Brief Explanation

Jose Rizal's Noli Me Tangere - the novel that sparked the 19th century Philippine Revolution against Spain - was recently adapted into an audiobook app. We were tasked to promote the app to modern audiences. The novel's title is Latin for “touch me not,” a reference to the untouchable colonial powers of its time, so we created touch-activated talking portraits of the novel's characters.

Results and Effectiveness

The exhibit generated both onsite and online attention, with an estimated 3.5 million impressions from Twitter alone on the day of the exhibit. It was able to drive awareness for the audiobook, with the number of searches peaking during actual exhibit hours. Seven percent of the thousands who attended the exhibit downloaded the app afterwards.

Creative Execution

To link the work’s original written medium and this modern audio format, we painted the character portraits using conductive ink. The ink strokes formed circuit zones assigned to specific quotes from the audiobook. Human touch closed and activated each circuit to play clips of dialogue from the audiobook. This created an interactive experience of touching the characters to hear them speak.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Noli is required reading for high school students across the Philippines; thus, it is largely left untouched outside school. The audiobook app was created to reconnect previous readers with the work and to serve as learning tool for current students. This is why the talking portraits were mounted in local bookshops and a museum.