National Geographic followers are fascinated by hidden histories, so our goal was to make repeating social videos that leaned into this audience’s curiosity and shared a range of global stories. Senior video producer Halley Brown led the development of this idea into a hosted explainer format based on deeply researched archival visuals. The three videos in this entry dive into the origins of popular traditions around the world: The Renaissance Fair, Day of the Dead, and Krampus parades.
It was crucial to establish a recognizable host who could be both fun and trustworthy for maximum audience engagement. With a background in history journalism, Brown herself stepped into this role, adding engaging first-person delivery to each piece. She worked alongside Video editor Dave Perkins to create quirky animation treatments that gave extra energy to archival stills.
To optimize engagement, each video was pegged to seasonal events. Where in the history did the Renaissance Faire come from? was timed to the beginning of the Fall to coincide with popular Ren Faires around the US. Brown reported on the little-known history behind the festival and interviewed the family who started the event, securing rarely published visuals from their private archive. For The Indigenous origins of Day of the Dead, Brown developed relationships with pre-Columbian historians to source Mesoamerican manuscripts and learn how to pronounce ancient Aztec words. And for Europe’s frightening Christmas tradition, Brown recreated an ancient form of storytelling to visualize frightening Christmas folktales across Europe, like Krampus. She also sourced funny, vintage Krampus postcards from Germany to add humor for social audiences.
Although these videos were published across National Geographic’s banded accounts, they were produced with @natgeohistory account followers in mind. In doing so, What in the History found a niche community of history enthusiasts eager to learn about the past… on their phone.
