With plans to invest 500 million euro in data network infrastructure but with Romanians still preferring voice communication, Vodafone needed to promote mobile internet trial.

To get Romanians to try it, we created a product that would fit into people’s every day lives: the first digital public library in Romania, an out of home product that combines mobile technology and free education.

The idea was simple: we printed the walls of public places, subways and train stations with gigantic posters of QR code labeled books. People could scan the codes and download them for free using mobile internet.

What seemed like a simple out of home solution, immediately became a media and social media phenomenon: student communities created reading events in our public libraries, the only Romanian literature Nobel prize nominee was part of the first digital book signing in one of our stores, tutorials about reading books on mobiles appeared on public televisions and the ministry of education met with us to discuss the possibility of getting our library into the public school system.

Hundreds of local and international newspapers saluted the initiative, TV news reported about the events in our libraries, we had three times more downloaded books than the biggest e-shop in Romania, reached the highest level of brand buzz for a telecom operator in Romania.

The Digital Public Library was the perfect product to promote the mobile Internet trial by creating a new social habit in Romania: reading from smartphones and tablets.

3 times more downloaded books than the biggest e-books retailer in Romania

61,228,185 media impressions

440,074 Euros worth of earned media

52% brand buzz, the highest level of buzz registered for a telecom company in Romania in 2012.