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Drone view of a single road cutting through a Norwegian forest at dusk, the Green Beast small on the tarmac, hills and a fjord behind.

Case ~ Venture & Market ~ Germany ~ Norway ~ Sweden

UPNORTH 4.0

How a rooftop-tent brand built a year of attention around one fishing film, with no media budget, and moved into the fishing hall.

ClientNordling Outdoornordling.de
Held byPierre Blanquett
DoorVenture & Market
SinceOctober 2025
Statusongoing

772,036

Views across the four episodes, 14 September 2026

~80,000

Reached by the making of the Green Beast, before episode one

125,000

First Cast TV subscribers carrying the season

0 €

Media budget: the sponsorship was goods and trust

01The brands.

Lüneburg ~ Berlin

A tent maker, a fishing brand and a fishing channel: three brands, one season.

Nordling® Outdoor makes rooftop tents in Lüneburg and sells them from its own shop, its showroom and the outdoor fairs; the company’s own story is its case. NAYS was founded in Berlin in 2019 by Dustin Schöne and Marcel Mandry: anglers, designers and engineers making lures, rods, tackle, bags and clothing, with the stated aim of making fishing a way of life for a new generation, and shipping across Europe. First Cast TV is its entertainment channel on YouTube: 125,000 subscribers, 260 episodes and 27 million views, with yearly cinematic productions its audience waits for.

Exhibit 1Three brands at a glance

Nordling OutdoorNAYSFirst Cast TV
WhatRooftop tents and outdoor gearLures, tackle and fishing clothingFishing films on YouTube
HomeLüneburgBerlin, since 2019YouTube, the NAYS channel
AudienceCampers and caravanners106,000 on Instagram125,000 subscribers, 27 million views
In UPNORTHWhere the cast sleeps and drivesThe cast and the audienceThe film
nordling.de and naysbaits.com, read 6 October 2026; the audience figures as stated in the Qingdao talk, September 2026.

Why a tent brand stands in the fishing hall

In November 2026 Nordling leaves the hall where rooftop tents belong and takes 140 square metres in the prime fishing hall of Angelwelt Berlin, directly beside NAYS and the major names of the fishing industry. The booth is the last episode of a film. This case tells how that became the obvious place to be, in the order Pierre Blanquett told it in Qingdao in September: intention, attention, retention.

In the caravan hall a rooftop-tent brand is one exhibitor among many. Germany registers about 94,000 new leisure vehicles a year; it has about 3.3 million anglers, and every one of them sleeps somewhere on a trip. The question was how a tent brand reaches the second audience without buying it.

Exhibit 2Two audiences

CaravanningAngling
The audience94,134 new leisure vehicles registered in 2025About 3.3 million anglers in Germany
Its fairCaravan Salon Düsseldorf: over 259,000 visitors, 834 exhibitorsAngelwelt Berlin: about 50,000 visitors, about 200 exhibitors
Nordling thereOne rooftop-tent brand among many140 m² in the prime fishing hall, beside NAYS
CIVD, January 2026; Deutscher Angelfischerverband; Messe Düsseldorf, September 2026; Messe Berlin.

02Intention.

October 2025 ~ early summer 2026

Every decision was made in spring, months before anyone was watching.

It began with a chance meeting. At the fishing and hunting fair in Leipzig in October 2025, Pierre met the managing and sales directors of NAYS, one of the fastest-growing fishing brands in Germany, which brings to fishing the modern look the sport has in North America and Australia. A barter followed: rooftop tents for their entertainment channel, First Cast TV. The tents held up on trips that are hard on equipment, and that was the opening.

In March three brands sat at one table with one idea: after two years, UPNORTH comes back, and this time it is built together. Nordling’s part is everything the cast sleeps in and drives: the rooftop tents, the vehicle, and the logistics of getting both to Norway and back.

The audience

NAYS

Founded 2019 in Berlin by Dustin Schöne and Marcel Mandry, one of the fastest-growing German fishing brands. 106,000 on Instagram; Dustin alone 135,000. naysbaits.com

The film

First Cast TV

125,000 subscribers, 260 episodes, 27 million lifetime views. Cinematic annual productions the audience waits for, some cut for cinema screenings. Episode 1 on YouTube

The rest

Nordling

The trusted partner for where the cast sleeps on adventures that are hard on equipment. On camera every night of the trip, making a claim in no frame.

By design

The facilitator role

The partners’ reach is far above Nordling’s. The facilitator role is the honest one, and the credible one.

