The publisher of the largest Polish daily “Gazeta Wyborcza” will make an overview of the most interesting Polish startups dealing with the internet and new technologies. The overview will be organized by Gazeta.pl (internet branch of Agora) in a form of a two-day festival on 11-12th October in Agora’s headquarters in Warsaw.

The entries are already incoming (the deadline is September 30th), and the interest in this event is very strong. Not all of the entries will get to the final, only a few projects will be chosen for the final round.

The competition is open to anyone from Poland that has an idea how to make money from the web. Those cannot be solo projects – only teams of 2-4 persons can aplly for the competition.

The prize for the most interesting project is funded by Agora: 12,5 thousand Euro plus an advertising campaign worth 25 thousand Euro. The publisher will not however take charge of any shares of the projects participating in the competition.

As Pawel Wujec says (director of Gazeta.pl and marketing director of Agora’s internet branch), it is much worth to support the new initiatives on the market. Either through direct capital investment or by creating the right environment for creative entrepreneurs to present their ideas to the wide target and consult them with specialists.

Agora’s Startup Fest is not the first of its kind in Poland. There are two others popular events like that in Poland. One is Startup School, organized by the founding father of one of the most popular social networks in Poland – fotka.pl. Startup School’s rules are similar except for one difference – the organizer takes control of 50% shares in the projects.

Similar project is organized in the northern part of Poland, with 200 thousand Euro prize for the most interesting project. There are as well many investing fund on the market in search for interesting startups.

Does strong competition mean that the most interesting projects will not be entered in Agora’s competition? Agora has no need to worry, not all of the startups are interested in giving over the control of their idea to the fund or other player. Many develop their ideas with their own money. 12,5 thousand Euro plus advertising campaign could be a great chance for them to grow without losing control of their companies.

1. Media partners

Gazeta Wyborcza runs its campaign together with an outdoor advertising company AMS, a news radio network TOK FM and a web portal Gazeta.pl. They all belong to Gazeta’s publisher: a multimedia group Agora SA.

This is an easiest way to use internal synergies and reach the public with our message: “Humane Dying. A social campaign.” This is the slogan on billboards – outdoors and online.

The graphics is a play of two Polish words: “umiec” (can) and “umierac” (die).

We wanted very simple layout for billboards, as the topic deserves careful design. Maybe, it could be easier to get an attention by putting photos of dying people (as Benetton once did with a photo of a man dying from AIDS), but it would not be the attention we were looking for. 

2. In-paper promotion

Paper edition of Gazeta has at about 6 million readers a week. So it is a perfect advertising channel also for our social campaigns.

Two days before the launch of “Humane Dying” Gazeta run the full page ad.
It used the last words of Ilona Miller, the first volunteer of our campaign who died just before it started.

The ad read:

“The death closes one’s eyes and opens somebody else’s”

How do we die in Poland. An art of talking about the death. Dying with God and without God. Features, interviews, readers’ letters – daily in Gazeta Wyborcza from Monday

3. Online promotion

Online portal Gazeta.pl has over 6 million real users a week and its general audience tends to be younger than the printed newspaper’s readership.

So the web is a perfect channel to reach young readers.

Working on a campaign we prepared something special for this medium: a video documentary about a Warsaw hospice: “The house of departures.” It had its premiere on the web and an advertising campaign in the printed newspaper.

The movie was shot by Gazeta’s journalists and some volunteers. It is a heart-breaking and eye-opening story about one day in the hospice from the perspective of its staff and patients.

Would you like to learn more about the campaign “Humane Dying”? Read here.

How to debate publicly on death? Find an answer here.