Why is this work relevant for Media?

Singaporeans love online shopping and record 4 times the global average online spend. Clearly, a lot of time is spent on eCommerce platforms like Carousell, one of Asia's largest and fastest-growing marketplaces. It's like the Craigslist of Asia. At the same time, NLB was seeing fewer people reading and borrowing books. So how do we redirect their love for eCommerce to reading? We hijacked this medium to create a conversation and allow Singaporeans to rediscover library books where and when they least expect it.

Background

In Singapore, book loans fell by 11.32 mil and web traffic to online shopping platforms increased by 35% in 2020. Alas, Singaporeans were spending less time borrowing books and more time online shopping. We wanted to redirect their love for eCommerce into reading and encourage readership. So, we hijacked online shopping to sell people on reading by partnering with Carousell, one of Asia’s largest e-marketplaces. We turned it into an online library for a month by creating over 30 fake listings featuring fake, controversial items like perfumes made with humans, haunted tricycles, and invisibility jewellery. When curious shoppers clicked to view the item, they discovered the real story behind the listing. An original book cover was designed for each item. With a simple click of a button on the item’s Carousell page, shoppers were able to borrow the book via NLB’s app.

Describe the creative idea / insights (30% of vote)

We found that listings which get a lot of attention on Carousell are usually strange, unique, mysterious and controversial items. To entice shoppers to check out each item (and therefore each book), we gave each item a peculiar description e.g. Trained Elephant Chefs, Time Management Frogs and Alien Egg Omelette. Furthermore, we priced each item as $0 to appeal to freebie-loving shoppers.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

According to GlobalWebIndex and Statistica, Singaporean eCommerce shoppers spend an average of more than US$1,000 each on online purchases of consumer goods — almost 4 times greater than the global average. At the same time, Carousell saw extreme growth among older consumers, with shoppers aged 45 and above growing six-fold in 2020. The app's largest demographic, 25-34 year olds, also grew significantly at 4.5x over the previous year. Clearly, more Singaporeans are spending a lot of money and time on eCommerce sites like Carousell. With this in mind, we knew by using Carousell, we could target the right demographics and a sizeable number of Singaporean shoppers.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

We collaborated with Carousell to customise the shopping experience for users. At first glance, it looks like a typical seller's page — albeit with strange, mysterious items. But once a shopper clicks on an item, they see that the item's page is anything but typical. The strange item's principal image is gone and, in its place, we see an original book cover and a story teaser. Instead of the usual 'chat' button that appears on an item's page, we replaced it with a 'borrow' button. This easily leads shoppers to the same book on NLB's app or site.

List the results (30% of vote)

We engaged with over 30,000 people, increased app downloads, eBook borrowings and made Singaporeans read a whole lot more.