Nick At Net

Brandweek, Dec 11, 2000 by Jennifer Owens

"We try to couple a lot of the [advertising] opportunities together for clients." For example, she says, "kids who love games will find Advertoy because they were going to go the gaming section anyway. But the banners that appear in other areas of the site will appeal to those who'd rather go to "Nick Music" first, and that really broadens the target."

THE PHILOSOPHY

Once Skagerlind and his crew began thinking of ways to expand on Nick.com, plans for a "two-track" system soon became apparent: continue promoting Nickelodeon's cable programming, but also add more services and content for kids.

On the cable promotional track, represented online by the "All Nick" tab, Skagerlind says the redesign includes "an increased emphasis on working convergently with the TV network." Says Skagerlind, "We've got very compelling evidence that says if you can throw an audience from one medium to another while you're telling the same story ... you'll actually not only increase site traffic, but you'll have a fairly decent chance of improving your ratings as well."

For example, the daily show SNICK House offers kids a chance to vote online for the day's video pick, which is then shown each evening. "That's a classic example of what we'd call deep convergence," says Skagerlind. "And that's providing us with a lot of interesting opportunities ... There's a lot more that we can do here."

On the services track, Nick.com has signed numerous partnership deals to build out its features, including a Web search from britannica.com, an online calendar from eCal and weather reports from Accu-Weather. "We know that for various reasons, kids spend a lot of time online trying to find out what the weather is," Skagerlind says. "So they should have their own weather service."

And yet, he adds, few sites offer kids those services that adults take for granted. "Kids are just not getting these in a form that's designed for them," he says. The same is true for content, from online radio programming to interviews with celebrities. "What we're trying to do here is present the world of kids through a kids' perspective. That's what Nickelodeon is all about, and that's what the site needs to be."

THE PROCESS

On the front end, the site uses both Flash and Shockwave, which allows Nick.com to go heavy on the animation and create a feel that's closer to kids experiences with the cable network, with added interactivity. In addition, says Michael Fleshman, Nickelodeon Online CTO, "we found that qualitatively, you could get a lot more information, a lot more movement, a lot more interest for a lot less cost, bandwidth-wise."

As for the back end, Nick.com has revamped its infrastructure with Dynamo, a high-end application server created by Cambridge, Mass.-based Art Technology Group. According to Fleshman, Dynamo is more of a general purpose application server than its competitors, allowing Nick.com to have more flexibility to build its own Java-based applications on top of it. "We're building a library of applications that are shareable across our properties," he says.