Today’s Solutions: April 18, 2025

If you’ve turned to nature videos to relieve your pandemic anxiety, doing so now could also benefit the world’s oceans, and the environmental organizations fighting to preserve them. That is, as long as you watch those serene shots of nature through the new Preservation Play YouTube channel.

The recently launched initiative is the brainchild of digital innovation agency R/GA, and aims to bring new revenue from YouTube ads to environmentally-focused NGOs. One of the main reasons behind the launch of Preservation Play was that many charities and NGOs struggled to find funding to continue their good work during the pandemic. Among such organizations was R/GA client Project Zero, which works to establish ocean sanctuaries that will provide climate change resiliency.

Another reason was the fact that nature videos were racking up views online as people tried to find calmness through the tumult of the pandemic period, explains Nick Pringle, the executive creative director at R/GA London.

“What we noticed is that as those people are putting out that content and accruing lots of views and therefore the [ad] revenue that comes with those views, where’s the money going? It’s not to the natural world that was featured,” says Pringle.

With Preservation Play, things are rather different. Ad revenue generated from the videos on the YouTube channel goes to environmental NGOs, starting with Project Zero. The videos, which feature bucolic nature scenes from around the world, were made specifically for the initiative and so will be owned entirely by the YouTube channel, reports Fast Company.

Now the aim is to get as many NGOs involved as possible, and have vides ready for “pretty much every conceivable aspect of the natural world,” says Pringle. Ad revenue will go straight to the participating NGOs, though R/GO notes that a small portion may be used to promote the initiative.

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