Jacksonville Public Library: Card Campaign Case Study
Over the past few years, the Jacksonville Public Library system has seen continued decreases in their state and federal funding. Since 2005, the budget for books and materials has decreased 31%. With the library anticipating even further reductions for their programs and services, it became even more critical to raise awareness about the programs and services offered by the library, and the value that these programs and services bring to diverse communities across Duval County. The Jacksonville Public Library system engaged Brunet-García to create a campaign promoting the library card usage and all the services offered to library cardholders.
Target Market
- Library users and non-users
- Government agencies and elected officials
- Library staff and other city employees
- Donors and potential donors
Marketing Challenges and Objectives
- Develop an impactful campaign with a limited media budget
- Increase awareness and perceived value of services and programs offered by the JPL system by leveraging a year-long library card campaign
- Educate and engage staff members in the library card campaign
- Leverage enhanced awareness to increase gate count and circulation figures among new and current users
- Leverage enhanced awareness to build community partnerships and donors for all JPL programs and services
Public Relations
Your Ticket to _______.
Brunet-García used the library card as the consumers “ticket to” anywhere the library services can take them. The library card can be a user’s ticket to travel through novels, college through tutoring, entertainment through dvds, guitar lessons through instructional classes at the library or family bonding through story time. Brunet-García commissioned local artists to create their visual of “Your Ticket to…” headlines crafted by the agency. The ads featured a photo of a person using an actual library service in an imagined environment created by the artists. Duval County residents were invited to share how the library was their ticket to through a variety of mediums including in-branch displays, blogs, and posters.
Public relations efforts were an integral part of the campaign due to a very limited advertising and promotions budget. Brunet-García developed a comprehensive public outreach and public relations plan for the library to implement. The plan included outreach to the community through the librarians at events both in library branches and out in the community, working campaign messaging into library programs, outreach to local schools, and “Your Ticket to…” in branch activities. The library launched the campaign with a public event featuring the campaign artists. The library kept in contact with the media through the duration of the campaign updating them on campaign successes, customer testimonials, and new developments at the library.
Campaign Results
- The library issued 28,123 library cards during the year of the campaign, more than double the amount issued during the same time frame in the previous year
- Usage of the library website was up 15% compared to the same timeframe the year prior to the campaign
