The Brief

Every year in Korea, only 0.2% of ordinary books are published into Braille books because of 5 times higher production cost. Due to the shortage of Braille books, blind children could not have their own books, nor even read the books they wanted. This problem led to the illiteracy rate that amounts up to 85%, and took away the children’s opportunity of higher education. In order to solve this critical intellectual poverty, Korean Braille Library desperately wanted to find sustainable solution to distribute Braille books for children and wanted to draw attention of general public, by convincing the blind's illiteracy.

Describe how the promotion developed from concept to implementation

In order to provide blind children with essential Braille books until they are grown-ups, we needed the sustainable way to afford inherently tremendous cost. We paid specific attention to yearly unused, disappearing, billions of reward points of a credit card company and established the social funded Braille books publisher where an individual’s 1 card point becomes 1 point of the Braille; the Point Publishers. Point Publishers is the world-first Braille books publishing system, and also the donation platform, which became one and only sustainable Braille books publisher founded in Korea, creating a socially responsible and proactive program for blind children.

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

Through this unique experience, the public could understand blind children’s intellectual poverty, while solving the problem by contributing to Braille book publishing. For 50 days from 7th, December, 2012, 372,961 people visited the website, 5,300 books were Braille-translated, and 39,096,964 points, nearly $35,000 were donated. Campaign was introduced in over 50 newspapers, 5,624 blogs, and countless social-network-services. On 31st, March, 2013, total of 5,300 books including Gulliver’s Travel, The Little Prince, and Pinocchio were Braille-published for the first time in Korea and delivered to 100 blind children. Today, Point Publishers is still publishing for those waiting for their own storybooks.

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

The Point Publishers is an exceptional campaign for enhancing public awareness with an actual result. When a participant chooses a book, and selects the sentence he/she wants to Braille-translate for blind children, the card points are automatically donated, as much number as Braille points(dots) needed to translate the chosen sentence. Then this personally-translated sentence is posted on his/her Facebook, attracting more participation in the campaign. When all sentences in one book are translated, one real Braille-book is actually published and delivered to the blind children. This process is repeated until hundreds of children are supplied with hundreds of essential books.