BookBeat Launches Big

BookBeat, the digital book service from Bonnier Books, is ramping up with a big campaign in Sweden and a launch in neighboring Finland. We talked with BookBeat CEO Niclas Sandin about the startup and what’s in store.

How have things gone so far following your beta launch last fall?
The early days for us were all about experimenting and learning new customer behaviors then developing out of that. Both in terms of improving the service but also in how we choose to market it to different kind of customers. Since we came out with it at the end of 2015 and in February opened the service to everyone, we’ve gotten several thousand users with a large part of them using BookBeat every day. That’s the best testimonial for how it’s gone: We’ve become part of people’s everyday life. So now we’re ready to take the next step and start with a broad launch.

What do customers get with BookBeat?
Thousands of books for all tastes, from new releases to classics. Always at your fingertips, never more than a click away. That’s something that should appeal to most people. For those who are curious, we of course offer a free trial, so you can get your own feeling for the service and the books available.

Tell us about the broad launch.
The focus will be on showing our great content and context- appropriate messages as we start becoming visible everywhere, in everything from TV ads, outdoor and subway advertising and above all, in digital marketing. We aim to answer the customer’s questions: “Do you have a book that I would like to listen to, and how we make it easy to do that as part of my everyday life?” We’ll be talking less about BookBeat itself and more about what we actually offer.

What about the launch in Finland?
Just as we did in Sweden, we’re taking the Finnish launch in stages. But we’re aiming to quicken the pace already during the summer once we’ve learned more about how customers perceive us as a service and how we can market ourselves in the best way. Finland is still a developing market in this area, and we want to be the leader from the get-go and drive development of the market.