EVERYONE IS AN AMAZING BOOK

Short List
TitleEVERYONE IS AN AMAZING BOOK
BrandAMAZON
Product / ServiceAMAZON PRIME READING
CategoryA06. Retail
EntrantMcCANN SHANGHAI, CHINA
Idea Creation McCANN SHANGHAI, CHINA

Credits

Name Company Position
Robert Reilly Mccann Worldgroup Global Creative Chairman
John Mescall Mccann Worldgroup Global Executive Creative Director
Sheena Jeng Mccann Worldgroup Chief Creative Officer
Ivan Zhang Mccann Worldgroup Senior Creative Director
Ronald Gan Mccann Worldgroup Associate Creative Director
Zhang Xinyi Mccann Worldgroup Creative Group Head
Jiang Qiong Mccann Worldgroup Senior Art Director
Zheng Runny Mccann Worldgroup Copywriter
Zeng Shirley Mccann Worldgroup Copywriter
Zhang Suzzane Mccann Worldgroup Head of Planning
Zhang Linlin Mccann Worldgroup Social Planning Manager
Zhu Joy Mccann Worldgroup Deputy General Manager
Li Ray Mccann Worldgroup Associate Account Director

Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation ?

We wanted to return to what makes reading exciting, by putting the focus on the individual. The players answered questions based on the MBTI test, and at the end discovered a book that fit their personality. There was a surge in Amazon Prime Reading registrations, and in just 6 hours, one million people clicked and participated. Books featured in the campaign rose up the best sellers list and some entered the top 10 best sellers. The social media campaign translated into real-world results, more people knew about Amazon Prime Reading and a great book that fit their personality.

Background

Today,China has become the world’s second largest economy, but reading rates are one of the lowest in the world. 63% of Chinese adults didn’t read a single book last year. Amazon hosts its World Book Day for its Prime Readers, but we wanted to inspire Chinese people to read again, even if they have no media budget. The main goal of the campaign was to generate social media exposure. As Prime Reading’s new online service was not well known, spreading awareness of the service was essential to the campaign.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

“People don’t read books for themselves, they read themselves through books” This quote from Romain Rolland was the source of our inspiration for this campaign. In China it’s said that reading books can change China. For this campaign, we endeavored to change Chinese people’s reading habits by not just reading for reading’s sake, but to discover more about themselves through books. When people are looking for a book to read, a book that mirrors some aspect of their personality can draw them in. Furthermore, an individual’s favorite book tells a lot about their personality. What people find interesting often is related to them in some way. Therefore, we decided that instead of ‘reading a book’, we wanted the campaign to focus on ‘reading a person’.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

Data shows that Chinese people don’t read many books. Reading rates in China are far behind developed countries. How do we find what makes reading exciting to a given individual and excite young people who might not read books? Reading books is reading yourself, and you are amazing! Since our starting point was ‘reading people’ not ‘reading books’, we used questions inspired by the Myers-Briggs Personality Test (MBTI) to discover the user’s personality. In the application’s magical library, users would answer questions leading them to the end, where they could easily sign up for Amazon Prime.

Describe the execution (30% of vote)

On the mobile app Wechat, we designed a virtual library (a HTML5 game). In this immersive environment, the participant answered questions that aimed to stimulate self-discovery and self-reflection. At the end, a book is revealed to the participant that shows a hidden aspect of their personality. For each of the 16 MBTI types, a book was chosen that matches its personality. Through the user’s personal journey through the magical library, they found a book that suits their inner personality. The books featured in the campaign rose quickly up the best seller list on Amazon China.

List the results (30% of vote)

The interactive social campaign resulted in an instant sales increase of 69% within the first 6 hours of launch. We had total of 27 million impressions and 2.17 million unique page visits on our Amazon page. Books recommended in the campaign also featured in Amazon’s Top 10 Bestseller List – successfully getting people in China to read again.

Links

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