Nothing unlocks the power of imagination better than a good book. In Amazon Books' new campaign, “That Reading Feeling Awaits”, created by Droga5 London, the brand shows how books combined with imagination can bring a story to life and aims to inspire readers to read more and get more out of what they read.

The new global campaign aims to celebrate the place of books at the foundation of culture. At a time when people are sinking more time into streaming and scrolling, books continue to hold a unique position. Reading remains one of the most important ways to share stories across cultures and generations cultivating a greater insight and understanding of one another based on empathy. “That Reading Feeling Awaits,” is designed to enchant the world with books and showcase this unique relationship.

“There’s a magic to reading that modern-day media like streaming or scrolling simply can’t replicate.” explained Matt Hubbard, Creative Director, Droga5, “An intimate relationship between reader and writer, books unlock myriad feelings from joy to sadness to having your mind blown and everything in between. In a world of fast content, diving into a good book has never felt so rewarding.”

The campaign features six different films entitled; ‘That reading feeling’, ‘Awe’, ‘Love’, ‘Fear’, ‘Loss’, ‘Calm’. Each film heroes the unique relationship a reader has with the book they’re engrossed in. The films start positioned on the reader before flipping to their perspective and showing the world of the book come to life where they are.

The hero film combines the five different scenes, stitching together the different genres and bringing them to life. This shows a diverse cross-section of people, places and feelings, showing how diverse literature can be and that there is truly something for everyone. Five post-houses were onboarded to authentically bring to life a chosen genre and were not tasked with any other scene outside their own.

In addition to the films, social and out-of-home assets have been created that pair simple photography of a reader behind their book with their illustrated thoughts jumping off the page. The assets bring to life the magic of reading and feature the inner monologue of different readers responding to their books.  

Over 20 different illustrators were briefed to give variety and distinction to the social and OOH assets. Each illustrator was briefed with just the book genre and their specific word or illustration to ensure that a wide variety of rich styles were created, mirroring the multifaceted and unique experience of reading.

“Reading feels so special because it’s a co-production between a book and our imagination. We wanted to show what this feels like, that while reading looks passive from the outside the feelings it creates in us are richly multi-layered. We worked with 17 different illustrators to create an eclectic treatment that combined vivid textures with the free-wheeling feel of user-generated content.” added Chris Chapman, Head of Design Droga5.

The campaign will also extend across social activity via a bespoke sticker pack and emojis that have been created to allow people to share their love of reading across social platforms. The stickers were co-created by a collective of talented artists, including Dan Woodger, Mat Voyce, Loulou Joao and YONK. 

These stickers will be promoted by leading influencers on BookTok with a ‘that reading feeling’ challenge that encourages the public to post their favourite book, with the animated stickers to help bring the feeling to life. 

The campaign successfully amplifies the unique feeling that books can give and shows a deep understanding of the audience encouraging them to reflect on their own experiences of reading and share their love to extend the reach.