The quality of Wollongong City Council’s Library Service marketing acumen has been recognised, with Wollongong winning one of only two highly commended awards in the NSW Public Libraries 2011 Marketing Awards.
Wollongong’s “Free and Easy” Library promotional campaign, which was designed in-house by Council’s Marketing Unit, included posters, internet, and other materials that highlighted the broad range of services offered through our city libraries. The campaign even took to the streets, with bus advertising being used to drive the message home.
Council’s Manager of Community Cultural and Library Services, Jenny Thompson said that Wollongong Libraries catered for more than 309,000 visitors a year in 2010/2011 - a five per cent increase on previous figures, which she attributed to the campaign.
“The Free and Easy campaign was designed to encourage members of the community to use our fantastic, free city libraries,” Ms Thompson said.
“The campaign came about following research that we undertook that showed that many community members valued our library but were not using it as they might, because they believed they could get what they needed through the internet. Many people also did not know that most library services are free.
“We developed the campaign to highlight Wollongong City Library’s less well-known services, such as community information services, world language collections, online information, and HSC information. Of course our libraries also offer books, DVDs, music, internet, Wi-Fi, kids activities and all are free and easy to use.”
This is the tenth year of the NSW Marketing Awards for Public Libraries, and a record number of entries were received – 47 from across NSW. The entries reflect the breadth of service that NSW public libraries deliver to their communities.
The 2011 Awards were divided into four categories - Services, Programs, Use of Social Media and Events, and entries were judged on innovation, community impact, collaboration and design.
For more information why not visit a Council library at Wollongong, Corrimal, Thirroul, Warrawong, Dapto, Unanderra, or Helensburgh. You can also visit our website but it’s not as much fun as going to a library.