POPLAR Publishing Co., Ltd. is a leading independent publisher of children and adult's books in Japan. The company hosts a series of events called “POPLIVE”. Among them, there is “Tōshokan Marché (Libraries Marché), an online event for librarians.
Due COVID-19 pandemic, the company’s offline event, which was a place for providing and exchanging information for librarians, was suspended, but the issue about how to deliver information to customers in the future remained.
The company has been trying for many years to find out how to reach customers nationwide, now even with less resources than before the pandemic, and increase sales.
After many years of trial and error, the company saw this as an opportunity to hold online events for schools and public librarians nationwide.
・ POPLAR Publishing Co., Ltd.'s new releases overview
・ (First Event) Round-table discussion with librarians with case studies
・ (Second event) Measures for SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) in schools
・ Interactive session with experts in school education
・ How to make a POP book in libraries
1) Management of online events using Zoom Webinar
・ Zoom setting support, Webinar pre-settings and broadcasting support
2) Arrangement of recording studio and equipment rental
・ Using Bigbeat’s recording studio “Rockup! Studio”
POPLAR Publishing Co., Ltd.’s online events had a very high participation rate (around 70-80%) and the events attracted the attention not only from customers, but also from other companies in the same industry. Both the company and the participants were very satisfied by the events, that also got brilliant results.
Due to COVID-19 pandemic, the physical exhibitions and events have been suspended and obtaining information has become even more difficult. However, thanks to these online events, customers had the chance to get information directly from the publisher and their level of satisfaction was very high: the survey registered 4.5 points over 5 in terms of customer satisfaction.
1) The level of satisfaction was one of the performance indicators for these events, and the great result obtained has been very satisfying.
2) Thanks to these online events, POPLAR Publishing Co., Ltd. was able to directly introduce their products to the end users, whom otherwise would have been hardly reached, due to distance or restrictions. There are 30,000 librarians at elementary and junior high schools nationwide, and POPLAR Publishing Co., Ltd. is an event with a lot of room for growth.
It was the first online event for POPLAR Publishing Co., Ltd. and it was organized in just one month. Bigbeat's proposals and the speed of response was so fast, that this grasped the intention of POPLAR Publishing Co., Ltd.’s request and the events could be held successfully.
According to POPLAR Publishing Co., Ltd., online events are a means of new development, not a substitute for the physical ones. “Tōshokan Marché (Libraries Marché)” was aimed to librarians, but the company would like to develop “POPLIVE” events and targeting them to various people, such as boards of education, or people related to ICT for Local Governments (i.e., education system which uses ICT).
In this way, POPLAR Publishing Co., Ltd. is planning to develop new projects not only for librarians, but also for various target audiences nationwide. The aim is to take the present as an opportunity and go ahead keeping an eye focusing on the future.
