Social media marketing helps Reading Rainbow Kickstarter reach record goal

reading rainbow levar burton social media marketing

The crowdfunding effort has now achieved the highest number of backers ever for that platform.

The grassroots campaign that has made headlines and that spread wildly through social media marketing and sharing, with support from some of the biggest names from Kickstarter and celebrities across the entire spectrum in order to bring back Reading Rainbow in a mobile app format that will be free to classrooms in need across the United States, has now reached well beyond even its highest goals.

After reaching its initial basic $1 million goal within the first 11 hours, the $5 stretch goal has also been reached.

This was not only the result of the top name celebrities that contributed time, money, and rewards, but to a record breaking number of other regular, everyday people, who totaled well over 103,900 at the time of the writing of this article. The campaign was designed to raise enough money to create a web and mobile version of the highly popular children’s television series. It was these individuals who held their own private social media marketing, sharing links and the Kickstarter video, to help to spread the word.

The achievement of this goal is greatly credited to the power of social media marketing.


That said, the campaign is becoming a great deal more healthy even after the final Kickstarter total was reached, as Seth McFarlane, the creator and actor from Family Guy, announced that after the $4 million mark, he would match up to $1 million in pledges. Clearly, the number of pledges from the crowdfunding campaign has maxed out that offer, meaning that the total will reach $1 million higher than its final closing mark due to his immense generosity.

The man behind Reading Rainbow and the center of the Kickstarter campaign, LeVar Burton, has been actively promoting this effort, even as the new “field trips” and other video segments of the web based offerings are being filmed. He has toured, sent personal video email updates, and has encouraged social media marketing to the greatest extent of his abilities. He explained that “We have a responsibility to prepare our children … and right now, the numbers show that we, as a society, are failing in that responsibility.”

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