In a media landscape that moves faster than the cuts in a Hollywood blockbuster, UNITED24 media captures the attention of 75 million unique viewers every month. Through frontline reporting from Ukraine, exclusive interviews with soldiers, and its own investigative journalism unit, the media has climbed to second place on YouTube among English-language international broadcasters, surpassed only by Al Jazeera. How did a young outlet, telling only one country’s story, grow this big?

UNITED24 media was officially launched in July 2022. A few months earlier, Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation came to us with a mandate from the President of Ukraine: to create an English-language media outlet about Ukraine — one that would shape its own narrative, not just forward international headlines or only react to russian disinformation. In the midst of wartime chaos, the blueprint for a new kind of media began to take shape.

At first, it looked like a standard agency project: strategy, design, content ideas. But it quickly grew into something far bigger — building teams from scratch, orchestrating a living media system, and running it day by day, in real time.

The key insight was a simple yet uncomfortable truth: no matter how much we wish otherwise, the world does not wait for news from Ukraine the way it waits for the next season of a Netflix series. So, thinking like marketers and putting the audience first, the team asked a fundamental question: could stories about Ukraine feel native to social platforms, yet remain easy to consume for an international audience?

The answer took the shape of a newstainment format — Ukraine’s most important narratives compressed into storytelling forms global viewers already understand. Short stories about people who, just yesterday, lived lives similar to those of Americans or Europeans, and today find themselves in the middle of a war. Military operations framed like tense Hollywood films. Ukraine’s place in the world explained through memes, cultural codes, and instantly recognizable cinematic references.

Drawing on its experience working with commercial brands, we started from a simple truth: every platform speaks its own language. Algorithms differ, interests differ, audiences differ — and trying to treat them the way would have killed the impact. Instead, the team built a system of platform owners, each empowered to shape their own content, set their own OKRs, and make real-time decisions about what the world would see.

Rather than following a rigid template, content evolved in response to what audiences actually wanted — and to the natural rhythm of each platform. This allowed UNITED24 media to grow authentically across channels: visceral frontline reporting and long-form storytelling on YouTube; everyday moments of life at the frontline on TikTok; emotionally charged narratives on Instagram; and sharp geopolitical reviews and breaking updates on X and Threads.

Throughout the process, the team stayed deeply attuned to its audience — observing, experimenting, and learning at speed. Performance and feedback were tracked hourly, enabling clear, pragmatic decisions: promising formats were scaled, while those that fell flat were quickly shut down.

At the start, one of the most powerful growth engines came from Ukrainians themselves — organically spreading UNITED24 media content through their own networks. At the same time, the platform’s core international audiences remained steady in the United States, the United Kingdom, and across the European Union. The reach extended beyond digital spaces: UNITED24 media began appearing on screens inside Ukrainian embassies and government institutions welcoming international visitors.

By 2024, it became clear that UNITED24 media had outgrown social platforms and needed a home of its own. The launch and rapid growth of the website were driven by a strong team that combined fast-paced news production, a well-built distribution system, AI-powered tools, and thoughtful SEO optimization. Within just six months, the site was consistently reaching 1 million monthly views.

UNITED24 media operates in the interests of Ukraine — a principle that underpins every editorial decision. The goal is always clear: content should strengthen, not undermine, the country’s position on the international stage. To maintain this coherence in a global context, UNITED24 media works in close coordination with Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In August 2024, UNITED24 fundraising platform entered a new creative chapter with HyperNormal at the helm. The timing couldn’t have been more critical: global attention was drifting, donations were slowing, and traditional fundraising playbooks were running out of steam.

Instead of pushing harder on the same mechanics, the team chose to rethink the entire process of supporting Ukraine by building a compelling story, sharpening the message, and designing a donation journey that felt intuitive, human, and emotionally resonant. A breakthrough move was weaving UNITED24 media and fundraising into one living ecosystem — where content didn’t just inform, but activated, and distribution became a built-in engine for impact. The outcome speaks for itself: from August 1, 2024, to November 30, 2025, UNITED24 raised $2.2 billion.

To make supporting Ukraine more accessible and impactful, UNITED24 launched a gamified fundraising app that allows people worldwide to donate directly to the drone units. Users choose a callsign and avatar, donate to selected units, and receive exclusive frontline content, in-app rewards and monthly spending reports. In six months, the app raised more than $700,000 from 77 countries.

Watch the case video to see how this Gold-winning campaign was built — idea by idea, story by story, and donation by donation.

Effie Awards Gala
Brussels, 2025