage iconic theaters as part of the activation.

To honor the Queen of Soul while attracting a new audience, National Geographic implemented the #GeniusAF marquee takeover campaign, placing custom and cryptic language on 20 marquee signs at iconic venues across the country including Gramercy Theater in New York, The Met in Philadelphia, the Aretha Franklin Amphitheater in Detroit, The Tabernacle in Atlanta, The Hollywood Palladium in LA and many more. The campaign went live a week before the series premiere and the day after a heavy advertising push during the Grammys. The team cut a video of the marquees going up to convey the scale of this execution, and each of the 20 venues pushed the video out on their social media handles after our press exclusive of the video had gone live. In addition, Nat Geo donated to Crew Nation, a global relief fund by Live Nation for live music crews economically impacted by shutdowns of COVID.

Genius: Aretha was a departure from the National Geographic core audience, yet an opportunity to connect with new audiences, including African American Women 25+, Music Fans, Baby Boomers, and LGBTQ+. The resulting campaign leaned into Aretha Franklin’s universal recognition and appeal, forged a deeper connection with African American Women, while ensuring broad appeal among Women everywhere, while showcasing the relevance and impact Franklin still has today. The team cut a video of the marquees going up to convey the scale of this execution, and each of the 20 venues pushed the video out on their social media handles after our press exclusive of the video had gone live. Pickups from outlets like Us Weekly, New York Daily News and Yahoo helped get the word out even if consumers were not on the streets passing by because of COVID limitations.

The campaign went live a week out from premiere and the day after the Grammy Awards where Nat Geo had a heavy advertising presence. To convey the scale of this execution in a digital space, the team cut a video mixed to an Aretha Franklin song of the marquees going up. The 20 venues selected spanned the country and have a rich history of live music like Gramercy Theater in New York, The Met in Philadelphia, the Aretha Franklin Amphitheater in Detroit, The Tabernacle in Atlanta, The Hollywood Palladium in LA and more. The campaign also had a presence at The Apollo Theater’s marquee in Harlem during this execution with National Geographic branding. This unique and contextually apt PR stunt for a series about Aretha Franklin gained fantastic traction leading into premiere. After a press exclusive, each of the 20 venues pushed the video out on their social media handles.

The campaign leaned into Aretha Franklin’s universal recognition and appeal, and forged a deeper connection with newer audiences by honoring the impact Aretha Franklin still has today. Overall, the campaign successfully worked together with other promotion to deliver a new audience to National Geographic, exceeding L+3 estimates across all demos, with P25-54 over 200% higher than the ratings goal. GENIUS: ARETHA became the No. 2 Most Watched Premiere in Network History, the Most Watched Telecast on National Geographic in 2 years (Premiere Episode) and in the Top 10 Most Watched Cable Scripted Series This Year.