HUGE Explores HISTORY's Expedition Africa
June 3, 2009
BROOKLYN — HISTORY™ tapped HUGE to collaborate on designing a website for the new series Expedition Africa, a Mark Burnett production airing Sundays at 10 pm ET/PT. The website features eight interactive promotional landscapes that correspond to each episode detailing the journey of four modern day explorers as they retrace famed journalist and adventurer Henry Morton Stanley’s historic route to find the explorer Dr. David Livingstone in the wilds of Africa. The site captures Expedition Africa's robust, highly-textured visuals and the dangers of the journey. The same themes were used in the series’ online marketing campaign, also produced by HUGE, which featured a rich-media banner half-page takeover and an expandable video player.
“There is power in great creativity,” says David Skokna, Partner at HUGE, “And a unique and immersive user experience engages your audience. Designing for a larger-than-life program like Expedition Africa allows visual imagination take hold. Working with HISTORY has been an incredibly rewarding experience.”
The site is a combination of Flash and HTML that’s nimble and SEO-friendly. Page views are easily tracked without sacrificing the latest standards in digital design. To further extend the show online, HUGE created fact-based features that creatively supplement the storytelling. As each episode airs, the website updates with new themes, content and video. Intuitive navigation allows fans to move through the site by episode and view a map tracking the expedition’s progress. iPhone apps — designed by Pod Digital Design and Moderati — and the ability to view full episodes are designed to keep fans coming back each week for more.
Expedition Africa: Stanley & Livingston is produced for HISTORY™ by Mark Burnett Productions. Executive producers for MBP are Mark Burnett and Maria Baltazzi. Executive producers for HISTORY™ are David McKillop and Charles Nordlander.
About HISTORY™
HISTORY™ and HISTORY HD™ are the leading destinations for revealing, award-winning original non-fiction series and event-driven specials that connect history with viewers in an informative, immersive and entertaining manner across multiple platforms. Programming covers a diverse variety of historical genres ranging from military history to contemporary history, technology to natural history, as well as science, archaeology and pop culture. Among the network's program offerings are hit series such as Ax Men, Battle 360, The Universe, Cities of The Underworld and Ice Road Truckers, as well as acclaimed specials including 102 Minutes That Changed America, King, Life After People, 1968 with Tom Brokaw, Nostradamus: 2012 and Star Wars: The Legacy Revealed. HISTORY has earned four Peabody Awards, four Primetime Emmy® Awards, 12 News & Documentary Emmy® Awards and received the prestigious Governor's Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for the network's Save Our History® campaign dedicated to historic preservation and history education. Take a Veteran to School Day is the network's latest initiative connecting America's schools and communities with veterans from all wars. The HISTORY website is the definitive historical online source that delivers entertaining and informative content featuring broadband video, interactive timelines, maps, games, podcasts and more.
HUGE is responsible for core digital strategy and implementation for some of the largest companies and brands in the world. Founded in 1999, the company has evolved a methodology and a culture that combine the most powerful aspects of research, user-centered design, technology and marketing to meet client objectives. The online businesses designed and developed by HUGE generate over $12.3 billion in annual revenue and are visited by more than 150 million visitors each month. The company has over 225 employees in offices in New York, Los Angeles, London and Stockholm. HUGE is part of the Interpublic Group of Companies.
For more information, please contact press@hugeinc.com or +1 718 233 3943.