WaterBear partners as well as helping to build the WaterBear brand itself. The company started with the launch of its ‘New Era of Action’ programme, which will span all of 2021. It will aim to provide clear steps for action WaterBear members can take, and will include a global script writing competition to drive youth awareness and impact campaigns with global and grassroots NGOs. To get its content as interactive as possible, WaterBear has been working with tech company Axonista, which specialises in e-commerce and interactive video. Axonista also provides interactive content tools for QVC, the Home Shopping Network and Oxfam and powers interactive overlays, which allow viewers to take action directly on the screen while watching content. The company is using Vimeo as its CMS and Akamai is supplying the CDN technology. “Akamai also has really good sustainability credentials,” notes Eckard. “They’re one of the leaders in that space.” The key takeaway from all of this is that no matter how bad the environmental crisis gets for the planet, the indestructible water bear (or tardigrade) will survive it. Whether human beings will, however, remains an open question. That’s why WaterBear and its partners – with our input – could make all the difference. “Our content collection is not the same as Discovery’s or National Geographic or Netflix. We’re not competing with those services,” says Eckard. “We just see ourselves as a place for people who care about the future of the planet.”
trafficking of exotic animals, including cheetahs, tigers, birds, apes, reptiles and amphibians, which will be accompanied by an awareness campaign. Other content includes fascinating shorts like Africa’s Hidden Seaforest , which will drive home the conservation message of an NGO partner in a shareable format that’s easy to engage with.
ACTION NOW The WaterBear launch was joined by the Duke of Sussex, who underscored the importance of combating the environmental crisis, like the melting of the polar ice caps
TECH FOR THE FUTURE WaterBear ’s remit is to promote awareness and environmental restoration through all the platforms available to it. Working with its partners, the company is also rolling out a variety of campaigns to engage people in these issues worldwide. These both serve as a means of promoting
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