Skip Navigation

Back to Navigation

2026 Summer Challenge

← Back
Pro tip: Use "title:keyword" or "library:keyword" to limit to that specific field

2026 Summer Challenge

Las Vegas-Clark County Library District

Advocacy & Awareness | 2026

Innovation Synopsis

The Las Vegas-Clark County Library District transformed a familiar summer reading program into a record-setting initiative in 2026. The Community Engagement, Library Operations, and Branding & Marketing teams collaborated on a new strategy that re-ignited excitement with a simplified structure and new community partnerships and rewards. All of this was underscored by a major marketing investment in a massive direct mail campaign. Using library marketing firm OrangeBoy, we targeted low-income, non-cardholder, Spanish-and English-speaking households with kids by cross-referencing our existing cardholder addresses with U.S. Census data. This produced a robust mailing list of 150,000 households to which we sent our eye-catching multi-paneled Summer Challenge brochure, followed by a reminder postcard, both in English and Spanish. The result was a measurable and unprecedented community response, including a 47% year-over-year increase in program participation.

Challenge/Opportunity

For 30+ years, the Library District’s Summer Challenge has become a reliable solution for parents and caregivers of young children. Although the program evolved over time, participation remained largely unchanged. To prepare for the 2026 program, the three teams redesigned the program based on customer and staff feedback, and these questions:

1 Who is our core target audience? Low-income Spanish-and English-speaking HH with kids who are not already library customers

2 What is the best way to communicate with them? A direct-mail campaign

3 How do we incentivize them to participate? Guaranteed prizes for signing up and achieving milestones and an easy-to-understand program

With these three elements in mind, we rebuilt the program with a simplified structure, new community partners who offered exciting rewards and prizes, and a multichannel marketing strategy based on robust direct-mail outreach to a wide swath of HH that fit our core audience.


Key Elements of Innovation

Planning: Internal teams developed the theme, brochure & messaging; simpler shorter program; guaranteed earned rewards added; mid-summer reminder events scheduled; new partners: Wingstop, Pizza Hut, Freed’s Bakery, Cowabunga Bay Water Park, Lee Canyon Ski Resort, Las Vegas Motor Speedway

Marketing: In-house team develops creative for exterior signage, flyers, posters, webpage, postcards, social media, ads, and bilingual collateral; direct-mail campaign targets our most important audience with a bilingual brochure

Early Registration: Weekly PR, ad & social campaigns launch; bilingual Summer Challenge brochure mailed; webpage live; signage & collateral distributed

Launch: PR & ads promote unique branch events, reading milestones, age-tailored staff lists, online scavenger hunt

Mid-Summer Events: Audience-specific emails sent to cardholders; direct-mail postcard reminder sent; opportunity to win speedway or chairlift tickets

Final Call to Action: There’s still time to win!


Achieved Outcomes

Direct Mail: 150,000 low-income, Spanish-and English-speaking HH

Public Relations: 14 stories with a total of 23 hits

Mobile Ad Impressions: 754,000

With the substantial direct-mail deployment, our target audience – non-cardholder parents & caregivers of kids & teens – discovered us through their home mailboxes creating a more personal connection. Reinforced by mobile ads, social media, news coverage & paid advertising.

Web Page Sessions: 97,396 (+45.3% YoY)

All collateral materials, ads, email marketing & media coverage drove to our website.

Targeted Email Open Rate: 47%

Summer Challenge Registrations: 26,241 (+47% YoY)

Summer Challenge Completions: 10,822 (+185.4% YoY)

Results: Record-smashing registrations & completions plus awareness by new partners. Several sponsors committed to the 2027 program after seeing increased participation, brand visibility, and media exposure.


Supporting Materials:


Visit Website