Exhibit 3Borrowed reach

Accounts and people

  1. Dustin SchöneInstagram135,000
  2. First Cast TVYouTube subscribers125,000
  3. NAYSInstagram106,000
  4. Angelwelt Berlinvisitors in three days~50,000
As stated in the Qingdao talk (September 2026) and by Messe Berlin. Borrow trust before building reach.

The Green Beast

Nordling’s orange Ranger was wrapped, re-wheeled and fitted in spring and became the Green Beast, in the full livery of UPNORTH, with two rooftop tents on the car and a trailer. The build was filmed at every step and posted with the other main sponsors before the show aired: around 80,000 people watched the object being made, so they knew it the moment it appeared on screen. The second object is smaller: tents customised in print and look, exclusive to the production, identifiable in every frame and available in no shop.

An orange pickup with a rooftop tent and a matching trailer with a second tent, parked in a green meadow: the vehicle before the UPNORTH livery.
Before. An orange truck, one among many.
The Green Beast pickup and trailer in olive green with the UPNORTH livery, side on, parked at a forest edge.
After. The Green Beast, in the language of UPNORTH.
The pickup in a workshop under hexagon lights, half still orange and half wrapped in the olive green of UPNORTH.
The build, on camera.
The Green Beast and its trailer with both Nordling rooftop tents open under tall pines, the UPNORTH print on the tent walls.
On the trip: both tents open under the pines.
A man tends a camp fire at dusk beside the Green Beast pickup with its Nordling rooftop tent open, Nordling camping chairs around the fire.

Attention

Every second Sunday, 18:00.

03Attention.

19 July ~ 30 August 2026

Earned across a schedule, never bought in one piece.

Four episodes went out every second Sunday at 18:00: the Arctic Circle, Sweden, the road to the Atlantic, and 72 hours on a deserted island. The finale is the most-watched and the most-discussed episode of the season.

Exhibit 4One season, three words

intention
  1. October 2025Leipzig: the meeting, then the barter.
  2. MarchThe lunch: UPNORTH 4.0 agreed by Nordling, NAYS and First Cast TV.
  3. SpringThe Green Beast built on camera; around 80,000 reached.
  4. Early summerThe tents customised, exclusive to the production.
attention
  1. 19 July to 30 AugustFour episodes, every second Sunday at 18:00.
  2. AutumnThe car on the road, from Caravan Salon Düsseldorf through the fairs.
retention
  1. 27 to 29 NovemberAngelwelt Berlin: the last episode is physical, the car, the tents and the cast in the prime fishing hall.
  2. Next seasonUPNORTH returns; the formula travels.
Thirteen months from a chance meeting to the floor of the fishing hall.
A ferry leaves a small harbour on a grey fjord with cloud-covered mountains behind, seen from above.
Norway, from the production’s drone.

Exhibit 5Every second Sunday, 18:00

ViewsComments

  1. 19 Jul ~ PolarkreisMonsters at the Arctic Circle228,8676.8k likes ~ 546 comments
  2. 2 Aug ~ UnberührtMore pike than people164,2534.3k likes ~ 413 comments
  3. 16 Aug ~ 1000KMForest lake to the Atlantic144,6844.3k likes ~ 583 comments
  4. 30 Aug ~ Ausgesetzt72 hours on a deserted island ~ the finale234,2327k likes ~ 2,800 comments
  5. The season772,03622.4k likes ~ 4,342 comments
Read from the four live YouTube pages, 14 September 2026. The comments on the finale are the first door opening: the audience could win one of the two tents the cast slept in.
Thumbnail of UPNORTH episode one, Polarkreis: an angler in a kayak under a stormy Arctic sky, the title in yellow.
Episode 1 ~ Polarkreis
Thumbnail of UPNORTH episode two, Unberührt: two anglers holding a large pike at sunrise, the title in yellow.
Episode 2 ~ Unberührt
Thumbnail of UPNORTH episode three, 1000KM: the Green Beast on a lakeside road at sunset with two anglers, the title in yellow.
Episode 3 ~ 1000KM
Thumbnail of UPNORTH episode four, Ausgesetzt: an angler lifts a cod from the sea under a dramatic sky, the title in yellow.
Episode 4 ~ Ausgesetzt

Between the episodes the car kept driving: to the fairs and road shows through the autumn, with the damage from the production left exactly where it happened. Damage is proof of use; the car advertises in the weeks a campaign normally goes quiet, and makes no claim while doing it.

The rear corner of the Green Beast beside its tail light, the olive wrap scraped and dented on the trip, left as it happened.
The damage from the trip, left in place.
The Green Beast and its trailer on a wet country road between fields, seen from above.
On the road between the episodes.

