The Libraries

Discover what you can do

National campaign that all Libraries in the Netherlands can join, with which we position the Library as a driver of belief in yourself, and therefore more users come to the library.” Because: the library is much more than just borrowing books and reading, only nobody knows this!

Situation
With over 1,300 branches, the Library is the largest A-brand in the Netherlands. Everyone in the Netherlands knows the library and has been there at one time or another. However, two-thirds of the Netherlands are not regular visitors. In addition, both visitors and non-visitors have a rather outdated image of the Library. The association that people now have is one-sided and old-fashioned: borrowing books and reading.
The reality is different. Libraries now play a crucial social role with both its physical locations and the online library. It is a place to develop yourself and meet people. It offers a huge range of courses and activities. The library thus sees itself as the engine of a skilled society. But how do we make that known, and relevant?

From 4 to 8 million
The Library wants to address all of the Netherlands, from young to old. It has the ambitious goal of going from 4 million subscribers to 8 million connected users.
First, we worked with the Libraries to find the most appealing brand promise. What meaning do we want to plant in people’s minds? After two co-creative strategic sessions, the brand promise “The Library turns you on” emerged as the most appropriate and energetic promise.
We also worked with Annalect to research non-users. The libraries knew a lot about their subscribers, but they didn’t know much about the people who didn’t visit them. With this knowledge we were able to investigate which library propositions are the most interesting to communicate. What did you not yet know about the library that could move you?

The idea
The communication idea that we developed had to communicate exactly that. The theme we devised for this was “Discover what you can do.
You can do more than you think, and the Library can help you with that. Because also at the Library there is more than you think. The Library is a source of inspiration and progress. A ‘welcome place’ where you can always go. For courses for your theory exam, to make things, or to become more digitally proficient. After all, these were the three activities that emerged from the survey as most inspiring and relevant to name as examples.

We developed this through TV commercials, online materials as well as outdoor. In three different films, we see people encountering a problem, and suddenly a tippy-teller appears and points people to how the Library can help them. The tippy-teller is shaped like an (animated) octopus. Versatile, clever, slightly cheeky and above all very helpful, he gives advice. All commercials end with a carousel with a series of “Library tips” and, of course, the line “Find out what you can do.

TV, print, online and a Toolkit for the local Library

TV commercials are the main medium to give our promise a national reach. But the 1300 libraries in the Netherlands have to prove it! Therefore, a lot of attention has been paid to informing and enthusing all the national libraries. The landing page of library.nl has been completely adapted to the campaign with more information about the activities and also the possibility of looking for a Library near you. Finally, an extensive toolkit of campaign materials has also been realized so they can all get started with their local activities at the local level, in their library, online, and outdoors.
In this way, the Netherlands can no longer ignore the Library, and together we are “turning on” all of the Netherlands.

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