Augmenting book products through games and content communities...A look at Harry Potter and Legend

This week I've been ushering at the Melbourne writer's festival and at each presentation, social media has been mentioned as a factor that has changed the writing, reading and marketing of books. So I thought I would explore this concept in this week's post.

 

The challenge with marketing books today

Book are generally more difficult to market than other entertainment products today. Firstly, there is a high level of competition with  more forms of visual entertainment, such as TV shows, films and internet entertainment. Secondly, consumers' preferences are changing due to the development of new technologies and more instantaneous entertainment. Members of the younger generation seek more interaction and involvement with their products. As a result, some think books are less entertaining today....unless you're talking about Facebook...

Augmentation through social media

In order to market books effectively, whether e-books or physical paperback stories, authors and publishers need to create involvement with readers. This should be done not only through the book itself (the actual product) , but through social media.

Social media can help to augment book products. What do we mean by augment? In Marketing Management, Philip Kotler explains that 3 levels of product exist: the core product, the actual product and the augmented product.

The augmented product is the value-added product;  this includes the  services and experiences that enhance a physical good. Social media is a tool that can  help augment books because it provides a way to supply additional content, experiences and services in an interactive and inclusive manner. But what forms of social media are most relevant for adding value to young adult fiction?

Games

According to Gamification expert, Gabe Zichermann, the use of game-based thinking and dynamics in a non-game context can engage individuals. This is particularly true with books, as these products already come with a game element: narrative. Virtual gaming worlds can draw younger audiences into stories by literally placing them within the context of the story and letting them experience the events described.

By using games to market books, publishers co-created value with their young audiences: children and teens can receive a more interactive and involved experience of a book, while publishers can market the book in a  more enticing manner to customers.  Publishers can also find out about their audiences' preferences from games and use this to inform other marketing activities.

Case Study: Harry Potter e-books enhanced through co-creating value with Pottermore

Harry Potter has been a phenomenally successful series, due largely to its imaginative world-building, relatable characters and good writing. However, social media has also helped to augment the series and propel sales.

J.K Rowling recently updated the Harry Potter website into Pottermore, an interactive social gaming and networking site. As well as providing a 'thank you' gift to fans, this was developed to sell Harry Potter e-books directly to readers (bypassing e-retailers such as Amazon).

From a marketing perspective, Pottermore has been a smart way of augmenting the Harry Potter e-books. Without Pottermore, there might have been less appeal for the products as most fans already own several copies of story. Some fans had also drifted away from the series altogether since its completion. However, by creating an interactive game world based on the series, Rowling created a more engaging experience of the story which drew readers back towards the books again. With an exclusive 'first million' entrants limitation into the new gaming world, the site diffused quickly, bringing back many old readers and therefore, consumers.

By placing users of the site at the centre of the story, Pottermore allowed fans to experience the narrative from the first book as a character themselves. This created nostalgia, which was fuelled by interaction between fans within the Pottermore gaming world.

But was this successful for e-book sales? ...Well, e-book sales topped 1 million pounds within 3 days according to The Guardian: Furthermore, it increased the sales of her physical books too. By augmenting the reading experience for her fans through game, Rowling was able to co-create value which led to benefits for her book sales as well.

Content communities

According to Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haelein in  'Users if the world, Unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media', content communities allow for the sharing of media between users. Content communities can augment books by offering a platform to  co-create value: by providing fans a space to produce fan-art, authors can gain additional advertising material and learn about what interests their audiences.

  

Case Study: Facebook games, Deviantart, Pinterest and Tumblr to enhance Legend

Legend is a series of dystopian teen novels written by an author called Marie Lu. While Legend does not have a fan base quite as big as Harry Potter, it has become a New York Times Best-seller.

This is may be due to Lu's interesting writing style, but also to her use of social media to augment the book experience for fans. Lu has highly active Twitter and Facebook pages (with an online game where players are characters in the dystopian world of the story). In addition, she also reaches out to fans via content communities. On Pinterest and Deviantart, Lu provides supplementary content to her book series, including ideas that inspired her stories and artworks based on her characters.

  

 Facebook game:

 

Pinterest inspiration folders:

Fans are also able to create fan-art and send it to Lu, who shares it on her Tumblr page (a creative blogging platform) and Deviantart profile (art creation and sharing community). She not only re-blogs these pieces, but also compliments fans on their artwork. These content communities  help co-create value with fans in two ways: They can gain supplementary information to the story from the author. In additional, they can share their own art-work and interact with an artist they value. In turn, Marie Lu gains additional ways to promote her books series and find out what interests fans.

Tumblr page:

  

This brings me to the end of this post. Are you fans of any book series that rely on social media to bring the reading experience to life for you?

Key points to take away from this post:

• Social media can augment products, particularly books, by providing a platform for co-creating value between customers and producers.
• Games and content communities provide interaction for non-interactive products like books.
• Both games and content communities can help to bring stories to life for books. This co-creates value with young generations, who seek a higher level of engagement in their entertainment.