The Underground Book Club, a project of Attack!, is based on the idea that people who love books and love using social media can create serious buzz for new titles. It grew out of Rare Bird Literary Events & Promotions and author Karen Essex approaching Attack! with “limited budget, limited time, but want[ing] to make a big impact for the upcoming release…” of Essex’s Dracula in Love. To make it happen, Attack! created the Underground Book Club, an online brand ambassador program that combines the reach of social media influencers with the creativity of immersive media.

Andrew Loos, CXO at Attack!, sat down with “Murray Newlands” to talk a little about the Underground Book Club, online brand ambassadors, what immersive media is, and how they got a 9.2% click thru rate.

A few interview excerpts:

So what is the Underground Book Club?
“We wanted to start with taking the concept of the traditional book club, deconstructing it, and then building it back up with immersive media and social media. The fuel for that is the right people. I think everybody’s got a network of people, I think everybody has great reach. As far as identifying the perfect people who love that service, topic, genre, thing- whatever it is you’re talking about- if you can find them and then give this experience, that’s where you’re going to get results.”

What is immersive media anyway?
“We engaged with [readers] daily in conversations in our social community. We had the author set up one on six tele-conference calls so they could ask questions. We had characters from the story, voice-over actors, call people as they were reading it and give them very cryptic, fun messages. We really made people feel like they were part of this thing, and in return we ended up getting real conversations.”

Why does Loos think this worked?
“We found enthusiasts, we found social media junkies, and then we gave them something they already loved and let them do the rest. And what we got back was incredible.”

To dig up more, visit The Underground Book Club or read their case study: http://slidesha.re/UGBCdracula