ABOUT

Background
Kinokuniya is the largest bookstore in the UAE. And just like all bookstores in the country, the brand has been seeing declining sales, year after year.
Online on-demand entertainment and information have replaced actual physical books.
Only 22% of people in the UAE consider themselves as regular readers of books; and
84% cited “lack of time” as the number one reason that prevented them from reading
We needed a creative and disruptive visual approach, within the limited budget of $50,000, to effectively convince people to reallocate their time spent on social media to reading a book (or two!), to deliver increase in sales volume during the campaign period

Describe the creative idea
TIME TO READ: Showing how many books people could read, with the time they instead spend on social media
We wanted to disrupt social media users, and we knew we needed to do it visually.
We had to show, not tell, to create a shift in perspective.
We collected the daily social media screen time of UAE residents and turned that data into eye-opening statistics:
Facebook = 35 books
YouTube = 42 books
Instagram = 43 books
Twitter = 22 books
TikTok = 42 books
We brought this shocking data to life through startling data-driven visual installations on-ground, and through contextual and targeted messages on social media.

Describe the execution
Through creative data visualization, we delivered the message effectively.
From data to creative visualization: The campaign started with data-driven on-ground installations across malls right next to Kinokuniya stores, that were designed to be both disruptive AND engaging.
The installation showed thenumber of books one can read with thesame amount of time spent on social platforms. The visual was thought-provoking to draw people into the store to increase footfall.
Once inside the store, the installation featured a range of titles fromvarious genresthat people could browse, matching interests with books to help convert footfall to sales.
From on-ground to social: We hacked socialmedia behaviours with contextual messages letting people know how many books they could read based on the time spent on each platform and offered discounts on books.
We also tracked peak social media consumption during the day and targeted users with ads that offered discounts on books during these hours.

List the results
The creative data-driven campaign got people thinking AND acting
The campaign effectively convinced “time-starved” UAE consumers to take the time to read, and successfully drove book sales for Kinokuniya:
16% increase in footfall vs. same period prior to the campaign
Achieving 4x the footfall target of +4%
The campaign also managed to pull people into the store during months (after Ramadan) that have historically low footfall rates
28% increase in sales volume vs. previous year
Surpassing sales volume target of +12%
Making it the highest Kinokuniya book sale in the last 10 years
The campaign effectively boosted sales, without any media spend, and without any other initiatives from the brand.
The campaign also delivered:
+50% increase in reach and engagement vs. the previous promotional and sales posts.
An increase in keyword search volume and brand awareness for “Kinokuniya” and “Arabic books”