B-Reel launches interactive digital accompaniment to David Attenborough's Our Planet

Just as we ready ourselves to say goodbye to Fleabag, an old familiar friend made a very welcome televisual return this weekend gone. The dulcet tones of David Attenborough soothed countless hangovers as the animal-mad broadcaster made his Netflix debut with a new series, Our Planet.

This being the 21st century, it isn’t enough that dear old David and his team of incredibly devoted production staff ploughed years of their lives and a rather hefty chunk of the streaming service’s bank balance into the show, the people want, nay demand, supplementary content!

Happily for anyone looking to while away a few hours at work immersed in all things Attenborough, creative agency B-Reel has worked with both Netflix and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) on a digital accompaniment to the series, with the result being a website that is as in-depth information-wise as it is enjoyably interactive.

There are three main areas of the site; a library of films for use in classrooms, a section which allows users to register their displeasure at the environmental state of things here on Earth, and what’s described as the “Explorable Globe”, which acts as a hub for a whole heap of custom-built content.

“Often you need to shoot assets or find the best content for a project, but this was unusual in the sense that we had all the information and access to information,” says B-Reel’s director of production Dheerna Matsubara. “The trickier part was making it accessible, selecting the relevant material/information and providing it in a way that makes sense to people in a narrative that would also inspire.”

The eight sections of the “Explorable Globe” mirror Attenborough’s series, “allowing audiences to dive deep into our natural world to understand more about humanity’s impact and action being taken across the world right now,” as Dheerna puts it. “As a creative agency, we know that we have a responsibility in making the right decisions in both our own actions and how we work with our clients,” Dheerna says when we ask how the environmental bent of Our Planet impacted on the eco-friendliness of B-Reel as a studio.

“Whilst we don’t have all the answers, we do know that the small actions we take today can start having far-reaching benefits. What we’re trying to do is challenge our behaviours and figure out how we can take concrete action where it would have the biggest impact," B-Reel continues. "That includes setting internal sustainability goals, buying organic and having a protocol in place to reduce and offset CO2 emissions connected to air travels. Working on the site has helped us understand our place in the world and how it’s on each and every one of us to do our part.”