An Overview Of Our Solution
NatureLaughs is a new online entertainment and educational startup that focuses on nature-based, humorous video content. The goal of NatureLaughs is to create characters, stories, and music that will draw viewers in and get them to see Nature through new eyes...new eyes that can ultimately lead to new behaviors that will protect our natural world.
Marine School, a creation of NatureLaughs, is a web parody series that focuses on the comical school life of sea creatures. The intended audience is kids...and kids at heart.
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCH5nZmVjDXkyz68iQmBqMvA
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Context Analysis
I, Dana O'Mara, am the solo creator of NatureLaughs and Marine School. I operate out of my home studio, where I produce all of my Marine School episodes. Being a web series, all my work is internet-based. My videos are hosted on both NatureLaughs' website and YouTube Channel. I am currently working on my social media presence.
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCH5nZmVjDXkyz68iQmBqMvA
Being in its infancy, I do not yet have facts/figures to show Marine School's reach. However, I can tell you my intention. And my intention is for Marine School to have an expansive international reach, where children across this globe can connect to and fall in love with these sea creatures.
Describe the technical solution you wanted the target audience to adopt
I have not created a technical solution to bring about behavior change. However, I have created a world. A world that people can be immersed into, and that hopefully with time, can bring about positive behavior change.
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCH5nZmVjDXkyz68iQmBqMvA
Describe your behavioral intervention.
Being a new web series, I cannot yet provide data on behavior changes. What I can focus on is the POTENTIAL. And I believe my web series has great potential to motivate large audiences, to eventually take on positive behavior changes over time. Let me explain how:
1) Humor: Humor is a great and often underused tool that can positively impact audiences. People often view things through their own pre-conceived biases. But humor has the ability to soften people, letting them drop their guards, and opening them to receiving new messages. Humor helps to shift the way people see things.
2) Storytelling: The human mind is wired to remember stories, more so than it is to remember facts/figures. By inserting environmental messaging into my stories, people are more primed to remember it, versus if I just recited facts. The message is delivered in a humorous story.
3) Character Development: My intention is to create characters that my audience can emotionally connect with and bond to. I want my audience to see marine animals as their own individual beings. Beings that have their own lives and feelings and families and struggles. By humanizing my marine characters, people can bond with them on a deeper level. And this bond can open them up to taking action that can protect all marine life and their habitats.
4) Music: Music is another tool that engages people. I want my music to energize and inspire people to care for our planet.
Behavioral Levers Utilized
As needed, please explain how you utilized the lever(s) in more detail.
I want people to emotionally connect with my characters in their underwater world. As people get to know these characters (their lives and quirks and relationships)...they can begin to see similarities with their own lives, above water. Seeing ourselves in others, lights an instinct within us, to want to respect and protect the other.
Ultimately, I want audiences to fall in love with my marine characters. Why? Because we take care of what we love. When we love something...we make changes in our lives, we speak up...so as to protect that which we love.
My series also draws on pop culture. So as to make it modern and relevant. I do this to highlight that we are living a shared life on this shared planet. But also to highlight that how we live above water, directly impacts how they live below water.
Describe your implementation
Being that Marine School is a new web series, and that I am slow to market it...I cannot complete this section. At this time, Marine School's impact on society, is still to be determined.
Describe the leadership for your solution. Who is leading the implementation?
As stated above, I am the sole creator of Marine School. So technically, I am the leader of myself. ;-)
I am very confident in my leadership abilities however. Past roles and experiences have trained me well. But my other greatest asset to see this project through is, drive. I am driven to make Marine School successful. Why? Because I have dedicated my life to protecting our planet Earth, as best I can.
Share some of the key partners or stakeholders engaged in your solution development and implementation.
While I currently work alone, my work involves engaging with educational, environmental and scientific professionals...and also the artistic community.
Science + Education + Arts = Marine School
Who adopted the desired behavior(s) and to what degree? Include an explanation of how you measured a change in behavior.
As stated above, my web series is too new to have documented results. With that said, I have had many adults and kids give high praise for my series.
So the best I can offer right now, is the POTENTIAL of Marine School, to touch many lives, that can in turn, result in positive changes to how we all engage with our natural world.
How did you impact water pollution? Please be specific and include measurement methodology where relevant.
Being that my series is ocean-based, water pollution issues I look to cover include, but are not limited to:
Plastic pollution, nutrient pollution, ocean acidification, warming waters, fishing gear pollution.
How has your solution impacted equity challenges (including race, gender, ethnicity, social class/income, or others)?
I pride myself on having a very diverse classroom. I wanted to make sure multiple species were represented. And by highlighting a diverse community below water, I hope that will translate into us being accepting of a diverse community above water.
What were some environmental co-benefits?
N/A yet
What were some sustainable development co-benefits?
N/A yet
Sustainability: Describe the economic sustainability of your solution.
Right now, I am self-funded. But I am looking into how I can financially sustain this web series well into the future.
Return on investment: How much did it cost to implement these activities? How do your results above compare to this investment?
Ongoing