CHEAP AND FUN WAYS TO REACH GEN X AND Y The most fun you’ve ever had marketing to early adopters

“U.S. public libraries face similar marketing and advocacy challenges to those endured by other super brands. Lessons learned and successes achieved can be applied to increase library funding. Utilizing marketing and advocacy techniques targeted to the right community segments with the right messages and community programs, we can improve the state of public library funding.” - Geek the Library

What is the Library’s Brand? What the general public first thinks of when they think of libraries: Books 75% IN 2010 up from 69% IN Perceptions of Libraries, 2010

What Should We Consider?  How does material capture someone’s attention?  How do people acquire information once a subject has become interesting to them?  How do people assess information that they gather?  How do people act on that information once they need to make a decision or solve a problem? - Lee Rainie, How Libraries Can Survive in the New Media Ecosystem

Examples of inexpensive but effective ways to interact with patrons and get their attention  Geocaching  QR Codes  Photoshop contests

What do these have in common?  They are cheap  They are games that market the library’s services in an engaging way  They help broaden user perceptions of what a library is and can do

Geocaching: Meet Aaron

What is Geocaching? Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices. The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online. - from geocaching.com

Making it accessible to the widest audience!  Combination of letterboxing* and geocaching  No device necessary  Child friendly theme with many easy clues! * Letterboxing is 19 th century geocaching – a massive paper clue based scavenger hunt

The Clues  The physical scavenger hunt leads the user on a tour of the physical library building  QR codes lead to additional virtual content that might interest the user – videos of programs, our North Carolina Archive site, downloadable audiobooks, etc.

Some of the Entries:

What we’re trying next:

Unexpected Results Geocaching and Photoshop contest attracted many people outside of our constituents and created good will for libraries in general.

Works Cited:  De, Rosa C, Jenny Johnson, Linn H. Edvardsen, Patricia Harris, Brad Gauder, Matthew Carlson, and Rick Limes. Geek the Library: A Community Awareness Campaign : a Report to the Oclc Membership. Dublin, Ohio, USA: OCLC, Internet resource. Accessed March 19 th,  De, Rosa C, Joanne Cantrell, Matthew Carlson, Margaret Gallagher, Janet Hawk, Charlotte Sturtz, Brad Gauder, Diane Cellentani, Tam Dalrymple, and Lawrence J. Olszewski. Perceptions of Libraries, 2010: Context and Community : a Report to the Oclc Membership. Dublin, Ohio: OCLC, Internet resource. Retrieved March 19,  Rainie, Lee, How Libraries Can Survive in the New Media Ecosystem, Pew Internet & American Life Project, May 19, 2010, accessed on March 19, Slide 28 and Slide 29

What the Librarian Gave Away Links Contest: weblog/comments/what-the-librarian-won-a- photoshop-contest-in-honor-of-jennifer-lohmann/ Entries: weblog/comments/what-the-librarian-won-the-entries/

Geocaching Links Video explaining geocaching: Aaron’s listing on our site: Aaron’s listing at geocache.com: ?guid=94ff47cb d1-91ee-c8732a1721be

Peep Show srv/artsandliving/magazine/peeps2010/index.html