Nano — marketing leadership for a climate startup

Nano is a climate startup working on Scope 3 emissions: a real product, a small team, and one launch that had to land. I worked as the outside marketing lead across nearly all touch points, the positioning, what the launch was for, the briefs, and the direction of every specialist who made the work: a film director, three DreamWorks animators and a composer. None of it was made because it would look good. The product only works if people come back tomorrow, so everything that shipped had to earn that. It launched to 70,000 people and has since tracked and reduced over 1,000 tonnes of carbon emissions.

Challenge

Sustainability asks people to change behavior they cannot see the effect of. Nano needed a reason to come back tomorrow rather than a lecture today, and a single launch moment to prove it. The hard part was never a shortage of things to make. It was deciding what the work was for, and then holding a group of very good specialists to that one answer.

Role

Outside marketing lead. Positioning and launch strategy, then creative direction across nearly all touch points, the app itself, the launch film, the planet system and the soundscape, including the briefs for, and direction of, everyone executing.

Scope

Positioning, launch planning, specialist and vendor direction, product design, gamification, launch film, animation direction, sound design, rewards framework.

Outcome

Launched at the National Boy Scout Jamboree in front of 70,000 attendees, and has since tracked and reduced over 1,000 tonnes of carbon emissions. The retention mechanics were the plan rather than a feature: that emissions figure only exists because people kept opening the app.

The job

Nano had the harder version of the small-business marketing problem: a product worth talking about, a team who could build it, and nobody whose job it was to decide what any of it was for. Plenty of businesses run for years like that. It works until there is a moment that has to be won, and then it does not.

What I did is what a marketing lead does. Decide the position. Decide what the launch is for and what it is not for. Write the briefs. Find the specialists, a film director, three DreamWorks animators, a composer, and direct them against one answer rather than six good ones. Then judge the work against whether it did the thing, which for this product meant one question: does anybody open it again tomorrow?

Deciding what the launch was for

The launch had one audience and one job: convince the people the app was actually built for that it was built for them. So the film was cast and written from their point of view rather than the founders’. Working with a team in New York and long time friend and director, Nick Morgulis, we co-created a concept for a launch video that would launch the app. We hosted many casting calls and wanted to tell the story through the eyes of the apps core demographic. The video below was then shown to over 70,000 attendees at the National Boy Scout Jamboree.

The launch film, shown to 70,000 attendees at the National Boy Scout Jamboree.

Unlocking sustainability

Gamifying sustainability through community action and individual participation was a key goal towards unlocking a better future if we all “do our part” we could contribute to the larger goal of living in a better world. Our philosophy is “if you cant track it, you cant fix it” so this app is set up to leverage individuals inputs to help track our collective carbon foot print.

Nano app screen: tracking a sustainable action — The app: individual inputs rolling up into a collective carbon footprint.

Nano app screen: the planet system — The app: individual inputs rolling up into a collective carbon footprint.

Immersive experiences

Partnerting with Dreamworks animators Matt Sullivan, Isaac Orloff, Francesco Giroldini, we created an evolving planet system that changes with how much activity the player does in the app. This incentivizes people to continue to help their local communities and unlock premium cosmetics for their planet they can share with the friends as social currency.

The evolving planet system, still from the animation — The planet evolves with the player’s activity. Stills from the original animations — see the note on video below.

A later planet state, unlocked through activity — The planet evolves with the player’s activity. Stills from the original animations — see the note on video below.

Nano badge and iconography set — Badges and iconography for the levelling system.

Creating a world through sound

To add an extra layer of immersion to the planet systems I worked with composer Greg Schwegler to come up with the soundscape for the app. We looked at everything from leveling up sound effects to base level planet sounds to really captivate the players in a world they helped create through their responsible planetary action.

Soundscape by Greg Schwegler.

Microplastics & microanimations

We designed key elements of the app to be animated to keep you immersed in the experience and to build on brand loyalty and trust.

Sea turtle microanimation — Microanimations that reward attention rather than demand it.

Cattails microanimation — Microanimations that reward attention rather than demand it.

Rewarding the players

We developed a leveling system to that would reward players as they spent more time in their communities and taking action to make the world a better place. This consisted of a badged framework and a reward redemption process for items like gift cards, NFTs, and other sponsored prizes.

The rewards and redemption framework — Badges, levels and a redemption path into real rewards.

About Nano

Nano is a startup company that is dedicated towards solving the Scope 3 Emissions problems identified by the Paris Climate Accord. Focusing on peer to peer sustainabilitiy and corporation halo emissions like comuting and supply chain issues. This mobile app was created to connect like-minded people around the common goal of healing the planet to avoid climate change impacts.

Why this is here

This is what the Fractional CMO engagement looks like when it is compressed into one launch. Somebody outside the business decides the position, writes the plan, briefs the people doing the work and stays accountable for whether it did anything, instead of the owner approving assets between everything else they are responsible for.

The monthly version is slower and less cinematic. It is the same job.

Sustainability App Launch Marketing