What do bears eat? Where exactly do they roam? And how do they interact with humans?

National Geographic and a team of researchers in Yellowstone National Park spent the last two years hoping to answer these questions.

By fitting four bears with GPS-enabled camera collars, they were able to track their every movement, and get a better understanding of the daily lives and behaviour of bears in Yellowstone.

Our challenge was to turn this scientific data into an immersive, story-driven experience that would capture and engage the user in a story-driven experience.

The result is A Bear’s-Eye View of Yellowstone, an interactive journey through the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

National Geographic launched a feature magazine about the Yellowstone National Park and needed an online experience that showcased all the scientific data and video collected from the bear collars.

We built an interactive 3D map to let visitors track each bear’s exact path through the park. Point of view footage, combined with text and audio analysis from researchers, let users get a deeper understanding of each bear’s activity, and unique personality.

The website acted as a digital extension of the magazines article and helped create brand value for National Geographic as being a forward thinking publications and giving value adding experience to their printed magazine.

The bear research itself was revolutionary and gained new insights for both magazine readers and bear enthusiasts. The site was featured across a large variety of medias (with no media spend) and gained a lot of attention from new potential subscribers.