Kids were addicted to screens and literacy is suffering as a result. As the country’s biggest retailer of children’s books, Big W needed to get screen-obsessed kids back into books.

Given the context of kids’ screen addictions, it could be assumed that parents would be seeking to limit screen time, but through qualitative research we discovered that parents were instead seeking ways to use screen time for constructive means. So we found a way to trojan-horse books back into kids lives, via their favourite entertainment format, screens. We partnered with singing social media sensation, Jessica Mauboy, and beatboxing YouTube star, Tom Thum to reimagine childrens’ books as original rap songs.

Given the context of kids’ screen addictions, it could be assumed that parents would be seeking to limit screen time, but through qualitative research we discovered that parents were seeking ways to use screen time for constructive means.

Our bullseye audience was parents of new and young families who were relishing small moments of bonding with their kids, while reconsidering the role of screen time. These parents no longer see screen time as a nemesis, but as a helpful sidekick.

Our strategic approach was to leverage parents’ changing attitudes towards screens by catapulting children’s books into the digital age.

Our media approach centred on digital, social and audio channels to capitalise on parents’ changing attitudes to screen time whilst also promoting and seeding the Rap Books videos. Contextual placements in these channels allowed Rap Books to be present and relevant in everyday family moments beyond the traditional evening story time.

We partnered with singer Jessica Mauboy, who has a highly engaged following on social media given her exponential rise to fame following her singing debut on Australian Idol. She is a passionate Indigenous Literacy Ambassador and a favourite amongst our audience.

We also partnered beatboxer, Tom Thum who has more traditional rap credentials. He is well-loved on YouTube and Instagram for his artistic talent as well as his playful, creative film production.

Together we created a series of content which reimagined favourite kids’ books as 4 full original rap songs and music videos - complete with earworm hooks and toe-tapping beats - which we released on Spotify, Youtube, Facebook and Instagram. Every listen/watch engaged the audience with books, but also impacted literacy directly as we donated royalties to the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation. The artists encouraged audiences to participate with our karaoke videos, spreading the idea even further.

This campaign resulted in unprecedented engagement for BIG W - Australians loved watching our Rap Books and making their own, so much so that they spent 4,335,475 minutes doing so. Overall campaign sentiment was at 100%+ and for every listen we donated royalties to our charity partner, the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation. And best of all, kids were asking to read again - in fact, Big W reported a 122% increase in book sales.