BookBandit’s new marketing strategy: a Kickstarter revolution

BookBandit has been doing well since it launched in 2016 (including nabbing our own Tech Startup of the Year Award for 2017). Straight out of the University of Delaware’s Horn Program for Entrepreneurship, the college textbook aggregator started with founder Jim Jannuzzio’s $840 textbook expense one semester. Within a year, it went from selling books in two states via a mobile app to selling in 27 states on both web and mobile, with attention from big names like NBC News and Google.

Now they’re using the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter to spread more awareness of the still-young brand. During the campaign, you can essentially pre-pay for discount textbooks for up to four years, with resume and internship preparation sessions with BookBandit Director of Marketing and HR Jimmy Coates on the top tiers.

Pledges start as low as $1, for those who just want to show support for the “revolution” against overpriced textbooks.

A look at one of the campaign’s perks. (Screenshot)

“We launched our Kickstarter with one main goal: marketing and spreading awareness of BookBandit while encouraging engagement within our culture,” said Jannuzzio, who is currently finishing his senior year at UD. “We emphasize being a part of the revolution and taking on this ‘textbook tyranny’ together.”

While the brand still features the bandit — its raccoon mascot who helps students get textbooks for a “steal” — it’s become broader, as Jannuzzio and his team have begun to build it into a rebellion of sorts, a movement fighting corporate excess. Considering its college student demographic, it seems like a pretty solid strategy.