Based on the belief that transformational ideas can come from anywhere and anyone, Chasing Genius is a purpose-based community designed to inspire, ignite and unleash the genius inside each of us to turn ideas into catalysts for positive change in the world.

National Geographic crowdsourced ideas to identify the issues the global community is most passionate about, resulting in an initial challenge aimed at generating solutions for improving global health, as one of three challenge categories.

To engage the global community, National Geographic developed a rich suite of content with inspiring stories, as well as probing questions and statistics, that enlightened perspectives and helped contextualize the issue of health to stir up conversation and generate action. We then challenged the community to submit 1-minute videos describing their idea to enhance global health for a chance to win $25K to take their visions further.

The Chasing Genius Challenge was announced on May 9, 2017 and was maintained through a multi-tiered content and promotional rollout across broadcast, digital and social for three months. Consumers were encouraged to join Chasing Genius, submit 1-minute video ideas and share the challenge with their own networks.

In addition to the 277 posts across National Geographic's social channels, the brand supplied social media assets and copy to strategic partners including 1K+ universities, innovation incubators and health organizations — extending our reach well beyond National Geographic’s social footprint, generating an additional 8,7K posts with a potential extended reach of 50MM followers.

Voting began four months after submissions opened. The winner of the Global Health category was then announced on September 18, 2017 after having their video idea judged based on innovation, creativity, viability and inspiration by the Chasing Genius council.

More than 26,000 members joined the Chasing Genius community; nearly 3,000 people shared videos describing their solutions — 555 in the global hunger category alone; the campaign generated 225M+ impressions, 19M+ video views and 3M+ social conversations — demonstrating that National Geographic drove a global conversation around the notion that one idea can change the world.

The community submitted innovations ranging from milk made with plant-based microbes as a sustainable dairy solution, to an app connecting food suppliers with food banks to redirect surplus and prevent waste. Richard Trimble, won the feeding the world category for a solar-powered device that processes pearl millet, a staple crop in sub-Saharan Africa — alleviating the arduous task of threshing by hand.

In both metrics and mission, Chasing Genius succeeded — generating a rare, coveted level of consumer engagement by tapping into collective passions, and rousing the world to end world hunger.