The Brief

The Client: Independent bookstore BookXcess’s mission is to encourage reading amongst Malaysians by making books more affordable. They do this by selling excess print books at more than 40% off recommended retail pricing. The strategy: Without the big budgets of larger bookstore chains, BookXcess needed a cost-effective way to communicate their mission beyond the store’s space. The target audience? Anyone in the country of Malaysia (and beyond). Through the Receipt Stories campaign, our aim was to encourage the store’s customers to spread word of BookXcess mission through word-of-mouth, and online social media, subsequently reaching out to a whole nation.

Creative Execution

Publishing stories on receipts was a gateway to connecting the printed word with a growing digitally connected world. - At point-of-sale in-store, customers would get a free story with every purchase. - This would prompt them to join the dedicated receiptstories.my website. Anyone with internet access could submit stories, read free stories and share these stories on their social networks. - Publishing selected stories on receipts would transform the digital word into print, creating a self-generating virtuous cycle of reading by writing, which all begins in-store.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

We decided to turn the store’s receipts into literary media spaces – by publishing one hundred-word short stories written by the public, giving anyone a chance to be a published author. Call for action began on the store’s receipts, which would eventually become published Receipt Story spaces. Supported by in-store materials (including store receipts), and a print ad in a local magazine, we asked the store’s customers to spread the word via their personal and online networks, drawing as many people as possible to the receiptstories.com website, and of course, submit their stories.

Results

Responses poured in. - 100 new users per week - 100 new stories submitted per week - > 1,000 Receipt Stories collected (May 2011) - > 300,000 Receipt Stories printed (June 2011) Between September 1, 2010 - June 30 2011, receiptstories.my recorded: Total visits – 15,446 Page views – 160,325 Average time spent on site – 5 minutes Global reach - 57 countries Receipt stories and BookXcess, received national media coverage. Store sales increased month-on-month by: - 30% increase in October 2010 - 3% increase in November 2010 - 60% increase in December 2010 More than >20% increase in 2011 compared to 2010.