THE KING is the largest tv-series production of CANAL+ POLSKA. Adapted from an outstanding writer’s novel, a multi-faceted gangster story about a Jewish boxer and mafia member who ruled Warsaw’s streets before WWII. A tale about class struggle, ideas, modernity vs conservatism, nascent nationalism, but above all about the cultural identity of Poles. Warsaw in 1937 comes to the fore as a protagonist: a melting pot of nations, cultures, religions, views, and values. Poland’s capital was thoroughly European, multicultural, modern, and yet also terrifying, neglected, violent and destitute. That city is gone. Poles now live in a homogeneous; post-Holocaust and post-communist reality, forgetting the cultural diversity once in their DNA.

We had to introduce a production that has never been created in Poland before with a similar theme and on similar scale.

How much do you know about your capital city and the people who lived there nearly 100 years ago? The pre-war gangster story was an excellent vehicle to spark a broad, nationwide discussion on our roots, whether the old chorus could still be heard today. The PR campaign’s idea was to bring back the memory of the times THE KING is set in. How we wanted to do it?

By recreating and bring closer to the audience the universe of THE KING and sparking a broad discussion about those gone times.

By talking to different target groups about different topics that are more in their interests: the 1937 social and political climate, way of living, culture, fashion, sports, motoring, and even cuisine.

Storytelling was set in the broader context of the forgotten multiculturalism of the pre-war capital, and all PR tools in the creation referred to the 1930s.

The key was to reach target groups with different needs – book readers, history buffs open to discussions about the multicultural roots of Poles and followers of cultural trends. We talked to them about Polish politics and social climate, culture, fashion, sports, and even cuisine. We always embedded the storytelling in a broader context of the multicultural pre-war Warsaw. All PR tools referred to the 1930s in the creatives.

Together with a local e-commercial brand, we produced the first TV-series-inspired fashion collection in Poland; we distributed materials styled as interwar newspapers with Newsweek and a nationwide daily, we gave away to viewers photoalbum as a Warsaw’s 1937/2020 guide; we also produced a series of documentaries about 1937 Warsaw.

THE KING was widely discussed online thanks to conferences, festival panel discussions with experts, radio podcasts, live meetings with the authors (AMA), and hundreds of interviews in major mainstream and thematic media.

We initiated PR activities more than a year before the premiere, inviting historians, varsavianists, experts of pre-WWII printing and fashion designers specializing in interwar clothing styles to collaborate.

The largest Polish web portal, WP, regularly published our texts and videos, becoming the project’s media hub.

We worked for eighteen months with the Answear fashion company to develop THE KING-inspired classic design anew collection, with nearly a hundred models of clothes and accessories.

Newsweek inserted THE KING newspaper. Also new edition of book (KV cover) was offered with the magazine.

THE KING’s murals were painted on pre-WWII town houses in Warsaw, and the capital’s most modern skyscraper was illuminated on the premiere day.

We produced hours of themed footage, including 25 characters videos, a 50-minute interview with the creators, an hour-long documentary narrated by a varsavianist; we wrote dozens of expert articles published in various sources throughout the campaign.

The campaign has been the greatest success so far for a CANAL+ POLSKA production.

The value of the PR coverage in the media actually exceeded the series production cost, achieving record-breaking figures in all fields. There were nearly 4 000 publications (90% positive).

AVE score: EUR 12,500,000; reach: 85,000,000*.

The Social Media posts had a reach of 15,000.

The teaser alone recorded a result of 1,000,000 on the television’s FB page, breaking all earlier records.

The interview and the AMA with the authors had 500,000 online viewers.

600,000 copies of THE KING newspaper were printed (almost 100 000 of them were added with orders from online e-commerce shop Answear.com – authors of THE KING fashion collection).

Even before the last episode was aired, 90% of THE KING collection had been sold, at a time of the most stringent lockdown.

The lead actor was the star of the biggest TV talk show. Cultural figures of authority emphasized in reviews that THE KING was filling an important gap.

The discussion went on for months on nationwide radio, mainstream and special-interest portals, blogs and forums.

THE KING reached peak viewing figures in 2020 among pay-TV series in Poland and the best ratings ever of all original series by CANAL+ POLSKA.

*POLAND: POPULATION OF 38 MILLION