I love books. Not just the fantastic content and knowledge that they promise and often provide, but how beautiful they can be as an object to hold and admire. My favourite books are the old fashioned hard backed classics with gilded spines and pages.
On a recent visit to Havana Cuba, we went on a tour of the government Capital building and we passed the library room. It had rows and rows of gilded hardbacks from the floor to the ceiling and had one of those huge step ladders on wheels to access all the higher placed books - absolute catnip.
Before I went on my holidays I was contemplating what books to take (what high brow books would I take to weigh down my suitcase and complement my essential Jackie Collins read).
It was also at the same time, a few weeks ago, that I saw the launch of The Kindle; Amazons new wireless reading device with revolutionary electronic paper that provides an experience on par with a normal book.
Hmmn....I was dubious. I went to the site to check it out and see what it was all about. Thinner and weighing less than a normal paperback, allowing a download of a book in less than a minute, a battery life that allows you to read War and Peace in one sitting, (should you wish), I have to say, the flexibility and benefits are really intriguing. You can download daily newspapers to access when you wake up each morning and keep up to date with your favourite blogs.
My next thought was what advertising opportunities can this device offer? This is where it will get really interesting - I'm sure just as in normal newspapers we will be able to place recruitment messages to relevant people.
Also, perhaps for the first time we can associate our employer brand and message with particular books. We want to target females - we can perhaps be associated with the numerous female orientated books on the best sellers list. We want to target business minded professionals - we can be associated with books such as The Tipping Point and Wikinomics.
The Kindle (and its competitors like the Readius) will be successful if they truly provide benefits and added value to consumers. As a traditional book lover, I have to say, I can see real potential with such a device, especially on my commute or on my holidays, but it may be a while before books are just consigned as lovely ornaments on my bookshelf.
I really like the idea and it centres around my favourite subject at the moment, Freeconomics. The basic premise is that you don’t charge the consumer or user of the product, you charge the company that would benefit manipulating the surroundings and environment.
The oldest example of this is Gillette, who historically gave away their razors but charged for the blades. Genius!
An airline company recently made the decision to not charge for meals, but to put allow advertising on the packaging.
Anyone who saw the Bill Gates documentary this weekend (sad I know) knows that Big Bill’s decision to give away software but charge for upgrades and add-on’s was a huge factor to Microsoft’s success.
Here’s a modern day example that we can all relate to: How many of us would buy the Metro if it was 20p and sold off a stand? We wouldn’t, but we’d take it for nothing and in doing so we have built DMGT a great platform for the biggest benefactor of freeconomics, advertisers.
For the same reason MyLongLunch doesn’t charge agencies to use the site or the live events, we charge the media to best display themselves once the consumer (agency person) is there.
Enough of my rambling, there is a point. With this device and on Sinead’s prediction, is it out the question that one day Amazon gives away downloadable books for free and charge a few big advertisers to take every 20th page in a Jackie Collins book? It’s happened in newspapers and this format makes the overheads (paper and ink) £0.
Economists are calling 2008 the “year of the free”, so maybe a HSBC advert for call centre staff on page 146 of the latest Harry Potter book isn’t completely outside the realms of possibility.
J
Posted by: Jamie Leonard | 22/06/2008 at 03:47 PM