Nick At Net

Brandweek, Dec 11, 2000 by Jennifer Owens

Nickelodeon Online's philosophy behind its redesign of Nick.com. was simple: Make it the place to go for kids.

It's raining at the Eiffel Tower and partly sunny in Roswell, N.M. Do you know where your kids are? If they're between 6 and 14, there's a good chance they're checking out the weather on Nick.com. In addition to weather reports from unusual locations, calendar functions and more than 170 games for the wired 'tween set are now offered by the recently redesigned site from New York-based Nickelodeon Online.

THE CHALLENGE

Initially launched exclusively on America Online's proprietary service in 1995, Nick.com had grown by late 1999 into a successful and entertaining promotional arm of the overall Nickelodeon brand, says Mike Skagerlind, the site's general manager. "But we felt strongly that it could be a lot more. We basically wanted it to be the main place that kids go to on the Web."

On the plus side, Nick.com and its related brands have had a longstanding conversation with kids, beginning with the launch of Nickelodeon, the successful kids cable network, in 1979. "We knew that we had great presence in their minds because of what Nickelodeon does," says Skagerlind. "We felt that we could take that, leverage our ability to communicate, and play on our credentials in terms of the entertainment space to provide them with a whole array of other useful products and services, which they wouldn't otherwise get on the Web."

THE TIMELINE

According to Skagerlind, talk of expanding Nick.com began in January, with the redesigned site taking flight on June 3. In between, he says, the central issues were how to package the site's ever-changing content in an easy and appealing way for kids to navigate. "So we decided to divide up the site into interest areas built around the interests kids have in their lives," says Skagerlind. This includes music, games and "Blab!," Nick.com's collection of chat communities.

THE INVESTMENT

While Nick.com does have some dedicated designers and producers, it also shares technology, ad sales and communications staff with numerous sister sites--including Nickjr.com, which relaunched last month, TVLand.com and NickatNight.com--as a Nickelodeon Online property. Nickelodeon reps would not discuss the site's specific costs, saying only that nearly all work was done in-house. But, says Skagerlind, "we have invested, obviously, in the site, because we're doing a lot more than we used to do."

In the meantime, Nick.com is certainly helped by its well-known cable brand name. "We have a momentum that some of our competitors may not have," Skagerlind acknowledges. "That allows us to do things and access synergies that others may not be able to do, and that puts us in a place where we feel pretty good about what we're spending."

THE CREATIVE

Possibly the biggest challenge for Nick.com was its navigation, says Skagerlind, as in "How do you make the navigation really easy to understand, but at the same time let the content live and breathe?"

To do that, the site's designers went with a tab format that can be added to as the site grows. Each tab corresponds to an area of interest--"Games," "Music," "Web Lab," "Your World"--that has a distinct look and highlight color, but includes a similarly shaped header and footer as well as whistle-shaped links to encourage kids to drill down into the sites.

Each tab homepage is splashy and features Flash animation. "Kids are a very visually literate group of people," says Skagerlind. "And they're probably the world's experts in animation. They watch more of it, God knows, than any other group in sight, so they know what it's about. So it's a great opportunity to cut down on textual links and communicate what's going on in the site in a direct way."

Skagerlind says the site adds three or four new animations every week. "The critical thing here is not only the neat animation, but the idea of 'let's click on it and see what happens,'" he says, clicking on the site. "You go straight to the content."

Similarly, all graphics are linked to other areas. "There are lots of different ways into the content, which was important too," he says. "Kids are very quick to move on to other things, so you need to give them lots of opportunities to get around the site."

Advertisers also play a content role on the site. The site allows for banners and sponsorships, and Nick.com also offers two sections--Advertoys and Adisodes--where advertisers can put their own games and animated or live-action characters. Already, General Mill's Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal has added a game to Advertoys, and Mattel has submitted the first Adisode, entitled "Dress 'em up and Do the Walk," for its new Diva Starz dolls.

"They're not commercials, they're true content," claims Sharon K. Cohen, vp of ad sales marketing. "It's a way for kids to interact with a brand in a different way."

Similarly, she says, games are also important to kids, and Nick.com will work with advertisers to create games for the site, if necessary. "We have a huge library of games on our own site," Cohen says, "but we recognize that other companies may have fun games as well, so we wanted to create a place where they could live." Also, Nick.com has begun offering audio ads on its "Nick.com Radio" feature.