• by Ken Liebeskind , June 28, 2001

You frequently see ads for Book-of-the-Month Club in The New York Times Book Review, but the latest ad format for the nation's largest book club is Gizmoz.

Bookspan, the Bertelsmann AG/AOL Time Warner joint venture that owns BOMC and 47 other book clubs, including Literary Guild and Quality Paperback Book Club, began testing the new online ad format yesterday. I-traffic, the company's interactive agency, created the ad and made the buy.

Gizmoz are "smart envelopes" that can carry all kinds of content, from rich media created with Java, Flash or Shockwave to html to a static gif. The envelopes can be sent via email, which is what Bookspan is doing, Instant messaging or placed on Web sites. A highlight is that the material on a Gizmo can be updated after it's been received, giving marketers the opportunity to introduce new offers.

Bookspan is sending a Gizmo to 100,000 names on a list it purchased. It starts with the line, "Whatever you read, it's on sale here," and zips to a menu of book topics that can be clicked to learn about 17 of the company's book clubs. A variety of book clubs were offered because "you don't have the tight demographics on the names and multiple offerings casts a wider net," says Ron Kovas, president of i-traffic.

When individual book club names are clicked, users go to a Web site where they can order memberships. As the different steps in the Gizmo proceed, a picture of a book with pages flipping quickly appears on the screen.

Kovas calls Gizmoz a very interesting concept and is especially excited about the ability to update the content, which makes it "a direct pipeline to customers."

He calls the campaign a test, unsure whether it will work and whether he'll use it again for Bookspan or other clients. I-traffic has worked with Bookspan since 1998 testing a variety of creative formats and sites. Incentive sites like Mypoints.com and Cybergold.com that award premiums with purchases have been used. A campaign utilizing content as well as advertising on Blackplanet.com to promote Black Expressions, an African American book club, was also tried.

The campaign is the latest for Gizmoz, which launched the format last year and has achieved early success with campaigns for The WB network, Toyota, 1800flowers.com and Sony, which used it to promote three films, Final Fantasy, Joe Dirt and Saving Silverman.

The cost of Gizmoz can be two fold. If Gizmoz does the creative there is a fee for that. All clients pay a licensing fee for using Gizmoz. A flat fee for three or six month periods is charged for unlimited use although cost-per-click performance deals are also offered, according to coo Yossi Amossy.