Penguin Random House regularly use our branded takeaway coffee cups to showcase new titles to the army of avid book readers that inhabit our network of independent coffee shops. They promoted One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus in Coffee Shops across London when the paperback was first released last year, and now PRH have followed up with a second burst of branded coffee cups promoting the same title on audiobook, including a QR code giving interested consumers the opportunity to listen to an audio extract of the book on their phone.

As non-traditional media specialists, we love it when clients add a little ingenuity to their campaigns. With so many of our formats delivered to consumers on the move, the integration of a mobile touchpoint like QR is inspired. With QR readers now built into the cameras of most smartphones, there’s no longer the need to download yet another unwanted app, making this a truly frictionless method of engagement with digital content.

Considering so many of us now listen to music or podcasts whilst we’re on the move, multi-tasking as we grab our daily coffee to go, this is the perfect opportunity to drive instant engagement with content in a relevant way, at a relevant moment in time. Adding a QR code costs absolutely nothing – yet it catapults a static format into the world of integrated media allowing consumers to experience content in a way that lights up the senses.

Coffee cups offer a personal one to one communication that is tactile and associated with pleasure, add to that the power of speech directly into the ears of the consumer and you can literally envelope them in your story on a multi-sensory level, with sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch all stimulated at the same time.

What a powerful tool for publishers to get consumers interested in a title.

Click here to listen to the extract.