Three doors, three prices of entry

Door one ~ YouTube

The original tent from the trip

In the finale the audience can win one of the two rooftop tents the cast slept in across Norway: a product with a story attached, offered at the deepest moment of attention.

Door two ~ Instagram

Reach at the lowest cost of entry

The second giveaway costs a follow and a tag, and buys audience in the weeks between the finale and the fair.

Door three ~ Berlin, day one

A person standing in the hall

The last giveaway happens on the first day of Angelwelt: online attention becomes a person at the booth, in front of the car, next to the cast.

The rule

The same product behind each door

What changes is what a person gives to walk through it.

04Retention.

Angelwelt Berlin, 27 to 29 November 2026

What survives after the season ends.

The floor is the last episode. The booth stands directly beside NAYS; Dustin and Wecki walk over, sign rooftop tents and answer questions next to the same car and the same equipment the audience streamed all summer. Borrowed trust becomes a direct relationship at one table’s distance.

That is why a tent brand belongs in the fishing hall, and the fishing audience became one of Nordling’s strongest sales channels in 2026: anglers came to the fairs saying they had first seen Nordling with NAYS or in an episode.

A crowd in front of the NAYS stand at a fishing fair, seen from above through the hall's steel lattice.
The NAYS stand at the fair.
The illuminated entrance of a trade-fair hall at night, the event lettering in magenta light on the facade.
The hall at night.
Aerial view straight down on the Green Beast pickup with rooftop tent and trailer driving a grey road between trees.
The Green Beast and its trailer, from straight above.
A pickup carrying a Nordling Outdoor rooftop tent and trailer parked on a track between pine trees.
Between the pines, on the trip.

What stays is the objects, the format and the audience. A tent enters a customer’s life for years; the Green Beast keeps driving and keeps being recognised. UPNORTH returns next season and the audience waits for it.

05The formula.

Qingdao, September 2026

Change the sport. Keep the formula.

Every outdoor pursuit reaches the same two questions before the sport begins: where do we sleep, and what do we eat. That is the slot a rooftop tent fills in any story told outdoors overnight.

Exhibit 6Sleep ~ eat ~ act

sleep

The platform on the roof: Nordling’s ground in every campaign the formula produces.

eat

Catch and cook, mushroom and pan: what was found becomes what is eaten.

act

Fishing this year. Hunting, hiking, foraging, cycling, riding: any pursuit that ends outdoors overnight fits the same slot.

A pickup with a Nordling rooftop tent opened and its ladder down, parked between birches in flat evening light.
Between the trees, the ladder down.
A pickup with a Nordling Outdoor rooftop tent and awning parked at a lakeside at dusk, hills across the water.
At a lake, at dusk.
The slot a rooftop tent fills, in any landscape.

The next one runs in both directions

The same formula, crossing a border both ways. In Germany: Moritz Schmid, one of the country’s recognised mushroom experts, with books and an audience that trusts expertise (@intothewoods_mushrooms). In Yunnan: his counterpart in the mushroom province of China. A bilingual series of three to four formats, which RV, camping and outdoor brands can enter as organic sponsors, exactly as Nordling entered UPNORTH.

A local partner opens doors that otherwise take years.

Pierre Blanquett

06What changed.

Spring ~ November 2026

One season, side by side.

Exhibit 7Before and after

Before the seasonNovember 2026
HallCaravanning, one rooftop-tent exhibitor among manyThe prime fishing hall of Angelwelt, 140 m² beside NAYS
AudienceCaravanning and campingFishing as well: anglers arrive saying they first saw Nordling with NAYS
Media spend—0 €: the sponsorship was goods and trust
AssetsAn orange truckThe Green Beast and customised tents, still working after the campaign
Format—A formula, sleep ~ eat ~ act, that can take another sport and another country

A campaign with no media budget that moved a brand into a new hall and a new audience, and built two objects that keep working after the campaign stops paying. The company behind it: Nordling Outdoor.

07The next season.

Venture & Market

Pierre presented the season in Qingdao to brands that could enter the next one. There are two ways in, and both start with a conversation.

Path one ~ with Nordling

A product inside the next season

A vehicle, a component, a category slot in the campaigns the formula produces. The German audience meets it inside a story it already follows, the way Nordling entered UPNORTH.

Path two ~ with sentiention

Germany itself

The route into the market: partners matched to the audience you need, objects built to outlive the campaign, and the fair floor where the story ends and the sales begin.

What the firm brings

A season, planned in three words

Intention, attention and retention; the partners found in person; the three doors; the objects; the floor.

How it starts

A brief through the intake

A person answers inside 24 hours; the feasibility check follows inside 48.

Initiate a Dialogue

08Sources.

Read on 6 October 2026

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