Libraries tend to rely on word of mouth advertising to promote their digital collections. In some cases they are developing their own in-house posters and other marketing materials to promote ebooks in their physical locations. Oklahoma’s Metropolitan Library System is doing something quite different and has developed a television commercial hyping their e-Media platform with Overdrive digital lending.
Kim Terry, director of marketing and communications, said the commercial had a simple message and was a product of their own library system. The commercial was developed by their local staff and IT department to convey a very simple message. Kim recently said “We decided to book the commercial on cable from December 17 to January 19, and on Fox and the CW broadcast channels from December 17 to December 31.” They broadcast the commercial on popular shows, such as The Daily Report, Colbert Report, Family Guy, Big Bang Theory, Vampire Diaries, and many more! Obviously they were aiming for the youth market because they are quite savvy with technology and often had their own smartphones, tablets, and e-readers.
The first television commercial devoted to ebook lending was an unbridled success. Kim elaborated on the statistics and said “Soon, our eMedia stats started jumping. In one month, our total eMedia website patron sessions increased from 97,134 to 156,867 for a 61-percent increase. We went from 39,004 eMedia checkouts to 50,240 checkouts. Over 1,700 new customers began using our eMedia site since the commercial started running, which was a 22-percent increase over the previous month.”
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
