New York public library creates ‘Subway Libraries’

There are very few considerations that we consider absolute. One, consider what people will get from your campaign and two, people don’t read. It’s a known fact, 90% of people who are online don’t read 90% of the things they see. They scan websites and rely on subheads.

That’s why any effort that will require people to read lots are almost always frowned upon.

Apparently, 3 students don’t believe in this… or at least, they believe they change this.

Read on the go

Max Pilwat, Keri Tan and Ferdi Rodriguez of the Miami ad school decided to give people the chance to read the first 10 pages of a book while they are in the subway through the technology called Near Field Communications (NFC). Once they finish reading the first 10 pages, they will then be informed the nearest library where they can borrow the book.

Simply… genius

Contrary to belief, majority of gamers on their mobile phones are casual gamers. They play when there is nothing else to do like when waiting in line, during traffic or bored. It’s also that opportunity that Pilwat, Tan and Rodriguez decided to utilize.

People are obviously looking for something to do when they are waiting and they turn to their cellphones for it and it’s the perfect time to “bait” them into reading a book.

Given the apparent disdain for long texts, it’s unwise to put books in a shelf and expect people to grab them and read them while in the subway.

The best option is to trick them into reading by giving them a sneak peak of a book. All book lovers know that once you get those first 10 pages in, you won’t stop. So they gave people that hook, the bait… that offer they can’t refuse.

The convenience

One of the best things about the whole campaign is design to make things convenient and easy for people.

The books are all over the subway. People can literally stand anywhere and they’d find a book near them. To request the first 10 pages, people just need to switch the bluetooth on and scan the code of the book. The first ten pages will then be delivered to their phone.

When the user decides to get the rest of the book, they will be directed to the nearest library.

Verdict

The execution is no less than genius but what really deserves a commendation is the objective of the whole thing. We need more campaigns like this. We need more efforts that go into making people read. The more literature a community becomes, the bigger the possibilities for businesses to explore.