| ||||
|
The Alberta Library has launched a $200,000 television, radio, print and online campaign showing real-life library scenarios—with a twist.
The campaign by Vancouver’s Rethink launched Oct. 13 as part of Canadian Library Month, and features the tag line “Books and beyond.” The objective is to show lapsed users that a library is more then just books.
Tricia Bradshaw, account manager at Rethink, said the target audience is adults 18—35, who may not have visited a library since high school.
“A lot of people think that libraries are just stodgy old places that don’t really have anything for them,” said Bradshaw. “And we just wanted to communicate that libraries have a lot more then just books. They have CDs, DVDs, free Internet and workshops, and people just don’t know that.”
There are four 15-second vignettes packaged together in two ads.
In one scenario, a middle-aged woman is shown checking out a book on scrap booking. Two days later, she’s back in the library looking disheveled and looking at a web site offering information on “glue inhalation.” In another ad, a man pulls a book off the shelf called Climbing Mount Everest. One month later, he’s back in the library with his right arm in a cast checking out a web page on “left hand living.” A third shows a man leaving the library with a book about Karma Sutra. Three years later he’s back in the library with two little kids in tow checking out a DVD called No Scalpel Vasectomy.
Edmonton based communications coordinator Janis Galloway said The Alberta Library awarded the account to Rethink last spring after an extensive review.
“When we looked at the campaigns that have been done before for libraries in Alberta, they were very tame, and we were afraid that we were reinforcing the stereotypes that people have about libraries,” she said. “We really wanted to do something unique, to show what libraries really are like and that real people use them.
