Author: tile11121990
Introducing: The Atlas Obscura Book Club With Literati
It’s not a stretch to say that Atlas Obscura—as a company and as a community—is full of book fanatics, library lovers, bookstore aficionados, archive haunters, stack lurkers, and bibliophiles of all shapes and sizes. We’re a company dedicated to the idea of exploration, both in words and out in the world.
Atlas Obscura Founder Dylan Thuras Shares His Absolute Favorite Road Trip Stops
Get a Taste of the Upcoming Gastro Obscura Book
How Will the Vaccine Change World Travel?
Introducing: the Atlas Obscura Podcast
Pivoting to Partnerships Kept Atlas Obscura Afloat—Despite a Wavering Travel Market
Both publishers and travel brands have faced financial strain due to the pandemic. Yet travel magazine Atlas Obscura has had its best year yet, according to the company.
Under CEO Warren Webster, who joined the publisher about a week before the pandemic took hold in the U.S., the publisher revamped its media strategy. To replace its trips and experiential business, which accounted for 60% of its revenue last year, Atlas Obscura invested in brand partnerships—most recently with Graduate Hotels and Nissan—to create sponsored content and experiences.
While it was always Webster’s intention to revamp the brand’s business strategy, Covid-19 quickened that approach. “Historically, Atlas Obscura spent a lot of time building the brand and the community and the content and not as much about building the business side, the revenue generating part,” said Webster.
Now, the off-the-beaten-path travel magazine, which caters to an audience of nearly 10 million readers, is expected to see revenue improve “slightly” beyond 2019 levels, with media revenue doubling.
“We think of Atlas as an experiences company powered by media,” said David Plotz, Atlas’ former CEO, who stepped away from the company in October 2019. “For the long-term future of the company, we think the experience piece is going to be the real driver and differentiator for us.”
Last year, Atlas Obscura brought in more than $20 million in funding, a substantial amount of which came from short-term rental platform Airbnb, to expand the publisher’s experiential business. Offerings ranged from a day tour of Washington D.C.’s scandalous past for $25 to a nine-day photography tour of Chernobyl that runs nearly $4,000.
“We were sitting on gold,” said Amanda Hale, Atlas Obscura’s vp of revenue.
Since then, the publisher has invested in fostering those brand partnerships, hiring creatives with experience in experiential marketing and bringing on new board members, like Marriott’s former top marketer Karin Timpone.
In September, the publisher announced its partnership with Graduate Hotels, a hospitality brand that caters to college town markets. Atlas created guided tours in Nashville, Tenn. and Knoxville, Tenn. What’s more is that it didn’t look like sponsored content; it instead resembled Atlas’ city guides.
Earlier this week, Atlas announced a collaboration with Nissan for a series of drive-in, livestreamed concerts around the launch of the 2021 Nissan Rogue. Atlas designed a microsite for Nissan, complete with individual road trip itineraries, highlighting stops along the way.
The publisher’s niche audience and offering provides a premium for brand’s looking for media partners that can offer more than typical branded content. Atlas’ ability to organize and leverage experiences—albeit Covid-safe ones—gives the publisher an upper hand.
“Sometimes with brand sponsorships, it feels forced,” said Allyson Witherspoon, Nissan’s CMO. But Atlas gave Nissan a “media partnership to distribute the message and a way to do more experiences” in a way that didn’t feel “cookie-cutter,” she said.
The work produced with Nissan was done in conjunction with the brand’s creative agency TBWA. Webster said that an Atlas creative studio would be a natural progression for the company. It’s also a tribute to Atlas’ audience: niche, but highly motivated. Much of the site’s content is self-published from readers and travelers alike.
“They had a full suite, but maybe it wasn’t a priority because they had a focus on experiences,” said a media buyer familiar with Atlas, who asked to remain anonymous. “Conde Nast has an audience. Atlas Obscura has a community, and there’s a benefit and a value to a community where it’s like a two-way conversation. You’re more invested.”
This type of sponsored work also allows Atlas to charge a premium.
