Case Study: Race to Nowhere
Background:
EndtheRace.org is a nonprofit working to mobilize families, educators, and policy makers around
the ever-growing pressures children face in our education system. The centerpiece of their campaign
is the documentary film Race to Nowhere. The film is driving the movement to challenge assumptions
about how to best prepare America’s youth to become healthy, bright and contributing citizen leaders.
(Click to view live Spark)
The movement had already gained tremendous momentum with screenings hosted by many
schools and organizations, and tens of thousands of new subscribers. Multiple websites needed
updating to reflect the new campaign, but stopping for design and development was not an option.
The Solution - Microsite & Syndication Tool:
To quickly address the demands of the busy campaign, the Spark was created as a portable microsite,
easily placed over the homepage to be featured as the main attraction. The video was posted on all
relevant campaign sites, and then shared and posted to dozens of blogs and school sites both within
and beyond the existing network.

As the campaign evolved, we were able to modify the Spark from one central dashboard, so that
updates could manifest in all locations simultaneously. This meant that new features and tools,
such as the Sleep Pledge, could be added to the Spark as they became relevant to the campaign.
The Results:
After it was posted on all planned campaign sites, numerous schools and blogs picked up the
Spark as the campaign began to take off, blowing industry averages for online video out of the water.
Rolling out our new mobile functionality allowed EndtheRace.org to capitalize on the campaign’s
growing buzz with extra speed – mobile users played a big role in spreading the Spark, with
8,589 loads and extensive sharing.
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Overall there were more than 859 discrete URL placements, 170,000 loads
and 69,000 video views.
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The Spark had an average of 845 loads per day and a 63% gross click-through rate.
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47% of viewers watched the full ‘Ignites Change’ video and 64% of viewers watched
the full ‘Trailer’ video, 14 points higher than the industry average for video completion. -
The Spark loaded 34,580 times on an additional 347 Web pages beyond the primary
campaign sites.
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Mobile users generated 61% of Join participants.
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Facebook users had significant presence without the Facebook price!
[Estimated Facebook cost per click x Facebook clicks = $.92* x 9,249 = $8,509.08]


