From phones to books

Blyk had many pixels of trade press last week. Yet because of its softly, softly launch many people still don’t know about it. When I describe it to people who haven’t come across it I usually get two, polarised reactions (sometimes from the same individual):
‘Great, it’s about time someone tried a new approach to mobile phone charges.’
‘Eeuch, there’s enough advertising around already.’

However tentative Blyk members may feel about receiving advertising on their phones, it seems some are responding to the experience. Blyk has reported an average 29% response rate to its ads and last week revealed a 45% response rate to a campaign by Penguin Books, where members could click from the ad to download an audio chapter of Nick Hornby’s book, ‘Slam’. This kind of statistic is, of course, great news for Blyk. It may also surprise sceptics who might not have expected Blyk’s advertising to include book downloads (to be fair this is just one element of Blyk’s advertising mix). The success of this specific ad also suggests that when the content is right, and the process of accessing it is smooth, and free, people will begin to use phone functionality beyond texting and calling (although there’s no doubt these remain primary).

The response to the Penguin campaign is good news for book publishers, too. Statistics for book reading are depressingly low, and some, including Steve Jobs and Michael Hirschorn (not surprisingly, of the computing and TV industries, respectively) are saying reading’s a thing of the past. The web is a great place for committed readers to share their thoughts via book clubs and forums, but generally it competes, alongside TV, for potential readers’ attention.

So in order to build readership it makes sense to go where your readers might be. Paul Coelho, who seems to have a very shrewd understanding of his audience, has claimed that pirating his own books on the web increased sales of the books themselves. Not surprisingly, Coelho’s initiative generated far fewer column inches than Radiohead’s free album download: most book publishing lacks the scale and glamour of rock music; besides a book delivered by the web is a much less consumable item than music, so there is a more obvious path from web delivery to buying the book itself.

And it’s this path that Penguin are following. Last year they partnered with social networking site Piczo to promote six classics to a young teen audience. Now they have taken a punt on Blyk. So I say three cheers for Penguin (those who regret that this was an audio, rather than written, download will, perhaps, allow two and a half cheers). For the sake of authors, book publishers and, most importantly, potential readers, I hope the punt pays off.

Entry Filed under: Advertising, Practices, Understanding users