PSFK: In Brazil, These Books Double as Subway Tickets

Ticket Books function as a train ride pass and aim to encourage reading in Brazil.

by Leah Gonzalez
23 November 2015

People only read an average of about two books a year in Brazil. To promote reading, Brazil’s biggest pocket book publisher L&PM Editores created a collection of small paperbacks that also work as subway tickets.

L&PM worked with Agência Africa to create the Ticket Books, a collection of ten books with RFID cards built inside the book covers. The hidden RFID cards made the pocket books readable by the turnstile scanners at the subway. Agency Africa also worked with Via Quatro, the company that manages the subways, so that the Ticket Books can be made available at the turnstiles at the subway stations.

To celebrate World Book Day last April 23rd, L&PM gave away 10,000 books for free at subway stations across Sao Paulo. Each book came with ten free trips. When all ten trips have been used up, users can recharge them via the Ticket Books website and use them again or gift them to a friend to encourage even more people to read. The project was so successful that L&PM expanded the project to other cities in Brazil.

The Ticket Books collection included ten titles: Peanuts: Friendship. That’s What Friends Are For by Charles M. Schulz, Garfield: Sorry by Jim Davis, Hundred Love Sonnets by Pablo Neruda, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Art of War by Sun Tzu, Sherlock Holmes: The Hound of Baskerville by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Murder Alley by Agatha Christie, Chives In Trouble! by Mauricio de Sousa, and Quintana Pocket by Mario Quintana. The books also featured cover art inspired by subway maps.

The Ticket Books campaign was awarded three trophies at the Cannes Lions Festival – Silver Lion for the category Promo, Silver Lion for the category Outdoor, and a Bronze Lion for the category Design.

Source: PSFK

Images: L&PM Editores