Books – Communicate Online

The Magic of Mystery: How Blind Boxes Are Captivating Book Lovers in the UAE

Guest Author — Mon, 14 Jul 2025 12:17:09 +0000

One of the most captivating marketing trends currently winning hearts in the UAE is the element of mystery. This is clearly reflected in the popularity of Labubu, a brand that adds excitement to the buying experience by keeping customers guessing about which treasures they will receive turning every unboxing into a delightful surprise.

In the world of book lovers, mystery blind boxes are a beloved trend. Readers choose their favorite genres and purchase a curated set of 8 to 10 books, all packed into a single box. Based on the selected genres, booksellers carefully curate the titles, offering customers the thrilling anticipation of discovering which books they will find inside.

This captivating approach aligns with the Information Gap Theory of Curiosity, proposed by George Loewenstein in 1994. According to Loewenstein, curiosity arises when there is a gap between what people know and what they want to know, sparking an emotional and motivational drive to seek out the missing information. Today, marketers leverage this theory to craft messages that tease audiences without fully revealing key details, thereby encouraging greater engagement and exploration.

In conversation with Grace Karim, co-founder of Bookends, it was explained that the concept of mystery blind boxes at Bookends was inspired by a desire to reintroduce excitement and surprise into the book-buying experience. “The mystery book box taps into several emotional and practical motivations: the joy of surprise, the appeal of personalized discovery, the charm of gift-giving, and encouraging readers to explore a wider range of genres,” she shared.

Each box is carefully curated according to the customer’s preferred genres, with selections limited to Arabic and English titles. The goal is to ensure that every box feels thoughtfully tailored to individual tastes.

The element of mystery plays a powerful role in enhancing the overall experience. It transforms a simple purchase into an adventure, turning book buying from a transaction into a journey filled with curiosity, delight, and unexpected joy. Readers often find themselves deepening their connection with literature simply through the surprise element.

Customer reactions have been overwhelmingly positive. Many readers express genuine excitement over their discoveries, and some who have already read a book have even become resellers. Grace recounted one memorable story of a reader who had long wanted a specific title after hearing much about it only to find it unexpectedly included in their mystery box. “That kind of joy is difficult to replicate with conventional buying methods,” she added.

Balancing the mystery with customer satisfaction relies on a few key practices: understanding the target audience, selecting high-quality and relevant titles, using thoughtful packaging with personal touches like handwritten notes, and maintaining an open channel for continuous feedback. The result is a literary experience that is both engaging and deeply personal—one that keeps readers coming back for more.

Manju Moorthy, a passionate reader, shared, “Receiving a mystery box of books feels like opening a treasure chest filled with stories I never knew I needed. The surprise of discovering new authors and genres reignites my love for reading every time.”

In the literary world, this experience is often called a “blind date with a book.”

Goodbye Bookstagram, Hello BookTok

Guest Author — Mon, 19 Feb 2024 10:00:00 +0000

Photo Source: Instagram (@emirateslitfest)

The red-carpeted TikTok Book Awards Middle East and North Africa took place on 4 February 2024, in collaboration with the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature in Dubai. Drawing out resident creators in the region, book lovers won awards for showcasing their love of literature through their creation of creative content on TikTok. The event was the closing ceremony of the literary event, dropping the curtains on the 16^th edition of the festival responsible for uniting a variety of talents under one roof.

“The way we talk about books has evolved,” said Ahlam Bolooki, Director of the Emirates LitFest, and added that the festival recognizes the need to evolve with the changing times by focusing on where young people’s attention is. “The fact that book conversations are booming on Tiktok is a hopeful sign that the love of books is still very much alive and thriving,” says Ahlam.

Reader recommendations of the post-pandemic era have quickly evolved from the photo-limited Bookstagram to the worldwide community of Booktok, where users critically talk about books, obsess over and cosplay as their chosen characters, and recommend their favorite reads.

TikTok’s overarching reach into the publishing world is evident from the 28.3 million hashtags against Booktok – a community of book lovers that discusses everything from books, authors, and publishing, even including matters revolving around the political and personal views of authors.

Since its creation, there have been various subculture spaces under Booktok. Previous examples include the niche of 'aesthetics' such as #DarkAcademia (romanticizing the yearning for knowledge). The sepia-hued hashtag reawakened the popularity of Donna Tart’s The Secret History dubbed as the “true bible” of Dark Academia.

A recent, more revolutionary example is that of young people on BookTok picking up Islam’s sacred text, the Quran, to understand the resilience of the Muslim Palestinians despite facing genocide and having been under constant bombardment by US-backed Israeli bombs since October 2023.

In contrast to the MENA version, the first-ever award ceremony created for the Booktok community was the TikTok Book Awards UK and Ireland 2023. It was hosted in partnership with Wales’s Hay Festival of Literature and Arts and was a book-themed Oscars for authors, books, indie bookstores, and the top creator of the hashtag. Judges curated a list of candidates and the final decision was left to the public. The seven award categories included BookTok Book Of The Year, BookTok Author Of The Year, and BookTok Creator Of The Year, among others.

Photo Source: TikTok Newsroom

The MENA version had five winning categories for any creators who would tailor book content in the duration of two weeks for the award show: Best Book Reviewer, Best Arabic Book Reviewer, Best Author Creator, Best Bookstore Creator, and Best Book Artist.