“It’s expanded our deal size by orders of magnitude, higher than just a typical piece of branded content,” said Hale. “We’re really concertedly trying to move away from the RFP [request for proposal] slog and move to more direct relationships to work in a deeper way.”
Warren declined to provide specific figures concerning revenue and Atlas Obscura’s value, but said revenue was in the mid-eight figures range. The company, he said, is “closer to run-rate profitable” and is on its way to profitability.
“This is our moment,” said Webster. “With everyone thinking, ‘How can we get away from mass tourism?’ This is our moment to deliver.”
Nissan and Atlas Obscura Announce Drive-In Experience Series
NEW YORK — November 10, 2020 — Nissan and Atlas Obscura are partnering on the launch of Rogue Routes, a premier drive-in and livestream performance series bringing to life the spirit of the all-new 2021 Nissan Rogue. Designed with health and safety in mind, this first-of-its-kind series aims to foster connection and community in this time of physical distancing.
A centerpiece of the campaign is the new 2021 Nissan Rogue, which has all the technology, capability and functionality to make life easier for today’s families. The Nissan Rogue delivers drivers confidence with improved driving dynamics, intelligent all-wheel drive and enhanced ProPILOT Assist technology. The 2021 Rogue crossover leads the segment in standard safety with Safety Shield® 360.
“Partnering with Atlas Obscura, whose mission is providing unparalleled access to hidden gems in unexpected places, is a natural fit for Rogue,” says Allyson Witherspoon, vice president and chief marketing officer, Nissan U.S. “It’s our hope that the Rogue Routes campaign inspires families to seek out new experiences in a vehicle designed with their every need in mind.”
Rogue Routes will feature unexpected programming at five off-the-beaten path winter locales around the U.S. against breathtaking backdrops. Experiences are tailored to each event destination and inspired by the five drive modes available with Rogue All-Wheel Drive models: Auto, Sport, Eco, Off-Road and Snow.
Musical performances include headliners Conor Oberst, GZA of the Wu-Tang Clan, harpist Mary Lattimore and sets by independent artists like Chicano Batman and Moon Duo, with more musical acts to be announced. Experiences may also include keynote presentations by well-known scientists, artists and innovators, and an astonishing program comprising a choreographed drone light show, falconry demonstrations, daredevil stunts and unforgettable art like Dervishes, an installation by robotic instrument designer Andy Cavatorta.
Dates and locations are as follows:
November 14, 2020 — Auto Mode at Carhenge in Alliance, Neb.
November 18, 2020 — Sport Mode at Pikes Peak Raceway in Fountain, Colo.
December 5, 2020 — Eco Mode at Camp Colton in Colton, Ore.
December 19, 2020 — Off-Road Mode at Sky’s the Limit Observatory in Twentynine Palms, Calif.
January 17, 2021 — Snow Mode at Ice Castles in North Woodstock, N.H.
The in-person Rogue Routes experiences will be complemented by digital and influencer content that will live across Nissan’s and Atlas Obscura’s social media channels. The content will include road trip itineraries for each of the event locations, comprising recommendations for stops at obscure places from the Atlas Obscura database. It will also include profiles of participating trailblazers and video content. The events will be streamed for free on the Rogue Routes portal.
Nissan and Atlas Obscura will also co-produce a limited-edition glove box companion book titled Rogue Routes: Extraordinary and Unusual Road Trips Across America. Inside, readers will find carefully curated road trips highlighting curious itineraries of wondrous hidden places across America created by Atlas Obscura co-founder Dylan Thuras and edited by Marc Haeringer.
“Atlas Obscura is committed to bringing discovery and joy to the world in innovative ways during this challenging time of disconnection,” said Atlas Obscura CEO Warren Webster. “Partnering on this series with Nissan offers an innovative way to safely engage with our communities and is a wonderful opportunity to join our mission with the spirit of the new Nissan Rogue.”
Stringent guidelines and protocols have been put in place to guarantee all participants’ safety. The events have been designed to be enjoyed from inside one’s own vehicle. Attendees will be required to wear masks outside of their vehicles, all ticketing will be contactless, and there will be many hand sanitizing stations onsite.
