Ride Illinois Bike Safety Quiz 2026 Campaign
Real Streets, Real Results.
Showing Illinois its own streets, and getting 35% more people to the finish line.
Role: Creative Director, Producer | Kindle Point
Client: Ride Illinois, in partnership with the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT)
Scope: Quiz photography direction (90 images) · Landing-page video · Quiz content and UI enhancement · Five-spot paid social video campaign · Spokesperson direction · YouTube, Meta and LinkedIn
The short version
Ride Illinois runs the state's free Bike Safety Quiz for motorists, adult cyclists and kids. In 2026 we replaced its patchwork images with ninety photos of real Illinois streets, added a landing-page video and ran five short video ads.
The result:
Quiz completions up 35%, at half the cost per click.
The Challenge
Here's a sentence nobody has ever said out loud:
"I can't wait to take a safety quiz."
That was the brief, more or less. The questions were sound. The pictures had piled up over the years: search-engine finds, low-res photos, clip art, icons and illustrations, all in one quiz. A quiz that doesn't look like your street is easy to start but easier to abandon.
The 2026 goals: Run May-September, reach younger, and test YouTube, all on $60K of media.
The Solution
Real streets, not stock streets
In September 2025, Kindle Point directed a ninety-photo shoot with Chicago photographer Peter Wagner, one image for every question across all three quizzes. Community volunteers played the drivers, commuters and kids.
Some scenarios, like top-down intersection views, needed professional compositing. Every tip now appears as it actually happens, in one consistent look. The new photos went live for schools in January.
Here when you’re ready
A one-minute intro video puts Executive Director, David Simmons on the landing page, explaining that safety benefits all road users and how the quiz evolved in 2026
Five ads, one winner, and it told you to stop watching
Kindle Point concepted, shot and edited the intro video and five short video ads, live May 22 to September 15 on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Ride Illinois' own people starred: David Simmons, Savannah Curry and board member Valerie Kramer. Adam Buchanan managed the media.
‘Save for Later’ won
It opens on a pedal at road level and, within two seconds, asks viewers to save it for when they're not behind the wheel. It led on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
The one SFX shot we couldn't film
The landing page video transition into the outro was real. Dave rode towards Kevin filming with a gimbal out the back of an SUV (Savannah drove) for a steady reference shot.
Every video ends with the same outro: the camera circles Dave's helmet, then rises to an aerial view of Illinois full of riders and drivers. No nonprofit budget covers that shot, so we built it with AI video tools. Nearly everything else is real people on real streets.
Results
1,558 people finished the quiz from May to September 2026
Up 35% from 2024 (same channels)
Up 20% from 2025 (billboards).
Every completion ends with a digital certificate, so these are finishers, not clicks.
2025's billboards delivered 62.5 million impressions.
2026's social delivered 5.3 million and produced 20% more quiz completions.
The content did the work.
$60,146 drove 107,000 site visits, about 56 cents each.
YouTube, new this year, reached 18–34-year-olds better than any other channel.
Comparison of 2024 vs. 2026 (May - Sept.) based on social media as campaign channel
Quiz completions
Cost per click (¢)
Click-thru rate
People don't want to take a safety quiz. They want to see their own street in one. 1,558 of them made it to the certificate.
Everyone deserves to get home safe
Whether you drive, ride or roll everyone in Illinois has access to the free Ride Illinois Bike Safety Quiz, and now you might recognize yourself, your community and your streets while learning to share the road.
Quiz versions made for motorists; adult and child cyclists:
Client: Ride Illinois, with IDOT
Creative direction, production and editing: Kindle Point / Kevin Gilsdorf
Photography: Peter Wagner
Paid media management: Adam Buchanan
On camera: David Simmons, Savannah Curry, Valerie Kramer
With thanks to: the community volunteers who posed for every photo.
Credits
FAQs
By making the quiz look like home. Kindle Point directed 90 new real-street photos, a landing-page video and five short video ads. Completions rose to 1,558 from May to September 2026, up 35% from 2024 and 20% from 2025.
How did Ride Illinois increase Bike Safety Quiz completions in 2026?
1
For Ride Illinois in 2026, Media budget was divided across YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn delivered 5.3 million impressions, 1 million engagements and 107,000 site visits, at about 56 cents per visit. Cost per click fell from $0.92 in 2024 to $0.44.
What did the paid social budget deliver for a nonprofit safety campaign?
2
Each did a different job. In the 2026 Ride Illinois campaign, Facebook drove the most clicks, Instagram the most reach, YouTube the cheapest views and the strongest 18–34 audience, and LinkedIn a workplace and commuter audience the others missed.
Which social platform works best for a nonprofit safety campaign?
3
What kind of video ad works best for road-safety education?
4
In this campaign, low pressure won. "Save for Later" opened on an unusual road-level angle and asked viewers to save the video for when they weren't driving. It outperformed quiz challenges and spokesperson videos on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Only where filming was impossible. A shared outro, rising from a cyclist's helmet to an aerial view of the whole state, was built with AI video tools. The quiz photos, spokespeople and nearly every frame of the ads are real people on real Illinois streets.
5
Did the campaign use AI?
Who creates campaigns for bicycle advocacy and active-transportation organizations?
6
Kindle Point, a Chicago-area brand studio, has produced creative for Ride Illinois' Bike Safety Quiz campaigns since 2022, including photography direction, video production and paid social creative. Its work spans social impact, public health and the active outdoor industry.