Over the last couple of years, General Electric has been making a lot of noise in branded content, particularly with its podcasts, produced under the umbrella of GE Theater. Stories like The Message and LifeAfter were narrative fiction aimed at getting audiences excited about innovation and technology in general. But the brand’s latest content project, “In the Wild,” is a nine-part web series set in the real world, a closer look at exactly what the company does, what it produces, and where we all interact with its innovations.
Hosted by Alie Ward and Adam Savage, the “wild” in the series name refers to the labs, the testing facilities, the airports, and ship ports where the company’s work sees action. It’s an evolution of the brand’s Instagram feed, and other content around its industrial innovation like last year’s “Unimpossible Missions,” and the old GE Adventure blog. Nerdery at its finest.
GE’s chief creative officer Andy Goldberg says one of the goals was to entertain and excite, while giving us all a more well-rounded view of what exactly they mean when they talk about innovation. “We wanted to put out a series that educates audiences on what GE actually does, and wow people with our technology ‘out in the real world,’ not just one or two industries, but in the eight-plus industries where we are constantly innovating,” says Goldberg.
“Through the work we’ve done on social, we knew we already had a fairly rabid #geekfeed fan base, who are always quick to engage with and devour content around our innovation,” says Goldberg. “We know jet engines and wind farms will always engage our fans, but we also do so much more than that.”
For GE, “In the Wild” is the natural next step in communicating with that audience. “Go beyond the inspirational imagery and actually pull back the curtain on the nitty gritty of our facilities and our methods,” says Goldberg. “We pushed ourselves to introduce fresher concepts and start conversations around additional industries where GE is leading the pack, like additive manufacturing, shipping digitization, offshore wind conversion methods, for starters.”