by Elizabeth Helsley
WHAT’S HAPPENING
- Librerias Gandhi, one of Mexico’s leading book retailers, has taken guerilla marketing to a new level with its Metrolibro campaign.
- The campaign consists of 13 billboards set up along Mexico City metro’s yellow line — one for each station. Each billboard contains passages from Franz Kafka’s “El Puente” (The Bridge). By going from the Politécnico stop to Pantitlán, they will have read the entire short story (InteractivaDigital.com, 14 July 2011). The bookstore and Ogilvy, the ad agency, chose the yellow line because the store logo has a bright yellow background.
- For those who don’t ride the yellow line from beginning to end, or who would just like to read the story again, passengers can pick up a pamphlet that contains the complete story.
- The goal of the campaign is to increase literacy awareness and to encourage more people to read, as the average Mexican reads only 2.7 books per year, according to Librerias Gandhi.
WHAT THIS MEANS TO BUSINESS
- Mexican consumers react well to innovative and clever marketing, especially if it is for something as worthy as literacy.
RESOURCES
