History Creates Enhanced Digital Experience Around New Series Expedition Africa: Stanley & Livingstone
New Interactive Minisite, Short-Form Videos, iPhone Application and Facebook Game for Expedition Africa Will Extend New Series to Online and Mobile Platforms
New York, NY (PRWEB) June 2, 2009 -- On Sunday, May 31, HISTORY™ premiered its new, eight-part television event, Expedition Africa: Stanley & Livingstone, and the cable network has brought an enhanced, interactive experience to its audience through online and mobile media.
From Mark Burnett Productions, Expedition Africa follows four elite, modern-day explorers - navigator Pasquale Scaturro, wildlife expert Mireya Mayor, survivalist Benedict Allen and journalist Kevin Sites - as they travel 970 miles through the most stunning, epic and unforgiving African terrain. Using only a compass and basic maps, the explorers attempt to experience the spirit of a remarkable adventure in world history: journalist Henry Morton Stanley's 1871 search for missing, legendary explorer Dr. David Livingstone.
Digital elements being introduced include:
| | - The Expedition Africa iPhone Application, created by Moderati, a Bellrock Media Company, is a one-of-a-kind, fully-functioning, 99.999 percent accurate 'Exploration Tool.' The app will accurately calculate the distance between a user and an object using the person's relative position and two other landmark points. The same type of triangulation tool used by mapmakers and explorers throughout history, this is the first mobile application of its kind, and is available for users of the iPhone through Apple's iTunes application store. The application also includes an image gallery from the show and a brief history of Stanley and Livingstone, and promotes the program's mini-site at History.com.
- Expedition Africa: The Game, created by Pod Digital Design, is a challenging and addictive dice-based quest that recreates the journey to find Livingstone. Available for the iPhone, on Facebook as well as on History.com, the game challenges players to roll dice combinations that help to further their journeys, provide protection from peril and help the party survive. Each person's game is tracked via an interactive journal that tells a customized story of the expedition and includes videos and photos of the amazing landscapes, wildlife and culture encountered in the show. The Facebook application allows players to challenge friends to beat their scores.
- Expedition Africa videos - 19 engaging short-form pieces are available for viewing on the Expedition Africa mini-site. Produced by Atlas Media Corp.'s Digital + Emerging Media division, the videos range from a depiction of Stanley's amazing search for Livingstone to others that shed light on the dangers lurking in the African interior.
- The Expedition Africa mini-site, designed by leading interactive agency HUGE, serves not only as a promotional vehicle for the show, but also an immersive experience that pulls users in and encourages them to visit the site on a regular basis. In addition to the game and video features mentioned above, the mini-site includes additional short-form videos - including profiles of the modern-day explorers - as well as hidden photos and videos that allow visitors to explore online as the expedition progresses on TV.
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"For the first time History.com is incorporating a theatrical approach for a show site by building a best-in-class Web destination designed to mirror the rough, rugged, and high-octane experience of the explorers," said Paul Jelinek, Sr. Vice President, Digital Media, AETN. "Like the series, the site - along with all of the digital content created as an extension of Expedition Africa - appeals to an audience of adventure seekers and risk takers."
Dr. David Livingstone's journeys, his subsequent writings and lectures on the mysterious African continent, are legendary. When in 1865 he set out on an expedition in the central part of the "Dark Continent" to locate the source of the Nile River, no one imagined it would be his last great voyage. In 1871, with rumors swirling that he was held captive or even dead, the publisher of the American newspaper the New York Herald, sent their reporter - Henry Stanley - off to find him. After almost nine months he found Livingstone in Ujiji, a small village on the shore of Lake Tanganyika in Tanzania on November 10, 1871.
Expedition starts off as Stanley did, on the island of Zanzibar, where the four explorers set sail for the Tanzanian coastal town of Bagamoyo. Before heading into the jungle, they must hire local porters to accompany them, and two Masai warriors as insurance against attacks from the dangers that lie ahead. Together, the expedition embarks on their 30-day, nearly 1,000-mile journey into the heart of Africa along the route that Stanley took in the 19th century. They travel through the varied terrains of Africa including dense swamps, rugged mountains and barren deserts, where they face danger from severe dehydration, deadly diseases and wild animals.
Expedition Africa: Stanley & Livingstone 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 web site, located at www.history.com, is the definitive historical online source that delivers entertaining and informative content featuring broadband video, interactive timelines, maps, games, podcasts and more.
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