Jarir - the biggest bookstore in Saudi- is suffering from a decline in books’ sales. The decline is attributed to data overload where people have lost interest in reading books and the stories they offer and shifted to reading News articles (political or social articles) and Tabloid Stories they constantly find available be it in the digital (online news) or the traditional format (newspaper and tabloid magazines)..

So in order to regain top of mind, our idea was to promote our books by packaging its content in a journalistic format that seems realistic and relevant, similar to what people seem to enjoy to read. We had to turn our books to Newsworthy Stories.

The creative converted book plots into intriguing news articles with catchy news headlines while staying true to the essence of the books we are trying to promote.

We published front page insertions in newspapers mimicking real articles with catchy headlines (ie. “Couple Commit Suicide after Family Finds out about Relationship”) followed by an article written in a journalistic format. Just like any front page news article, the reader is asked to continue the story on another page where a revealer invites them to check out the book (ie. “Romeo and Juliet) and many more at Jarir Bookstore.

The same was used for news websites with a teasing article that once clicked reveals the true story behind it where users where able to purchase the book directly from Jarir’s online site. The campaign was launched in major newspapers and news sites for 1 week and ran according to plan.

With over 6million total impresions and 15,000 clicks in less than a week, the campaign achieved great results in a short period of time boosting Jarir Bookstore sales by 18%.

Our fake news articles made the news themselves with a lot of people sharing our fake news on their social media accounts commending Jarir Bookstore for a campaign well done.