Case study: Agoras N1ckola | Sector: Media | Format: Social media, microsite & video
Video content within Agora: Lonely Girl 15 succeeds in Poland
Innovation for digital publishers and broadcasters means much more than simply adding social media around existing editorial content. For some media groups it can mean completely new strands of programming content and for Poland's Agora media group this includes expanding into web-centric soap operas - a massive leap from their traditional print and broadcast output.
The creation of the N1ckola (http://n1ckola.pl) product and platform is a great example of how resources were pooled between the web and classic media. Agora created their own story with highly localised content, based on the license and model of Lonely Girl 15 (from the US, and then the Kate Modern programming on Bebo in the UK). It took a year to develop and sell the model and demanded new staffing structures as well as partnerships with Bebo and interlinkages between the group's media assets.
N1ckola is an interactive drama that has a video soap opera at the heart of the entertainment experience. It is architected in a way to generates massive engagement from consumers.
"It's become a great way to reach 15-25 year olds in Poland" explains Tomasz Jozefacki, head of Agora’s internet division who has trailblazed the thinking within Agora. The core of the programming content is 4-5 episodes a week totalling 100-120 episodes a year. At 1-5minutes per episode the content volume is tiny compared to television soaps, but the interaction and engagement is strong.
N1ikola's advertising partnerships were restricted to four: Samsung, Plus, Microsoft and Hasbro. The brands and their content was also written into the storyline using sophisticated models of web product placement. That provided a powerful advertising platform and one that will continue to offer their commercial partners benefits in the longer term. With half a billion advertising impressions inside N1ickola, plus supporting advertising from outdoor, print and other platforms feeding into it, Agora succeeded in creating a massive advertising industry as well as strong long term programming content that helps define the fusion of web-centric storytelling and traditional television soap operas.