Title	READ A TREE
Brand	ELEFANT.RO
Product/Service	ONLINE BOOK SELLER
Category	B02. Use of New Technology in a Promotional Campaign
Entrant Company	GEOMETRY GLOBAL Bucharest, ROMANIA
Advertising Agency	GEOMETRY GLOBAL Bucharest, ROMANIA

Name	Company	Position
Mihai Fetcu	Geometry Global Romania	Creative Director
Stefan Vasilachi	Geometry Global Romania	Head Of Art
Matei Vasiliu	Geometry Global Romania	Head Of Digital Creative
Rares Dumitrel	Geometry Global Romania	Senior Copywriter
Mihaela Bourceanu	Geometry Global Romania	Client Service Director
Patricia Arbanas	Geometry Global Romania	Account Director
Mina Ionescu	Geometry Global Romania	Junior Digital Account Manager
Madalina Gogu	Geometry Global Romania	Account Executive
Ionut Iacobache	Geometry Global Romania	Production Manager
Dorina Sandu	Geometry Global Romania	Dtp
Mihaela Zaharia	Geometry Global Romania	Pr Specialist
Adrian Dinu	Elefant.ro	Executive Director
Alen Todorov	Elefant.ro	Headof Marketing

The Brief

From offline book stores Romanians buy on average 1 book per year. At the same time, online orders reach 10 books per year. The online competition is fierce for Elefant.ro, one of the oldest online book sellers. Elefant needed to secure its perception as the most important online book store. Today, there is a growing demand for e-books, as readers will choose environment friendly formats, especially during a time when deforestation has become a national issue. Elefant decided to take part in the movement by promoting e-books as a smart way to prevent trees from being cut down.

Campaign Success

The deforestation context presented itself as an opportunity for Elefant to claim its role as the main promoter of digital books on the Romanian market while supporting the environmental cause. Elefant launched the first digital revolution led by the trees themselves - Read a Tree app. During one week at the beginning of April 2015, trees were covered in a message that asked people not to cut them, but instead to scan them using the app. In return, they received a free e-book. Anyone using it would promote the fight against deforestation, but also endorse Elefant’s brand point of view.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

In the first week, the app was downloaded over 5,000 times. During the first month, 200 books were downloaded each day. 50,000 trees were scanned and counting. Read a Tree quickly became a trending app on Play Store and App Store, as more and more people were curious to see if it really worked. Online and media coverage soon followed, generating earned media to the value of 1.6 million EUR. With a single, clever app, Elefant secured its leadership in the e-book market while promoting the fight against deforestation.

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

Read a Tree was a campaign led by the trees. For one week, trees in parks and on the streets had a powerful message to deliver. Instead of cutting them to get books, people should scan them! With trunks clothed with the message, the trees directed passersby to download the Read a Tree app. Every one of the 100,000 tree species in the world could be scanned. In return, people got a free e-book from Elefant.ro. The trees were the primary launch medium. All by themselves, they made the app a hot topic on social media, as everyone wanted to see if trees can really give you books without having to cut them.