Tickets are $55 per vehicle to attend. For tickets, full list of programming and livestream access, visit atlasobscura.com/rogue. Programming for the December and January events will be announced later this month.
About Atlas Obscura
Atlas Obscura is an award-winning experiences company that shares the world’s hidden wonders in-person and online. Founded in 2009, Atlas Obscura created the definitive, community-driven online guide to the world’s most incredible places. Atlas Obscura has a global community of millions of global explorers, produces once-in-a-lifetime trips and experiences with leading experts, and has published two New York Times bestselling books with more than a million copies in print. The company has been nominated for three National Magazine Awards, a James Beard Award, three Webby Awards, and named one of Inc. 5000’s fastest growing companies in 2020. www.atlasobscura.com
About Nissan North America
For more information about Nissan products, services and commitment to sustainable mobility, visit nissanusa.com. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn and see all our latest videos on YouTube.
Contacts
Alexa Harrison
PR Manager
Atlas Obscura
alexa.harrison@atlasobscura.com
Vanessa Bohlscheid
Senior Manager, Corporate Communications
Nissan Group of North America
Vanessa.bohlscheid@nissan-usa.com
Lydia Polgreen and Karin Timpone join Atlas Obscura’s board of directors
NEW YORK — (October 23, 2020) — Atlas Obscura announces the appointment of former HuffPost Editor-in-Chief Lydia Polgreen, and former Marriott Global Marketing Officer Karin Timpone, to its board of directors. The move comes as Atlas Obscura expands its experiences, trips, and media business following a 2019 $20M Series B round of funding led by Airbnb.
Well-known for award-winning journalism and building the definitive, community-driven guide to the world’s hidden wonders, Atlas Obscura continues to develop innovative offerings as the travel industry transforms. Since shifting from in-person to online experiences in April, the company has rapidly expanded their unique online programming, recently introducing multi-session courses taught by leading experts like birder Jason Ward, lock-picker Schuyler Towne, and storyteller Justine Abigail Yu. The nearly 100 trips planned for 2021 include private excursions like an Erie Canal houseboat adventure and a tour of Svalbard, the northernmost town on Earth, and most recently Atlas Obscura partnered with Tastemade to create several sensory-rich travel experiences including swimming with the singing whales of Tonga and exploring floriculture in Paris.
“Lydia and Karin bring an incredible depth of experience and knowledge that will be invaluable as we bring our mission of discovery to a global community of curious explorers,” said CEO Warren Webster. “With their help and guidance Atlas Obscura can help redefine what travel means around the world.”
Polgreen is a media pioneer and award-winning journalist and is currently Head of Content at Gimlet, a podcast studio at Spotify. She has served as editor-in-chief of HuffPost and spent 15 years with The New York Times, where she led the initiative to expand its audience beyond the United States. While at HuffPost, Polgreen relaunched the site and updated its contributor model.
“Atlas Obscura has such a wonderful mission and values, I’m thrilled to join at this time of growth and expansion,” said Polgreen. “I’m looking forward to helping the team bring discovery to a global audience.”
Timpone is an acclaimed innovator in digital, marketing and customer experience. In addition to an extensive background with leading media and technology players like The Walt Disney Company, Universal Studios and Yahoo!, she recently served as Global Marketing Officer for Marriott International, where she was responsible for significant customer growth, as well as tripling the membership of its loyalty program.
“Audiences are heading to where Atlas Obscura already has a foothold — off-the-beaten-path, curated experiences that lend themselves naturally to storytelling,” said Timpone. “I’m thrilled to join the board as we look to expand our offerings in this new era.”
