KUWAIT: (From left) Kuwaiti author Ahmad Al-Haider, the lecture's moderator Hussein Ibrahim, and founder of Huroof Cultural Center Razan Al-Marshad. - KUNA

KUWAIT: Participants in the 43rd Kuwait International Book Fair (KIF-2018) on Friday reviewed ways to draw on Kuwait's experiment in online marketing. Traditional marketing of books and pre-paid ads are no longer effective in nowadays world where the internet, virtual communities and social networking website guide the readers' choices, they agreed at a lecture, held on the sidelines of KIF in collaboration with the Arab Publishers Association.

In his speech, Ahmad Al-Haider, a Kuwaiti author and co-founder of the online publishing house Platinum Book, attributed the massive spread of electronic marketing to the accelerated development of information and communications technology. The majority of prestigious publishing houses realized the declining influence of overt or covert pre-paid ads and turned to the social networking websites, he said.

The Kuwaiti publishing houses were among the earliest ones which realized the need to use online marketing to reach out to larger audience and new customers, thus reviving the book market, Haider pointed out. While marketing their books, the Kuwaiti publishers targeted celebrated intellectuals, popular bloggers and web activists, making overtures to them and offering them books free of charge, he added.

Razan Al-Marshad, founder of Huroof Cultural Center, a Kuwaiti online service, said the online marketing made great success in Kuwait thanks to the spread of web activism and easy access to social networking websites. However, there is a gap between the intelligentsia and ordinary readers, which gave rise to a problem in online marketing; a certain community could find a book suitable while others think otherwise, she noted.

While marketing their books online, Kuwaiti publishers had to work on two parallel lines, one targeting the intelligentsia and the other ordinary readers, Marshad added. At the end of the lecture, participants appreciated Kuwait's experiment and voiced hope for benefiting from it. Opened on November 14, KIF 2018 continues until November 24 with representatives of 505 publishing houses from 26 countries taking part. - KUNA