Bookmarks into Schools.

I’ve mentioned my Bookmark People work before but, here’s a typical example where the ‘public library model’ and the ‘educational model’ of bookmark distribution needed to be re-managed to achieve specifically targeted distribution to suit all parties.

• Ongoing use of the Local Public Library Bookmarks by our ‘supermarket’ client was proving successful. I’ve highlighted before how I produced Library Bookmark Projects that have been backed by local supermarkets in many parts of the UK.

• However, a new target: Our client wanted to reach all ALL Primary School Children in Vale of Glamorgan, to promote the opening of a new local store in Barry. Our Schools supplier NACE could not facilitate ‘Supermarkets’ as a sponsor. I needed to negotiate an effective route to primary school children outside of our educational NACE model.

• I consulted the local Libraries and ‘Libraries Wales’, as I had been involved in their national ‘Library Card for Every Child’ campaign. I could see that using this initiative I could arrange for local libraries to route bookmarks into each primary school under the Libraries outreach remit and hence facilitate the supermarket sponsorship directly into the schools.

• An added challenge was that the supermarket’s promotion was a stock commercial message which included a clothing pic and a cafe fast-food ‘burger’ pic – this, of course, was not ideal in an educational environment.  I discussed this with the client and suggested that we develop a more interactive educational child-centred promotion. I had used word-search puzzles and mazes etc before and I suggested this was an ideal interactive device to use to engage with the readers.

“Mum, I’ve got a new bookmark, can we go to the library?“

This young man, aged 7 from Barry, took his bookmark home!
His mum said “I go to the library every week. We love reading and we hire DVDs from the library a lot.”

See the council’s press-release here;

“The new …store at Barry Waterfront has backed a special library bookmark for every primary school pupil in the area scheme… The bookmarks list services available at Vale libraries — from homework help to e-books. They also act as a handy ruler, and feature a fun maze and word search on the back for children to complete.”

• The result was a highly effective campaign that pleased all parties:
  The Sponsor ‘the supermarket’,  The Distributing Agent ‘local libraries’ and Distribution Outlets ‘the primary schools’.
  It was covered in the local press and celebrated by the libraries as a highly effective project.
  The supermarket reached 20,000 pupils via this celebrated campaign through local primary schools.

You can see here, a selection of comments I have received from various sources over the years – library bookmarks have been great resources; embraced, owned and put to good use by many UK libraries. Many sponsors have invested in the library bookmarks and in turn have seen their promotions reaching home.