The Hook: Planning a Sellable Event

One thing we’ve discovered when planning large events is that big events need a hook. The “hook” is the thing that reels people in – a super-cool activity, or a chance to win a great prize, or a pre-existing notion that the event is fun. Let me offer some examples:

At the library’s Comic-Con, our “hook” is the pre-conceived notion that a Comic-Con is cool. Our target audience already knows what a Comic-Con is, and they already think a Comic-Con is cool, so we don’t have to sell the idea. We just have to let people know when it is, and make sure that the publicity supports their idea of it.

At our library’s annual Teen Read Week Masquerade, we have to go one step further. Nobody knows what a “Teen Read Week Masquerade” is or what it looks like, so at the same time that we’re spreading information about our event, we also have to sell the IDEA of our event. Our hook is the prizes. We heavily advertise our grand prize, which is usually a tablet, and the winner must be present to win. In addition, we give away books to EVERY attendee. Between the chance to win a terrific prize, and the guarantee of free books, we are able to incentivize attendance in a significant way. Of course, the prizes don’t provide the fun – our activities provide the fun. The prizes just offer a hook.

A hook provides an entry point, something to make people take notice and say to themselves, “Hey, maybe I should go to that!” You’ve got to have it, and you’ve got to plan it. The best promotions in the world won’t get good attendance unless your event has an easily-stated, easily-understood selling point. “Lots of cool activities” won’t do it – not even if you actually do have lots of really cool activities. Our Dia de los Ninos event struggles every year, and it’s because no one knows what it is, and nothing that happens there is quite enough to change people’s indifference into interest.

The larger lesson here is a familiar one: marketing begins in the planning stages, not in the promotion stages. You’ve got to know what you’re selling, and you have to be sure that people want it.

Advertising Electronic Resources: What's the Problem?

A week ago, I was asked to start revamping the electronic resources - to come up with a way to "make it so people want to use them." ("Electronic Resources" are the databases that the library subscribes to.)

So I sit down and take a look at the electronic resources page. How should these be organized? Alphabetically? By subject? Actually, we already have them arranged in both those ways. Yet I agree, the electronic resources page is hard to use. What does it need? A better system of visual organization? Different subject categories? My brainstorming was getting me nowhere. I tried picturing myself as a user, visiting the electronic resources page - what would I want to see?

I ran into some trouble at that point: I had no idea what these databases were, or how to use them, or who used them, and for what. I decided to spend a few minutes getting some basic familiarity with this resource. After all, I've been working at the library for five years. I should probably know how to use this service that we're always talking so much about.

FAIL. I spent maybe half an hour trying to figure the bloody things out. I couldn't find a darn thing that seemed even remotely useful or interesting. I'm pretty interested in psychology - specifically evolutionary psychology - and linguistics, and I though maybe I could find some interesting articles to read? Nothing. I tried to think of other things to look up. I went to the kids section and looked up bats; it was WAY less informative than your average internet search. I browsed around, looking for anything that might be remotely interesting. I got absolutely nowhere.

Now, maybe there's something for me in the electronic resources, and maybe there isn't. But how am I supposed to find out?

The problem here, I realized, was not the way the lists were arranged. Adding graphics and visualizations was not going to help. The problem is that most people do not know how to use these resources. I'm a smart, library-literate, net-savvy person. I'm sure that other people are just as confused as me when it comes to the electronic resources, if they ever even venture to that section of the website in the first place.

It's a mixed-blessing realization, because now I'm going to need to find someone to write an "introduction to the electronic resources," along with some user-friendly instructions. I'm pretty sure this will end up looking like a bigger overhaul than my bosses had in mind. Don't be surprised if the only change we end up seeing is some new color-coded organization and a banner advertising a "featured resource." At least I tried.