Why Juggernaut #ReadInstead is a great consumer experience.

By | 09/06/2021
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#ReadInstead by Juggernaut
something every short story lover would appreciate.

Juggernaut, the publishers, during the lockdown, ran an interesting campaign- #ReadInstead. The idea – instead of getting bored during Lockdown, read books. It was simple to join and well-executed.

Every day, it delivered a fresh free short story on the Juggernaut app at 7 PM. The story was available to you FREE to download and read in the next 24 hours.

A weekly email announced stories of the  Free Short Stories in the coming week. The app reminded me when it was available to download and read. Each story took around 15-20 minutes to read.

cover of the 30 stories I read on Juggernaut app under their #ReadInstead program
The 30 stories I read on Juggernaut under #ReadInstead

#READINSTEAD WORKED ON MULTIPLE LEVELS.

I loved this simplistic programme, as it worked on multiple levels.

  1. Juggernaut app downloads increase. It collected data for future marketing of publishing programme. 
  2. Juggernaut got live data on the changing reader profile and interest.
  3. Readers exposed to many new authors every day and that came free.
  4. Readers got a first-hand experience of online reading.
  5. Hopefully, it helped to inculcate reading habits.
  6. Readers could appreciate the art and power of engaging short stories.
  7. Reader exposed to books on the app.

I think it was a successful initiative; even though I have no data on increased app downloads or the percentage of the readers visiting and reading the short stories every day, 

One of the readers, Rakshesh (@ORDX), commented, ‘I could not read the initial stories, but I think I read almost all the stories from the second week onwards. It was a good initiative. Some well-known authors mixed with not-so-familiar ones. So I got to know about them, and I can explore their work further. Short Story is a medium that I often use to know the writer’s style. So if I find it comfortable, then I try to find out about his / her other works… it helped me know about a couple of writers. … It was an interesting program, and it certainly brought joy for an avid reader like me. Who doesn’t like a good story!‘

MY EXPERIENCE WITH JUGGERNAUT #READINSTEAD

There must be a sound logic behind new stories uploaded at 7 PM every day. I would have preferred the new stories uploaded in the morning. 

Juggernaut books rightly did not focus on a genre every week. It could have resulted in a hyper dose of short stories on a particular genre and only interest a subset of the audience, leading to a break in reading.  

The only flaw (personal POV) was the stories mix throughout the week. Sometimes, old classics followed one after another. At times contemporary authors came as a swarm. Sometimes, stories from the same genre were repeated one after the other. 

Given a chance, I would have better mixed the genre through the week and alternated between classic and old writers with the fresh-contemporary writers. Having said that, I did enjoy rereading the classics and diligently followed the program. And completed reading 30 short stories in 30 days.   

Personally, Juggernaut did add to my comfort with online reading. I have read many books like HALF THE NIGHT IS GONE, Amitabha Bagchi, Sanjay Dutt- the story of Bollywood’s Bad Boy, TRIED AND TWISTED – EROTICA, I Am a TROLL, and many more on the app.  

Juggernaut, thank you for the #ReadInstead initiative. I continue to read a new short story FREE every day.

BLOG/042/2021
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