Overdrive ran a contest in which it invited all member libraries to submit their promotional campaigns to build awareness of eBooks. Informing the community and getting the word out there is often a difficult task with little to no marketing budget. There were six different categories, ranging from online and offline campaigns. The grand prize winner was Kenton County, who invented their own mascot to sing the praises of eBooks.
Kenton County Public Library introduced a new mascot that represented their digital resources. They incorporated the cute creature all over the library and distributed pamphlets to the community. The library also pursued an aggressive social media campaign with a heavy involvement in Pinterest, Twitter, and Facebook.
Most of the libraries that won awards did some fairly interesting things to get noticed and at the same time promote their digital collections. Rapid City Public Library would deliver e-Readers to the elderly who were unable to come into the library to borrow a book. High Point Public Library assembled gift baskets for new e-Reader and Tablet owners with some neat treats and instructions on how to access Overdrive eBooks with their particular purchase, which was fairly popular during the Christmas season, graduation, and Mother’s Day.
It’s very interesting to see the various ways libraries are engaging the community and at the same time building awareness of reading in general. Young and old benefit from digital audiobooks, videos, and eBooks. Kids are always on the go and connected with their mobile devices all the time, while many elderly aren’t as mobile as they once were but can now borrow and read books while at home. Libraries may benefit from looking at the entire list of contest winners HERE as it might offer ideas on some very low cost ways to promote the branch.
Michael Kozlowski is the Editor in Chief of Good e-Reader. He has been writing about audiobooks and e-readers for the past ten years. His articles have been picked up by major and local news sources and websites such as the CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and Verge.