The five winners corresponding to the respective categories were Toqa Hossam, Sara Islam, Abdullah Al Alawi, Kalemat, and Uzma Rahil.

The audience of the award show comprised of best-selling authors and about 50 content creators, among others. The Emirates LitFest is an internationally leading event and the largest in the MENA celebrating and forming a vital part of the region’s close-knit literary landscape, “Our festival is all about the community and that's the nature in which we celebrated the book talk awards as well,” says Ahlam Bolooki.

Omani youth ambassador, Omar al Balooshi, agrees that events such as the TikTok Book Awards encourage reading among young people. He was one of the many youth ambassadors attending the LitFest from the GCC and Arab countries including, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Bahrain.

An avid reader and student at Sultan Qaboos University, Omar says, “We are attending these sessions to know more about Arabic literature.” Omar, alongside his fellow youth ambassadors, stood up chanting “Arabi!” during the climax of the award show which featured performances by Emirati singer Abdullah Al Shamsi who chose to sing in English rather than Arabic.

Internationally best-selling romance author Cecelia Ahern was one of the judges of the ceremony and believes that it is important to have a vibrant book community on TikTok, “Anything that encourages more reading, I am in full support of. There are so many things for people to be doing now like [watching] movies, TV, and a million apps on their phone. We want people to read.”

Cecelia was awed by the creativity of the participants, “If BookTok is going to help you read more then so be it.”

The 4 Ways Print Publications Can Reinvigorate Their Offerings

Communicate Staff — Sun, 28 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

By Janet Levine

There’s no shortage of headlines about storied print publications scaling back or shutting down entirely. Ad Age, for one, called it a category in “secular decline” in its 2019 Publishers A-List.

From a media perspective, print publishers have a unique opportunity to reinvigorate their brands. If we treated these publishers the way we do clients, I’d tell them that they have storied legacies and enormous amounts of brand equity—what they need now is to evolve their offerings in a way that puts print in the center of a more disruptive offering. Here’s how:

Reimagine the bundle
Much has been said about publishers such as The New York Times and Scribd bundling their subscription services together. But this can go further, both in the breadth of publisher-to-publisher partnerships we see and, frankly, in expanding bundles beyond just publications.

What if a music magazine offered a full-year subscription that also unlocks a free month of Spotify premium? Or imagine if a beauty publication collaborated with Birchbox to unlock exclusive content, deeper discounts and limited-edition products. The same could be said if Bon Appetit or Travel & Leisure partnered with Try the World, a food subscription box. It’s a one-two punch for consumers: They get a better price and a different type of value. It doesn’t just have to be d-to-c brands that publishers partner with either, but think of these as a jumping-off point.

Beyond bundling, print publications can partner with other brands to develop surprising and creative uses of media. This past August, The New York Post published a cover wrap with nothing but the Supreme logo on the front. The issue sold out within hours and by 10:30 a.m. it was reselling on eBay for $12.

It might seem like lightning in a bottle, but it’s really a call for publishers to push the envelope. And you start by doing what we tell all of our clients to do: figure out where your consumers’ passion points lie, where they’re spending their time and how to get in on it.

Push print to be more high-tech
Nearly all smartphones have some sort of visual search capabilities embedded into their cameras. That means publishers now have the opportunity to make their pages interactive and shoppable. Users can scan a photo of a model to learn his or her backstory. Or scan a pair of jeans to see where to buy them online or where the nearest physical store is—and getting a big discount from the retailer in doing so. What’s key is giving people a real incentive.

Beyond digital integrations for the pages themselves, unsurprisingly, print franchises need to fully tap into the larger media ecosystem to survive. Follow the media consumption trends. An amazing print article cam be transcribed into an audio experience and pushed out in contextually relevant podcasts. A partner such as SpokenLayer can get that done. Or, see how The Atlantic works with Audm to recreate its print articles into audio stories.

Move beyond digital as well. For example, New York Magazine did a holiday pop-up store to promote The Strategist, its product recommendation vertical. It featured 250 picks from the magazine’s editors—and enabled the magazine to generate revenue from commission on the deals.

Your staff are influencers—treat them that way
How do print brands engage with their audiences in between on-sale dates? Websites and publisher social feeds aren’t enough. Work with your editors and best columnists to build them cult followings, and then maximize this talent across channels.

For example, if the editors from Allure flooded top beauty podcasts over the course of one month, these podcasters could have featured articles published in the print mag, or serve as guest beauty editors. The cross-pollination would drive traffic back-and-forth, and you could further build your staff’s influencer brands.

Lean hard into social here specifically on a personal level for these staffers. If they’re not already, have them provide daily inspiration on Instagram, Q&As through Twitter chats, maybe even live unboxing videos if they’re up for it.

Think beyond the pages
We’re at an exciting time in the industry where complementary partnerships, technology and the power of influencers are shaking things up. Remember that print brands have a long-standing and powerful heritages, so while some physical publications may fade away, it doesn’t mean that the brand fades away too. Publishers can thrive now and in the future if they continue to think out-of-the-box and beyond the pages.

Janet Levine is the Managing director of Invention+, Mindshare

This article is published in collaboration with Adage.com