Based on the Nickelodeon show, Blaze & the Monster Machines, Blaze’s Amazing Race Through Time is a short form DRI (Diversity, Representation & Inclusion) series that celebrates unsung inventors and scientists of color and ability throughout history. Our objective was to highlight and celebrate these unsung important historical figures using STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) to help Blaze and AJ solve modern-day problems.
Created and produced internally by the Nick Jr. YouTube team, the series brought historical figures, Ralph Braun, Ellen Ochoa, Anna Mani, Dr. Isabella Aiona Abbott, Richard B. Spikes, Mary Golda Ross, Yoshihiro Hamakawa, and Garrett Morgan to life. The series combined the well-known 3D animated look of Blaze with an innovative 2D style to help kids differentiate the present from the past.
The biggest part of our DRI strategy overall is to create repeatable formats that feel native to the channel and the show while achieving our DRI goals. That strategy is implemented in Blaze’s Amazing Race Through Time from start to finish— our audience loves when Blaze transforms, so we included a transformation into a Time Machine (the first time in the series history)! The ongoing conflict between Blaze and Crusher is a storyline the audience is familiar with so that drives the narrative. On top of that, we include an inventor or scientist of color to help kids see themselves on screen, learn about unsung historical figures, and use STEM to tell the story, an element central to the show. For us, this is an authentic way to give the Blaze audience what they love so they come back for more and be genuine when creating DRI content.
We also align our episode publish dates with YouTube Kids Moments and Takeovers to get premium placement in the YouTube Kids app, where most of our audience enjoys our content. To further augment our strategy, we publish the episodes close together to help build suggested traffic, as well as stitching on previous episodes of the series to make it longer because we also know our audience enjoys a “lean-back” watch time experience.
With millions of organic YouTube views (and counting!), the series is a hit! But what’s most inspiring is that our data shows kids aren’t just coming to watch Blaze; they’re staying to learn about the historical figures themselves! Audience retention and engagement spikes when we meet inventors and scientists and learn about their work. That we were able to achieve this and provide representation for such important figures was a huge win.
