Following on from the HBS article (see this post) which makes the point that for crowdsourcing to really work, the cost of development must be in reach of a single user, comes this example from Japan.

In Japan there’s an interesting trend in bookstores which give away from book jackets from colourful display stands. The catch – if you can call it a catch – is that the jackets are heavily branded. The idea is that when you are reading a book, the cover is open and therefore on display for the world to see. The benefit for the reader is that the cover protects the book. So where did this idea come from?

The jackets are the brainchild of the advertising company Setup Inc. “We noticed that on the trains, many women were reading books covered by jackets they had made themselves, so we thought that if we could make covers that were nice to look at and easy to use, then they might serve as a good advertising medium,” says Setup.

Get the full story from Web Japan here