2019 Winners & Shortlists

Background.

24% of people say they haven't read a book in the recent past. And that’s flushing the publishing industry down the toilet. How could we get people to re-experiment books and re-discover the pleasure of reading? Increase footfall in the stores and drive sales of books upwards, while also creating a memorable piece that is resonant of the brand’s fun and light-hearted tone. Full budget: less than USD5,000. With the low budget, we were able to craft several book shelves and dozens of books that were placed in around 10 bathrooms in Dubai and Beirut. The campaign started in January 2019 and has already increased store visitors by 8%. As of today, books are being placed and replaced on the shelves. Local writers have been involved (as per their wishes) to make stories that are custom-made for the project.

Describe the creative idea.

Stool Stories uses a fun, unique insight to build a quirky idea that tackles a real, business problem. It finds one moment where everyone, CEOs and Presidents alike, has a few minutes to read (the moment when we go to the bathroom) and creates a solution specific for its placement. Printed on toilet paper, the short books ironically illustrate the fate of the publishing industry and seamlessly becomes a part of everyone’s bathroom experience. The books are also meant to be read in less than 10 minutes, fitting even more to your trip to the loo. There are different genres for you to choose and different books for you to rediscover the pleasure of reading.

Describe the strategy.

The idea manages to solve a real, client business problem whilst also building on the store’s fun tone. The choice to find people in the bathroom and where they are idle was also strategical since this is the perfect time to get people to read again. We chose to use toilet paper to ironically illustrate the fate of the publishing industry and also seamlessly become a part of everyone’s literary experience. The idea manages to transform an idle time into a literary experience without asking too much of people. Meant for men and women, the idea successfully approached people from all genders and ages in a fun and quirky manner and in the appropriate place for people to actually have time and attention to read a book.

Describe the execution.

Aside from the aesthetic design choices of typography and overall look and feel, this piece manages to use production, printing method and material to enhance the design of the books. Printing it on toilet paper allows us to be ironical and also become a part of everyone’s bathroom break. Making dozens of books involved creates hundreds of silks and a hand-made printing process for each, specific piece.

List the results.

The idea provided added value to the brand in terms of recognition, awareness and brand love since we managed to capitalize on the company’s light-hearted and quirky tone of voice and replicate it into a whole project. Aside from that, we were able to increase store visitors by 8%, making sales peak during the month of the activation. For the consumer, aside from added entertainment value, we also gave them a reason to love reading again and transform their idle minutes into a time for something much more inspiring: reading. The initial objective was reached of actually coming closer to solving a real, business problem and also create talkability among people in the region.