EE, the UK’s biggest and most innovative mobile provider, wanted to offer an online book to its 4G Wifi customers, as an additional way to reward them for their loyalty.
The targeted customers were all 4G Mobile Wifi subscribers and tablet users.
In December EE contacted eBooks.com to help identify a list of top authors who would be happy to participate in the promotion, and would connect with EE’s customers.
We approached Hachette UK, whose group includes publishing giants like Little Brown, Orion and Hodder & Stoughton. Hachette took it to a number of its publishers, who were very positive. The task then fell to the Hachette team to assemble an appropriate offering for publishers and authors, and also represented a compelling list of titles.
After weeks of intensive, collegial discussions involving publishers, literary agencies and dozens of authors, the final list of titles was locked down and the result was a formidable assembly of 57 compelling reads.
redemption is at hand
The promotion ran for the month of June and the redemption curve was exactly as you’d expect; with an immediate spike, followed by a long tail. A mid-month reminder was sent to those who hadn’t redeemed their freebie, and this generated another, spike in redemptions.
A win-win-win-win
In summary, the promotion was a fine collaborative success. For eBooks.com, it drove thousands of new users to our site; for EE it was a lovely way to delight its customers, who enjoyed access to a wide range of great books; and for authors, it brought new exposure for thousands of new readers.