ABOUT ATLAS OBSCURA
Atlas Obscura is an award-winning experiences company that shares the world’s hidden wonders in-person and online. Founded in 2009, Atlas Obscura created the definitive, community-driven online guide to the world’s most fascinating places. Atlas Obscura has a community of millions of global explorers, produces trips and experiences highlighting niche perspectives with leading experts, and has published two New York Times bestselling books with more than a million copies in print. The company has been nominated for three National Magazine Awards, a James Beard Award, three Webby Awards, and named one of Inc. 5000’s fastest growing companies in 2020. www.atlasobscura.com
Press Contact:
Alexa Harrison
Public Relations Manager
press@atlasobscura.com
Atlas Obscura and Tastemade Partner to Launch Co-Branded Trips
Los Angeles, Calif. (October 14, 2020) — Today, travel company Atlas Obscura and modern media company Tastemade announce the launch of a new partnership offering five co-branded, unforgettable trips taking place in 2021. The itineraries feature adventurous, bucket-list-worthy experiences for curious travelers, combining Atlas Obscura’s unparalleled access to the world’s hidden wonders with Tastemade’s vibrant, sensory-driven approach to travel. Both companies have amassed communities with passions for unique stories on food and travel and an appetite for the unconventional.
The trips will range from short getaways to week-long adventures at prices ranging from several hundred to several thousand dollars. Adventurers can choose between swimming with whales in Tonga, tracking wolves in Swedish forests, harvesting oysters and tasting the world’s best single malt whisky in Tasmania, exploring the underground art scene in Los Angeles, making their own perfume in Paris, and more. Travelers are guaranteed to see wondrous sights as they venture off the beaten path, even in the world’s most well-known cities. Each itinerary is filled with depth, local insights, and memorable sensory experiences.
“We’re excited to be partnering with Atlas Obscura — a like-minded brand that leads with curiosity — for our first-ever branded trips partnership,” says Amanda Dameron, Head of Content at Tastemade. “We believe that travel is one of the most important ways we can grow as human beings, and our audience cares deeply about discovery, creativity, and adventure; these trips are the truest embodiment of those ideals.”
“Atlas Obscura specializes in designing wonder-filled travel experiences that would be virtually impossible to create on one’s own. We’re excited to combine our unique, curiosity-driven approach to travel with Tastemade’s vibrant, sensory-driven storytelling, sharing the stories of the incredible places we’ll visit through firsthand experience,” said Atlas Obscura’s General Manager of Experiences Mike Parker. “We expect the five exciting trips we’re launching with to be just the first of many more to come.”
Tastemade and Atlas Obscura will also partner on a co-branded, sponsorable advertising program called “Around the World in 50 States” focused on exploring unique U.S. enclaves. The partnership leverages the curatorial lens and experiential capabilities of Atlas Obscura paired with Tastemade’s expertise in premium content creation and video storytelling as well as its engaged global community.
The co-branded trips start at under $1,000 per person and are available for booking at www.atlasobscura.com/unusual-trips/tastemade. Visit Atlas Obscura’s COVID policy page to learn how the company has adapted its trips and safety guidelines in light of COVID-19.
ABOUT ATLAS OBSCURA
Atlas Obscura is an award-winning travel company that shares the world’s hidden wonders in-person and online. Founded in 2009, Atlas Obscura created the definitive, community-driven online guide to the world’s most incredible places. Atlas Obscura has a global community of millions of global explorers, produces once-in-a-lifetime trips and experiences with leading experts, and has published two New York Times bestselling books with more than a million copies in print. The company has been nominated for three National Magazine Awards, a James Beard Award, three Webby Awards, and named one of Inc. 5000’s fastest growing companies in 2020. www.atlasobscura.com
ABOUT TASTEMADE
Tastemade is a modern media company that engages a global audience of more than 300 million monthly viewers on all major digital, mobile, and streaming television platforms, streaming 2.5+ billion views each month. We create award-winning video content and original programming in the categories of Food, Travel, and Home & Design that we share with an engaged, passionate, and global community. Tastemade has won a host of awards and accolades for its innovation and original programming, including two James Beard Awards, two Emmy Awards, and Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Companies” list. For more information, visit Tastemade at: www.tastemade.com.
Tastemade on Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | Twitter | Pinterest | TikTok
Media Contacts:
Alexa Harrison
PR Manager
Atlas Obscura
alexa.harrison@atlasobscura.com
Brooke Swilley
Communications Director
Tastemade