All bookstores in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have been seeing declining sales, year after year. It has led to the closure of big brand stores, leaving everyone wondering if books had entered their final chapter.

Kinokuniya, the UAE’s largest bookstore, was looking to reverse the trend in declining sales for its store too.

The brand’s relevance just like the category’s relevance was being challenged as social media usage has continued to increase year-on-year.

Entertainment and information are easily found online so books are becoming less popular. Audio-stories and podcasts have replaced actual physical books too.

In a world of instant information and entertainment, books seemed to be losing its relevance. 88.1% prefer to “read” bite-size information from social networking sites, and only 22% of people in the UAE consider themselves as regular readers of books.

Declining sales led to declining budgets.

How could we promote Kinokuniya and reading books?

TIME TO READ:

We knew that if we wanted to disrupt social media users and create a shift in perspective, we needed to speak their language and we needed to communicate visually.

So, we brought the data to life through startling data-driven visual installations and through social media.

We turned data into eye-opening, provocative on-ground installations. Bookshelves filled with the number of books one can read with the same amount of time spent on social platforms (Facebook = 35 books, YouTube = 42 books, Instagram = 43 books, Twitter = 22 books, TikTok = 42 books).

Showing how many books people could read, with the time they instead spend on social media.

We collected people’s screen time data, analyzed it, and translated that into how many books they could read based on their average weekly screen=time on different social platforms:

Facebook = 35 books

YouTube = 42 books

Instagram = 43 books

Twitter = 22 books

TikTok = 42 books

This gave us the trigger we needed.

The data-driven strategy:

SHOW people that they have the time to read.

We needed to make people realize how much time they actually have.

To do this, we needed to provoke them about how they can use that time effectively by refocusing their attention from mindless scrolling on social media to reading a book.

But we didn't want to sound preachy and antagonizing.

We needed to open eyes by SHOWING people what they could do with time spent on social media: Read books.

And to do this, we needed to put data front and center.

The on-ground installations were designed to be both disruptive AND engaging, and were strategically placed across malls right next to Kinokuniya stores (so media cost wasn’t a factor), and also placed across popular outdoor hotspots.

The visual was thought-provoking and made for a social-worthy post. It was a way to draw people into the store to increase footfall.

The installations also encouraged physical browsing. The installations displayed a range of titles - from fiction to management, matching different interests with different books, to help convert footfall to sales, with Kinokuniya sales agents present should people wish to buy the books on the spot.

We also promoted content on social media based on that data of the times people were most active on social media, delivering platform-specific messages and matching user interests with customized book recommendations - with time-sensitive discounts.

This too helped drive traffic to Kinokuniya’s online store.

The idea triggered positive change:

(1) The idea effectively boosted sales, without any media spend, and without any other initiatives from the brand, surpassing sales targets: +12% increase in sales volume vs. 2021.

(2) Sales continued to grow for succeeding months without any major initiatives from the brand - +28% increase in sales volume for five months following the campaign’s end vs. same period in 2021, making it the highest Kinokuniya book sales growth in the last 10 years.

(3) We drove double the footfall targets - +8% increase in store visits vs. same period prior to the campaign.

(4) We managed to pull people into the store during months after Ramadan that have historically low footfall rates; continued increase in footfall post campaign: +16% increase in footfall vs. same period in 2021.

(5) The campaign achieved +317% reach and +196% engagement vs. historically high performing promotional and sales posts.

The UAE is a country of “Time Poor Social Media Bingers”.

98.99% of the total UAE population uses social media actively.

Owing to the lockdowns in 2020-2021 and owing to improved digital accessibility, time spent on social platforms have further increased by 75%.

UAE residents spend 8.36 hours on screens and on social media every day, nearly two hours more than the global average of 6.58 hours.

People have become increasingly dependent on social media for quick access to visual information and short-form entertainment.

On the surface, the problem looked like books have completely lost its relevance. But when asked why they don’t read, the number one reason for 84% of UAE residents was “lack of time”.

Reading books have become non-essential for many, even if many believe that reading is an essential part of progress.

People didn’t think they had the time to read books.