Traveling to Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Kenya, “Breaking2” chronicles three elite runners who are training tirelessly to shatter one of the biggest barriers in human endurance: the 2-hour marathon. Through the lens of the Breaking2 endeavor, we not only created an understanding of the depth of innovation behind this attempt, but we more importantly brought to life less quantifiable components — the power of the heart and the mind.

With breathtaking cinematography backed by a culturally-charged musical score, viewers quickly found themselves rooting for each runner as their unique stories and personalities came to life. And despite the story’s heartbreaking outcome of barely missing the 2-hour mark, “Breaking2” was nonetheless a huge win — inspiring, poignant, and captivating — illustrating that there’s triumph and glory in not just winning, but in the journey it takes to get there, a universal message that reaches far beyond the world of sports.

Bridging the Breaking2 race in May 2017 to the documentary premiere in September, we drove awareness through short-form social storytelling — teasing out the athletes, the science and the innovation that brought the entire journey to life.

On September 20, the film premiered commercial-free on our cable network at 8pm EST. The film was made available the next day on 10 VOD platforms, including on YouTube in 34 languages. It was broadcast an additional 34 times across our network, and on FS1. To drive awareness between the time of the marathon and the premiere, we conducted a robust tune-in campaign — priming and enticing entertainment, consumer and sports media to build momentum before “Breaking2” premiered.

With a consumer-first and mixed media distribution approach, we optimized engagement among audiences everywhere, leveraging traditional linear channels, digital, and VOD. We are still garnering 40K+ views a week on YouTube with no active marketing.

“Breaking2” was a resounding success. The documentary reached of 231MM+ across all platforms, and garnered 4MM+ mixed-media documentary views. Broadcasted in 67 countries and in 34 languages available with closed captioning on YouTube, Breaking2 met consumers where they were with access on 10 VOD/EST platforms and on Twitter and Facebook.

The film premiered commercial-free with 34 encores, and received extensive social promotion — driving viewership and promotion, and garnering 875K impressions. Social sentiment was overwhelmly positive, with more than half the tweets during the premiere broadcast expressing “love” of the documentary.

The campaign created buzz and momentum outside of the sports pages with 43 pieces of coverage in outlets including Variety, Bloomberg, and NPR (among others) — reaching a total of 963M+ online readers, and securing 761K estimated views and 8.52K social shares.

To quote one of the runners from “Breaking2,” Eliud Kipchoge, our primary goal behind partnering with Nike to produce this film was to “tell the world, no human is limited.”

With the race’s outcome still fresh in everyone’s minds, we were able to create something so much more impactful than a sports documentary, telling a story that entertained audiences across the world — emotionally, intellectually and physiologically. Sports fans and non-sports fans alike found themselves personally connected and drawn to the unique and empowering tales of these remarkable heroes and their teams as they tested the limits of human potential.

Leveraging a collaborative, creative storytelling approach, we captured the power of human potential through the lens of the 2-hour marathon barrier — creating a storyline so pure that it was impossible not to care about what came next. Through the film, audiences traveled to the runners’ home countries, met their families, and participated in their training runs.

The story took viewers deep into athletic innovation centers across the U.S. to grant a better understanding of the scientific insights and technology needed to tackle this extraordinary feat, and then onto the dirt roads of eastern Africa — exposing the tensions between scientists and athletic trainers, and the humble facilities that develop the top runners of the world.

The distribution strategy was designed to meet the consumer whenever and wherever they wanted — with broadcast airings in U.S. and Europe, and digital access across VOD/EST and on YouTube.

"Breaking2” is a 55-minute documentary produced by National Geographic Studios in association with Dirty Robber, and in partnership with Nike. The film tells the Breaking2 journey of three world-class runners as they attempt to run a marathon in under two hours. Bringing humanity and personal voice to the enormity of this moonshot moment and incredible athletic pursuit, the film highlights the selection of runners, the identification of ideal marathon conditions and the creation of a running shoe that can make it all possible — all while channeling the main characters as a source of personal inspiration.

Our objectives were to articulate the Breaking2 project in a way that captured the hearts and minds of a global audience through the lens of our hallmark storytelling prowess, and to create an inspiring all-access documentary that engaged consumers around the world to think about their very own potential.