The Goddard School Guinness World Record

Type: Public Relations

Back to All case studies
465

Media Mentions

268

Media Impressions

Goddard Schools, LLC

Children learn best through experience. The Goddard School’s high-quality educational programming is designed to ignite curiosity and fuel a lifelong love of learning.

Key Highlights:

  • Through a strategic media relations campaign and engagement across a national footprint of schools, The Goddard School achieved a Guinness World Records™ title for the most viewers for a reading live stream on YouTube.
  • The event featured celebrity reader Steve Burns, the original host of Blue’s Clues, to draw media attention and create opportunities for The Goddard School to further the brand narrative around its innovative early childhood education program, Wonder of Learning®.
  • The livestream generated widespread local school involvement, with 501 Goddard Schools signed up to participate (77% of the system).

Overview

The Goddard School wanted to kick off the new school year and celebrate the start of National Literacy Month (September) with something truly special involving students and faculty members from across their network of schools.

To generate systemwide excitement over literacy and learning, RP and The Goddard School developed a comprehensive PR campaign to support their attempt to set a Guinness World Records™ title for “Most Viewers for a Reading Livestream on YouTube” on September 3, 2025.

The livestream featured Steve Burns, actor and previous host of the children’s television series Blue’s Clues, reading “Curious Blueberry the Carousel Horse” to preschoolers at The Goddard School of Manhattan (StuyTown). 

To maximize participation and amplify the milestone, RP coordinated a multi-faceted media relations strategy, including earned media outreach, news release distributions, onsite event support and more – creating a unifying moment that celebrated literacy, community and the joy of learning across the Goddard Schools system.

Strategy

  • Embargoed pre-event outreach – Initiated select national and NYC media outreach under embargo to introduce the story, preview the event and secure early interest while maintaining Guinness brand‑usage rules. This approach built anticipation and legitimacy ahead of the public reveal.
  • Leveraging celebrity talent (Steve Burns) to amplify newsworthiness – Intentionally used Steve Burns’ national name recognition to draw media attention and create opportunities for a Goddard School leader to further the brand narrative around early literacy.
  • Tiered, phase‑based media outreach to maximize coverage windows – A four‑phase plan structured outreach to ensure continuous media visibility: from early embargoed pitching (Phase 1), to full Guinness‑branded promotion (Phase 2), through on‑site event day media management (Phase 3), and post‑event momentum pitching (Phase 4), RP maximized visibility to achieve the Guinness World Records™
  • Dual‑release strategy using Business Wire to drive national reach – The plan included two timed Business Wire releases – one announcing the record attempt and livestream link, and a second confirming record success with photos/video. This ensured national pick‑up before and immediately after the event.
  • Local market activation through school participation & watch parties – RP and The Goddard School encouraged participation and watch parties, recognizing that local media coverage would depend heavily on schools’ ability to provide visuals and community‑driven storylines.

Results

  • Goddard set the Guinness World Records™ title for most viewers for a reading live stream on YouTube – drawing 6,535 viewers.
    • The record-breaking figure represents the number of devices that concurrently watched the live stream. In total, tens of thousands of students and teachers watched live, as thousands of classrooms tuned in from a single device in each room.
  • The livestream generated widespread Goddard School involvement, with 501 Goddard Schools signed up to participate (77% of the system).
  • There were eight local media “watch” parties organized to boost School engagement and local media buzz.
  • To date, Goddard has earned 465 broadcast, online, and radio placements, generating over 268M impressions.
  • Distributed a news release over Business Wire announcing the Guinness World Records™ title attempt and livestream link, resulting in an additional 5 million impressions.
  • Distributed a news release over Business Wire announcing the Guinness World Records™ title achieved, resulting in an additional 6 million impressions.

 

More information about the world record can be found here, or on Guinness World Records™ website.