Touch Grass

The challenge

Ordnance Survey is one of the most recognised names in Britain, and most people under thirty couldn't tell you it makes an app. The audience was ageing out.

OS Maps needed to reach people who'd rather be on TikTok than up a hill. They listen to the creators they follow far more than to brands, and they can tell when a brand's trying too hard.

The idea

Turn the internet's favourite insult into an actual invitation.

Go touch grass was already everywhere online, the thing you say when someone needs to log off for a bit, and everyone knew it. So we ran with it and took a group of people who live on the internet outside.

The work

We did it two years running, with a different group of creators each time.

In 2025 it was the Touch Grass Weekender in the Brecon Beacons, with Arthur TV, BurntChip and Zac Alsop.

Most of the thinking went into the casting. Follower numbers mattered less than finding three creators who'd come across like a group of mates you'd recognise: one with all the gear who knows what he's doing, one who's there for a laugh and keeps everyone together, and one who's always after a shortcut.

It was ten short episodes, set up like a quest to get to the campsite, find the waterfall and then make it to the pub. I directed the shoots and the edits, and took the photos.

The two episodes that did best were the least scripted ones, where they're just walking and talking or messing about in a river. That only works if someone's thinking past the episode the whole time. I'd be grabbing B-roll and looking out for bits that could become cutdowns or verticals.

We also got the rights to post on the creators' own channels this time, so it travelled well beyond OS's feeds.

The year before, in 2024, we took Jack Joseph, Cole Anderson-James and Charley Marlowe to the South Downs, close enough to London for a weekend of cycling, camping, campfires and problem-solving. Each of them was paired with an OS brand champion who knew what they were doing outdoors. I came up with the series idea, a few creators taking on challenges over a run of episodes, and fed back on the creative all the way through. It became a three-part YouTube series with social cutdowns, and OS hadn't made anything like it before.

The results

The campaign won Best Small Marketing Campaign at the UK Agency Awards.

It also mattered because 2024 was a first for OS, and once it worked they kept going with 2025, the Trig Challenge and plenty more since.