Finding That One Nugget
The Library of Virginia knew that they needed a strong media strategy to help grow library awareness and attendance. In a high-tech world it was difficult for the library to compete and gain attention from book-lovers because they had so many new avenues in which to find their favorite works.
Lewis Media Partners reviewed the LOV’s past media efforts and quickly discovered that their smaller non-profit budgets were being diluted. The client was advertising in too many places with no real emphasis in any one medium. The budget simply couldn’t work that hard.
In order to help the Library’s efforts become more focused, Lewis Media Partners recommended to the LOV that they spend all of their media dollars on one thing - book talks, an event that could bring in existing and new attendees because of the exciting line-up of authors that were to host these talks. Because the demographic of the book talks skewed to older, well-educated adults a combination of newspaper and NPR were used. These two traditional media offered a highly targeted reach and frequency against this audience. As a result of this strategy, LOV increased attendance by 66% in 2007 from 2006 attendance. In addition, the increase in book talk attendance also showed a marked increase in book sales.
