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| Agora: Health and Wealth |
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| Written by John Zorabedian | ||
| Thursday, 31 July 2008 19:00 | ||
 The film is an Agora Entertainment production made in association with O’Malley Creadon Productions. The film is directed by Patrick Creadon (director of the crossword puzzle documentary “Wordplay”). Agora Entertainment is a wholly owned subsidiary of Agora, Inc., which is the parent company to multiple publishing entities.Debuting at film festivals and soon to appear in movie theaters nationwide, “I.O.U.S.A” interweaves candid interviews with both average American taxpayers and government officials as it follows US Comptroller General David Walker as he crisscrosses the country explaining America’s unsustainable fiscal policies to its citizens. Myles Norin, Agora, Inc.’s CEO, said Agora hoped to create a project that would create greater awareness of the nation’s deficit spending and its danger to our economy and standards of living. What will likely lead to the film’s eventual success—in addition to positive reviews and high-profile showings like the Sundance Film Festival—is Agora’s successful model of e-mail marketing. Most of Agora’s subsidiaries focus primarily on subscription newsletters (this is the company’s first documentary film), and Agora has successfully used free e-mail newsletters and mail marketing to build $300 million in annual revenues. Norin said Agora is one of the largest e-mail marketers in the world, sending out up to 2.5 million e-mails daily. As Norin explained, Agora climbed into prominence in newsletter publishing by exploiting the inexpensive communications made available by the Internet, turning a small publisher of financial advice newsletters into a multinational success. “We are a publisher of newsletters, which is very different than magazines and newspapers and books,” Norin said. “It’s a higher price point product on a per word basis. People are paying us for very direct, actionable opinions and ideas, as opposed to information. We’re not an information source; we’re an idea-based company.” Push medium Agora’s founder, Bill Bonner, stumbled on the possibilities of giving away free content to generate sales when he began writing a daily e-mail letter to subscribers about the world of politics, finance, and international business. Norin said Bonner’s daily letters may well have been the first blog, in the days before Web publishing tools allowed anyone to write Web journals or blogs. “We were pretty late to the Internet world,” Norin said. “Everyone was making the migration, but we didn’t really understand the business model and how Web sites would play into the business. We started including ads within our e-mails, and it became extremely profitable.” With more than 20 free e-newsletters people can sign up for, the free e-mail offerings give readers a taste of the additional products Agora can offer for a price. “It helps introduce a relationship and how we view the world,” Norin said. The company’s newsletters primarily focus in the financial and alternative health realms, including newsletters devoted to investment advice or what kinds of foods and natural supplements to use to create a healthy diet. Norin said the typical newsletter subscriber is in his or her 50s or older, with time and the inclination toward self-education about these topics. But not every newsletter caters to everyone, and the company has several niche newsletters detailing some unconventional thinking about alternative health therapies and business and self-improvement topics. “We have newsletters telling you to invest in gold and newsletters telling you to make money selling options,” Norin said. “As a publisher, we’re not necessarily judging every single idea we publish. At different times, they may all be right, and they may be right for different people. A safe investment portfolio might be what someone needs in their 70s, and somebody at earlier stages of life might be more aggressive in their portfolio.” The trouble with selling ideas is the same as with selling anything today—the glut of commercial messages makes being singled out by consumers increasingly difficult. Which is why the e-mail marketers at Agora push out messages every day. “The challenge is fighting through the noise, and letting people see the quality of your ideas,” Norin said. “People are skeptical of signing up for another free anything, and their in-boxes are filling up with clutter.” With divisions in Paris, London, as well as Australia, South Africa, India, and Japan, Agora is growing internationally in untapped markets. But the private company is intent on continuing to do what it does best and may not be making too many more films like “I.O.U.S.A.” Still, the attention the film is generating will probably help a great deal in getting the company’s name out there. As Norin put it, “No one really wants to go buy a newsletter.” That’s why Agora’s e-mails will tell readers exactly why they need one. |