Nature Valley made streaming nature films pay royalties to parks

Nature Valley was strongly associated with the outdoors, but that association weakened its ecommerce salience during winter and early spring. The One Show entry says buyers, trips and units were falling faster than the category.

Instead of merely showing parks in ads, VML reframed streaming economics: if actors and producers get royalties, the parks starring in nature films should too. A dedicated Prime Video collection connected watch time to donations and connected Fire TV viewing to shoppable Nature Valley placements.

The One Show reported 47% year-over-year dollar sales growth, more than 500 million impressions, a $200,000 donation to National Parks, a $15.87 ROAS, and a 30% increase in Prime Video collection viewership.

Pay the scenery like talent

It borrowed a familiar royalty model and applied it to a non-human brand asset.

The donation, entertainment and shopping all happened inside Amazon's ecosystem.

The mechanism solved both purpose funding and ecommerce consideration.

If the brand belongs to a context, make the context itself part of the business model.

Manuel Borde's case archive lists two Cannes Lions Creative Commerce shortlists, and The One Show awarded Royalties for Nature 2025 Merits in Commerce, Brand Partnerships, and Innovation / Use of Media.