Taking Enterprise To New Lengths With an Original Documentary Film

Natria

“The Road Through Warroad: Hockeytown USA” was a first for Cannonball and Enterprise – a 30-minute original documentary film that premiered on NBC Sports, serving as the finale of the network’s Hockey Day in America broadcast. See the :30 trailer below, and scroll down to watch the full film.

Our film tells the inspiring story of Warroad, Minnesota, a small town of less than 2,000 people that has produced seven Olympic hockey players, five NHL players and more than 80 Division I college players. The Warroad story was originally envisioned as a four-minute content piece connected to Enterprise’s NHL sponsorship – a story that “picks you up” and connects the brand to fans on a grassroots level.

While shooting, we discovered so much more to the story we knew viewers would love to see. After the initial shoot, we developed a 30-minute outline of the film and shared it with Enterprise, who eagerly sent us back to Warroad to fill out the story. Meanwhile, Enterprise and Cannonball shared the project with NBC Sports, who immediately showed interest in broadcasting the film to a national audience.

Results

The national broadcast premiere nearly tripled the year-ago time period rating, and almost doubled the network average (including live sports). NBC Sports saw 10x views over previous high-water benchmark on Facebook, doubled and tripled all pre-existing unit interaction and viewership benchmarks, and saw 5-10% higher video completion rates, regardless of length.