Barnes and Noble bet big when they decided to forgo hardware design on their latest tablet and instead sourced it to Samsung. This allowed the bookseller to focus on the reading experience and actually devote money to hyping the hell out of it. Apparently their blitz media has earned them the Internet Marketing Association’s (IMA) ‘Innovative Brand Award’ for 2014.
From subway ads to radio station and store integration, NOOK tapped into multiple avenues to get the message out about the new NOOK by Samsung. Created with a hyper-targeted focus in mind, the NOOK ads were designed to be engaging, enticing and inspiring, and to make people want to read even more. Leveraging most every contact channel including email, mobile, online, out of home (OOH) and an online and retail presence in an integrated manner, NOOK created an immersive experience with the goal of capturing the imaginations of potential customers. In addition, NOOK capitalized on the impact of word of mouth and social media by taking the campaign a step further for this launch with one of its most entertaining social media efforts to date, the #NOOKfaces campaign.
“We’re thrilled that NOOK has won the IMA’s ‘Innovative Brand Award.’ The Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 NOOK is the most advanced NOOK ever and we wanted to give this device the exposure it deserved with a creative and imaginative marketing plan that generated lots of excitement and buzz,” said Doug Carlson, Executive VP of Digital Content and Marketing at NOOK Media LLC. “Not only has NOOK demonstrated its commitment to innovation by partnering with Samsung, but we’ve launched the new device in a bold and exciting way that has really resonated with both existing and potential NOOK customers.”
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.