The National Library Board (NLB) of Singapore through the National Reading Movement, together with creative partner Ogilvy Singapore, have launched a new campaign entitled “Read More. Be More” as part of ongoing mission to encourage people in Singapore to Read More, Read Widely and Read Together.
“Read More. Be More” campaign was developed to inspire people to read more books, both fiction and non-fiction, through the NLB mobile app and become more interesting, and in some cases, unexpectedly so.
“It is easy to assume that what makes an individual interesting might be influences from the latest social media trends or popular culture, but our approach was to challenge this perception and instead introduce reading as the source of how someone becomes interesting. By reading, you gain knowledge and knowledge leads to stronger connections with those around you,” said Nicolas Courant, Chief Creative Officer at Ogilvy Singapore & Malaysia.
Elrid Carvalho, Creative Director, Ogilvy Singapore, said: “We had a lot of fun developing this campaign, using physical books as well as diving into the stories within them to create our protagonists, and pull our audiences into the world of books. If we’ve inspired those who may have given up their reading habits, to pick up a book again, then we’ve succeeded in this campaign.”
The campaign, which will include activity across social media (Facebook, Instagram and YouTube), OOH in MRT stations and digital display banners, reminds people how reading can turn day to day mundane situations into unexpected adventures.
The campaign includes two videos – ‘The Unmasked Superhero’ where audiences discover how an unassuming supermarket employee mysteriously knows everything about superheroes. The second video, “The Space Explorer’, reveals how a humble tennis coach is also a budding astronomer. While the people around keep making absurd assumptions about the two protagonists, what really makes Aunty Kim and Jason unexpectedly interesting, is that they both love to read books.
Remarking on the third year of the partnership with Ogilvy, Chris Koh, Programme Director for National Reading Movement noted that this year’s campaign continues to bring a fresh take in asking people to Read More, Read Widely and Read Together. “Our intent with this year’s campaign is to connect with audiences in specific everyday moments and demonstrate how reading can unexpectedly help you to be interesting, and this is true no matter what genre, language or format reading can take,” she said.
The NLB has a total of 27 libraries, comprising 26 public libraries owned and operated by NLB and 2 partners’ libraries. The NLB brings in more than 24 million visitors annually who borrow more than 30 million library materials and attend more than 25,000 programmes.
The campaign will run until March 2022.
