Problem: The @earth platform—a community of 8M+ planet-lovers across social media, web, and email—is a collection of channels that once focused on influencer-driven ‘travel porn’ and wanderlust. However, the unattainable travel blogger on white sand beaches was getting repetitive. And there’s so much more to Earth that @earth could explore. Taking over as the curator of the platform and lead Creative Director, we wanted to refocus the content of @earth towards revealing the beauty, magic, and awe of our collective home.

Experiment: ISO (In Search Of)*

Earth Day 2023—we launched an invitation to the global network of content creators on the platform to submit their photos, stories, and perspectives to be featured on @earth. Used as a mechanism to discover new creators, share unique stories, and create a roster of photographers and videographers we could activate for global, planetary campaigns, ISO was the foundation of an interconnected web of planetary lovers and creators.

* In photography, your ISO (International Standards Organization) refers to your camera’s sensitivity to light. A higher ISO allows more light in compared to a lower ISO. Our ISO acts more like an f-stop—a way of widening the lens to broaden our aperture to see and discover more.

Role: Director of Storytelling + Experience

1.) Conceptualization of Campaign, 2.) Creative Direction, 3.) Curation of Content, 4.) Comms + PR Strategy, 5.) Copywriting

Inspiration

In 1968, the infamous Earthrise photograph (above) was taken by Apollo 8. Astronaut Bill Anders recalled, "When I looked up and saw the Earth coming up on this very stark, beat-up Moon horizon, I was immediately almost overcome with the thought, 'Here we came all this way to the Moon, and yet the most significant thing we’re seeing is our own home planet, the Earth.’” 

This overwhelming feeling (affirmed by many astronauts since) is defined as The Overview Effect. 

We asked ourselves: How do we collectively evoke this sense of awe and invoke a call to action—but on Instagram?

ISO (In Search Of) • Home

The first iteration of ISO launched Earth Day 2023 with a letter to the @earth community:

To our community on Earth Day,

We welcome you to ISO (In Search Of)—an ongoing project to feature your photography and videos on @earth. Each month, we’ll share a new theme to widen our aperture and inspire perspectives from around the planet.

Let’s begin.
Theme: HOME¹
Submit by: April 30, 2023
seed.com/earth (link in bio)

This is an invitation to find our common thread and call to action a communal stewardship for our collective home. Thank you to the @earth creators who helped us bring this to life.

¹ Ecosystem is derived from the Greek oikos, meaning “home”. Our shared home, Earth 🌎, is an ecosystem composed of many ecosystems—from coral reefs, to rainforests, even the invisible microbes that live on and within us.

Launch Video

Landing Page (Submission Page)

Going beyond our initial launch of ISO we also thought about a marketing calendar based entirely on planetary ‘holidays’ (not just Earth Day). From World Oceans Day, Coral Reef Awareness, World Honeybee Day, to Biodiversity Day we used ISO as a mechanism to tap different types of photographers—underwater, drone, microbiologists, astronomers, and beyond to look through their respective lenses under a theme.

A Selection of Submissions (Launch)

ISO (In Search Of) • Oceans

Our second iteration of ISO launched for World Oceans Day with a direct tie into Seed’s ecological research through SeedLabs:

ISO (In Search of)—Oceans¹ 🌊 Link in bio to participate.

Last month, we announced ISO, an ongoing project to feature your photography and video on @earth with the theme ‘Home.’ This month, we’re diving into the power, mystery, and beauty of our oceans.

¹ Some of the greatest solutions to our planet’s most pressing issues may be found in the depths of our oceans, though we have only scratched the surface of what we know. And while we are in awe of their magnificence / beauty, we are In Search Of a deeper understanding. We recently partnered with @seed (SeedLabs) on a project that uncovers the potential to tackle one of the fundamental problems of climate change.