‘FAKESPEARE’: LANDMARK EXPOSES INDIA’S TRICK LIT

Title‘FAKESPEARE’: LANDMARK EXPOSES INDIA’S TRICK LIT
BrandLANDMARK STORES
Product / ServiceSTORES
CategoryD02. Costs/Creative Performance PR Campaign
EntrantEDELMAN INDIA Gurgaon, INDIA
Advertising Agency REDIFFUSION Y&R Gurgaon, INDIA
PR Agency EDELMAN INDIA Gurgaon, INDIA
Entrant Company EDELMAN INDIA Gurgaon, INDIA

Credits

Name Company Position
Munavar Attari Edelman India Senior Account Director
Saroja Shankaran Edelman India Senior Account Manager
Roger Darashah Edelman Brazil Executive Vice President
Rakesh Thukral Edelman India Managing Director

The Campaign

Most young people in India weren’t reading books. They had too many other forms of entertainment to pass their time. And book reading had become a pastime of the past. So what could a bookstore do to change this? What could get young people to spend quality time with Amish and Adiga, Woolf and Wilde? With limited budget and no news to get their attention. We searched for a story in quiet nooks and corners of the country – airports, cafes, parks and trains. We spoke to anyone caught in the act. What kept them reading…when everyone else had turned their backs on books? Slowly, they revealed their secret truth. Dickens and Dostoevsky gave them super powers in public. The ability to suddenly transform into an intellectual elite. Hemingway turned heads and Shakespeare could get an attractive stranger to look twice. What if we could get a new generation reading? By encouraging them to not read at all? We called the story Fakespeare. We used a national study to validate the second life of books. To show media how people were increasingly using books to impress in public. Media shared the secret with everyone. Earned media worth $160,000. And influencers, authors and students joined in. Young people across the country were reminded. That reading could shape how others see them. One story couldn’t save books forever. But a simple, light-hearted idea got India talking. And thinking about Landmark in a totally new light.

The Brief

Landmark wanted to be perceived as a fun brand, engage with a younger audience and keep itself relevant amongst avid readers by participating in young, fun-filled and culturally relevant conversations. The success metrics agreed with the client was based on the media mileage and the quality and total number of print and online impressions received in the target set of media. In order to survive, the brand needed to garner maximum media mileage and relevancy on a small budget devoted to PR.

Results

Fakespeare truly touched a sweet spot within the Indian psyche. Intellectuals, pseudo intellectuals, students, bosses, employees and even authors have since remarked on which literature best accessorized their personal style, office or home. Discussions ranged from the best places to practice the ancient art of ‘trick lit,’ to how to spot a faker; and they have spread far beyond the media to social media, in store merchandising and a national ad campaign. Results included over 25 media coverage items across six cities, large format feature stories in leading national dailies, mainlines, regional publications, tabloids, business dallies and magazines that contained client quotes and co-created insights and input from third-party influencers including authors, students and psychiatrists. Publications included Forbes Magazine, The Hindu Business Line, The Economic Times, The Times of India and DNA. This amounted to a total PR value of more than USD 160,000.

Execution

The plan was to bring book enthusiasts back into Landmark stores to make all “Fakespeares” – those who flaunt highbrow literature without actually reading it – feel at home and read more and hit a cultural sweet spot. We developed unique and quirky infographics, by-line articles and human interest stories about people fibbing to fit in and the evolution of reading to deliver the key messages. To launch the collaboration between the media and brand, we developed and shared the data exclusively with key media in the form of analyses, responses, Q&As, infographics and by-line articles and human interest stories about people fibbing to fit in and the evolution of reading. Each exclusive angle focused on different survey findings including data cuts based on gender, location and age. This was followed by a national announcement of the results in order to gain national mileage.

The Situation

Landmark – one of India’s major lifestyle and entertainment stores with a focus on retailing books, toys and games – was losing its book-loving customer base. The brand’s once loyal customers would walk into its stores to sit, read and buy their favorite books, but their numbers were dwindling. The younger audience was losing interest in their once favourite store. And this occurred at a time when the entire books category was in decline

The Strategy

So in September 2014, we helped Landmark conceptualize a light-hearted, anonymous online survey to identify India’s “Fakespeares” – those who flaunt highbrow literature without actually reading it. Our results showed that fake reading is not limited to a particular job, hometown or gender. Most of our respondents admitted they loved throwing around names of books and authors to seem intelligent and be perceived as knowledgeable. The campaign took these insights on a bolder route that unmasked India’s biggest secret – fake reading and the country’s “Fakespeares” – in the media. Landmark became a bookstore that focused its messaging on not reading – about books that we purchase with no intention of ever opening or going beyond the preface. We targeted consumers across the country through select publication categories such as mainline dailies, regionals and tabloids to target the masses, business dailies and magazines to target professionals and online to especially target the country’s youth.