Books Alive - campaign research
Books Alive is a $2 million government-funded, month-long nationwide campaign to promote books and reading.
It is an Australian Government initiative administered by the Australia Council for the Arts. It was developed through the Australian Government’s Book Industry Assistance Plan with initial funding of $8 million over four years for the development of a promotional campaign that could produce beneficial results for the book industry. The Government announced a renewal of $8 million funding for Books Alive in the 2005 budget to extend the campaign over the period 2006 to 2009.
The Books Alive model was developed by an Industry Reference Group, who investigated successful overseas book promotions, such as the Collective Promotion of the Dutch Book in The Netherlands, World Book Day in the UK and Get Caught Reading in the USA. The giveaway book model was studied with reference to the Dutch promotion.
Goal: The promotion of books and reading to the general public, children and young people, including books by Australian writers.
This goal is to be pursued via the following objectives:
1. Encourage all Australians to read more books for pleasure and to read more often.
2. Develop new readerships, particularly among those identified as lapsed or reluctant readers.
3. Increase appreciation of Australian writers and writing.
4. Encourage the continued growth of the Australian book sector via the support of Australian writers, publishers and book retailers.
5. Explore opportunities for, and maximise, stakeholder and sponsor investment in Books Alive as an ongoing campaign.
As part of the 2008 Books Alive initiative, market research company Starcom was engaged to conduct research to measure the impact of the Books Alive campaign on increasing interest and participation in reading, to assist with the design of future Books Alive campaigns, plus provide the industry with much-needed statistics and information to better promote reading and Australian writing, in line with the stated goal of Books Alive.
As part of the 2009 initiative, Starcom repeated their research into the awareness and participation of the 2009 Books Alive campaign.
Related Media
- Books Alive 2009 - campaign effectiveness research (PDF file - 3.9 MB)
- Books Alive 2008 - campaign research (PDF file - 1.1 MB)
- Books Alive 2008 - reading research - part 2 (PDF file - 1.4 MB)
- Books Alive 2008 - reading research - part 1 (PDF file - 1.7 MB)