Yes, we used to charge for public library cards in Edmonton. No, we didn’t like it. And in 2013 we changed it. As a birthday gift to all Edmontonians during our Centennial, EPL took the bold step of giving up $700,000 in annual revenue to make library cards free for all. But we knew making library cards free wasn’t good enough. We needed to think big, be bold, create demand and generate buzz if we had any chance of meeting our audacious 2011-2013 business plan goal of doubling active library card holders over our 2010 benchmark. We saw two significant opportunities to drive demand for free library cards. The first was leveraging the personality of our brand to create clear, clever messages to help spread the word with the broader community. Advertising, in-branch promotion and media engagement would help us create broad interest and awareness in the community, but to drive action we had to take it a step further. We needed to make it easy, simple, maybe even a bit brainless to get a library card – especially for those thousands of people who hadn’t used the library since they were children. We needed to actively take our messages, our staff and our free library cards outside our walls, off our website, and into the hands of Edmontonians where they were.

EPL’s brand is built on smart, simple language and bold color, and is echoed in the free library card campaign. We took three common phrases with the word “free” and replaced it with the phrase “free library card.”

The phrases were:

• The best things in life are “FREE library card!”
• Buy (n)one, get one “FREE library card!”
• Young, wild and “FREE library card!”

Paid advertising including out-of-home (transit) online, broadcast and print; EPL electronic spaces (social media, website, newsletter); and promotional materials all showcased this common call to action.

To encourage action, we created a membership drive team to develop the partnerships and process to sign up new members outside our walls. Building off of the trendy “pop-up” approach many retailers and restaurants are using, EPL identified key locations where Edmontonians congregate and reached out to convince them of the benefits of having EPL “pop-up” onsite to share free library cards. With the potential for multiple Pop-Up EPL locations running at the same time around our city, the team recruited passionate and outgoing staff to join EPL Street Teams. Each team was comprised of three to five staff from across our 17 locations with the sole purpose of actively promoting EPL and free library cards.

To simplify the membership process, EPL Street Teams were equipped with laptops with secure connectivity to EPL’s ILS, as well as paper forms that staff could use to capture customer data, verify identification and issue a library card on the spot. As a result staff could easily sign people up for library cards with no waiting to get or use your library card.

On March 13, 2013 we launched our free library card campaign and Pop-Up EPL membership drives. The combination of fun, fresh awareness generation and action-oriented membership drives worked. We were popular. Everywhere you turned you could see and hear about EPL including over 40 unique stories on every major local media outlet. Memberships grew from a daily average of 150-200 to 4,545 on March 13, 2013 and by year end we had a staggering 40% increase in membership over the previous year. While we didn’t meet our audacious goal of 100% increase over 2010, we came really close at a mammoth 70% increase. The first Pop-Up membership drive generated 718 library cards between three locations in a three-hour time window. Over a seven-month period Pop-Up EPL drives were held at 52 locations around the city. Whether it was the international airport, shopping centres, the zoo, office towers, farmers markets, subway stations, festivals or parades, over 4000 Edmontonians were connected from outside the library to their free library card. The numbers were fantastic and so was the feedback. Staff at Pop-Up locations resolved account issues, provided technology tutorials and delivered on-the-spot programming. At one office tower a customer shared “Thanks for coming to me. I haven’t had a library card in decades. I am thrilled to get my library card again!” At a seniors forum a lady shared “EPL is just like a candy store – you have so many choices!” Getting outside our walls helped bring people back to the library.