The Brief

Our ambient + mobile campaign was designed to raise awareness of electronic book store Handheld Culture (www.handheldculture.com), and encourage people to read more ebooks. The Brand wanted to raise awareness of their ebook offerings, encourage people to read more, and drive sales.

Describe how the promotion developed from concept to implementation

Hong Kong people never waste a second if they can help it: except when they are stuck in a queue. Hong Kong is a crowded place, so people are constantly queuing up in shops, for entertainment, transportation, and even for seats in restaurants. We recognized queues as an opportunity for Handheld Culture and decided to use restaurant "take a number" tickets as a new kind of promotional medium. We put short yet enticing excerpts from 100 good books on the tickets along with a QR code that allowed queuing customers to download an entire ebook onto their phone or mobile device to read while they waited.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

Within one week, 110,000 restaurant queue tickets were distributed, leading to a 22% increase in visits to Handheld Culture’s site and a 5% increase in sales.

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

“Take a number” tickets can be found everywhere in Hong Kong, but no one had used them before as an advertising medium. The context of the book was one of “killing time” while people were queuing, but the QR code led readers to the online bookstore where they could make a direct purchase.