2021 Brand Experience & Activation

100% COVID FREE JOURNEY

Title100% COVID FREE JOURNEY
BrandPOREC CITY LIBRARY
Product/ServiceCITY LIBRARY
Category G04. Social Behaviour
Entrant STUDIO SONDA Istria, CROATIA
Idea Creation STUDIO SONDA Istria, CROATIA
Production STUDIO SONDA Istria, CROATIA
Credits
Name Company Position
Jelena Fiskus Studio Sonda d.o.o. Creative Director, Copywriter, Design
Sean Poropat Studio Sonda d.o.o. Creative Director, Designer, Copywriter
Aleksandar Zivanov Studio Sonda d.o.o. Designer
Simon Flegar Studio Sonda d.o.o. Junior Designer
Rafaela Kerin Studio Sonda d.o.o. Account Manager
Mladen Gvozden Studio Sonda d.o.o. Account Manager
Denis Tomljanovic Synet Web Development
Albert Jedrejcic Studio Sonda Statistics

Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation?

Inhabitants of a small resort town work hard during summer. And after the season is over, they traditionally reward themselves with a journey. But since autumn 2020 brought us a new wave of COVID, we offered them an alternative: a 100% COVID FREE journey! How? With a book! We transformed a local library into a “travel agency” and its web into a “destination” booking system. With a totally new book experience users were motivated to “travel” and share impressions from their “journeys”. After a continuous decline in recent years, a significant rise in book lending and membership numbers was achieved.

Background

City libraries around the world have been considered as old-fashioned institutions. The meaning of their existence is being questioned, especially when it comes to small local libraries. Books in physical form are being borrowed less and less, and libraries are therefore having fewer and fewer members every year. On the other hand, libraries are often the only remaining non-commercial cultural institutions in local communities, where people can access culture and education. In Croatia, there was a -19.11% decline in active book borrowers from 2017 to 2019. In accordance with the national trend, the city library in the tourist city of 17,000 inhabitants, recorded a decline in both book-borrowing and membership. What can we do to make the small city library achieve its goal and become more attractive to its users, to encourage existing members to come and borrow more often, and to attract new members?

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

On the one hand we have the city library with a decrease in new memberships and loans (2019 vs 2018: - 10,73% new memberships, - 15,4% loans), and on the other hand there are the inhabitants of a tourist town that traditionally award themselves with a journey after 24/7 hard working summer season, but facing COVID lockdown in 2020. Since it is known that “Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination and the journey! ” (Anna Quindlen), it was logical to offer to citizens an alternative! The city library was completely transformed into a travel agency and it took its citizens on a journey: with books and with a series of side activations.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

The target group: citizens of a resort town Poreč(HR) who traditionally after summer go on vacation as an award for the 24/7 seasonal work. (Online research of users of banking services in Croatia from ’19, shows that 48% of surveyed population plans to travel during autumn/winter but in Poreč area this score is even higher because there, due to tourism, incomes are above national average). The library offers an alternative and proves that travelling during COVID is possible, indeed! If we divide the membership fee by the average number of borrowed books, those journeys cost just 1.5 euros. The library becomes a travel agency and its web a booking system. Travel rewards with bonuses and the possibility to send “postcards” are also given. The aim is to encourage new memberships, to increase the book loans and to make the library be perceived as an institution that understands its citizens’ needs.

Describe the execution (30% of vote)

From 1.10 till 15.11.2020 the library becomes a travel agency that takes its citizens on a journey with books, since during COVID-19 travelling is banned. Real travel agencies’ posters were used, linked with book titles and stuck with graphic elements used for traveling. Thus users could travel to Greece(Iliad and the Odyssey/Homer), Paris(The belly of Paris/Emile Zola), Istanbul(Istanbul/Orhan Pamuk), even to the center of the earth(Journey to the center of the earth/Jules Verne) etc... "Travelling tickets" were printed and shared. On the mentioned materials, QR codes were printed that led to the library’s web page, conceived as a “travel booking system”. Users could thus search for book/destination, check the availability, book a "destination", depart and send an e-postcard to the library or friends. Additionally: new and old members received a “gratis journey” – a destination book from the library fund of written-off books.

List the results (30% of vote)

We achieved some record numbers: Q4 2020 vs Q4 2019 (during and after campaign): New entrants: + 194.40% Book Loans: + 221.74%. After a continuous decline in recent years (-10.3%2019 vs 2018), in 2020 vs 2019. we managed to have + 34.90% of new entrants, although the library was closed for 50 days! More budget funding from the county + 25% for 2021 than for 2020. During the intensive promotion of the campaign (October '20), the number of visits to the website increased by +17% vs the same period '19, and after the end of the campaign, by as much as +40%. Facebook: organic reach increased by + 23.91%, Page engaged users +39.19%, People talking about it +38.15%. Without any investment in PR, continuous monitoring of the action was achieved in the local media, and the report on the campaign and the library was broadcast several times on the nationalTV.

Please tell us about the social behaviour that inspired the work

The inhabitants of a resort town Poreč traditionally award themselves with a journey after 24/7 hard working summer season: the research from’19 (online research of users of banking services in Croatia, age 18 - 55 shows that 48% of surveyed population plans to travel during autumn/winter, but in Poreč area this number is even higher because there, due to tourism, incomes are above national average). On the other hand, the City Library registers every year a decrease in new memberships and loans (2019 vs 2018: - 10,73% new memberships, - 15,4% loans). So the target group are citizens who, due to COVID -19, couldn’t travel after summer season as they had used to.