NZBM 2011 marketing campaign a winner!

NZ Book Month’s Books Change Lives campaign was announced as the winner of the Not-for-Profit Award at the 2011 NZ Marketing Awards.

The campaign, which was a world-first, was fronted by celebrities talking about the books that changed their lives. In addition, a voucher scheme run throughout New Zealand gave people the opportunity to take $5 off a book of their choice at participated stores.

NZ Book Month aimed to get 50 percent of booksellers on board and felt a one percent redemption rate would make it a success. Amazingly, the organisers managed to persuade 85 percent of the retailers and 95 percent of the publishers to join the scheme (in theory, a $20 million commitment) and the redemption rate was 2.25 percent.

Mary Robbins, Chair of the NZ Book Month Board said, “Results from the 2011 campaign were extraordinary on so many levels. We had more communities than ever participating, holding events that reached thousands of New Zealanders”.

“With the amazing support of our sponsors, we were able to distribute over 4 million $5 book vouchers to most households and to every single student, primary and secondary. More than 85,000 vouchers were redeemed, meaning our campaign to get people reading books was measureable in a way never before seen in this country, ” said Mary.

In January 2011 and February 2011, New Zealand book sales were down eight percent. In March, as a direct result of the campaign, they were up 12.5 percent year on year and sales continued to increase in April, with increases across all categories, particularly non-fiction and children's.

“New Zealand Book Month is young – this was only our 6th year – but we’re growing in confidence and results. The entire book industry rallied around this year’s campaign, with more than 80% of all book retailers involved, all key publishers and many libraries. It was exciting to see and it’s great to be recognised by the country’s top marketers,” notes Mary.

“Next year will be even better, of course!”

The other finalists in this category at the NZ Marketing Awards were: