Giving and receiving gifts pre-dates our notions of value, reciprocity and other mercantile considerations. Put simply, we have always thrived on gifts and hold them dearly as a central tenet of our societies. With each gift, we share a part of ourselves, to draw upon an ancient Maori notion where the spirit of the gift giver – “hau” – is present in every gift; and personalised audiobook gifts are perfect for this.
While the economics of the gift giving sector is a fascinating topic in its own right, how do opportunities for the types of gifts that embody the idea of the “hau” present themselves to us throughout the calendar year or the lifecycle of our friendships and community interactions?
Personalised audiobooks allow you to use a short sample of your voice – captured with an everyday device such as your phone, to create a full-length audiobook in your own voice. This can then be shared with your network to connect, enrich and entertain.
A voice for the very youngest
One of the key audiences for this could be babies and very young people who we know rely upon familiar voices and reassuring tales as a key part of their development. We know that there are barriers to parents, guardians and extended family members spending quality reading time with children, so anything we can do to support wider accessibility is vitally important.
This makes the arrival of a new baby one of the most natural gifting moments of all. Baby showers and christenings tend to generate mountains of muslins and towers of teddies, but a story recorded in the voice of a grandparent, godparent or far-flung aunt is a welcome gift of a different order. It costs nothing but a few minutes of speech, yet it becomes part of the fabric of a child’s earliest days and can be listened to again and again as they grow.
Bedtime stories are a key element, but we know that children can sometimes be demanding on who reads the story on a particular occasion. What could be more helpful than having the story in grandma’s voice available at the touch of a button when she’s stuck in traffic and just can’t quite get there in time? This gift from a treasured relative steeped in the wisdom of child rearing could be an invaluable aid to new parents struggling under the weight of new responsibilities.
Birthdays offer a similar opportunity, and one that renews itself every year. A story chosen to match a child’s age and interests, narrated by someone who loves them, is a present that no amount of plastic can compete with. It also solves the perennial problem faced by relatives at a distance: what do you send a seven year old you last saw at Easter? Send them your voice, wrapped around a story they will ask for on repeat.
Personalised audiobook gifts help you stay close across distance and time
Maintaining links with our parents and elderly relatives can be a challenge at times. Sometimes the patterns of our days are so out of phase that phone calls seem impossible, but there’s something about the magic of sharing the sound of your own voice. Perhaps next Mother’s or Father’s Day, it will be time to create a lasting version of your voice to share with them, providing a treasured tale with a personal touch.
Our family networks are increasingly more and more spread out across the globe. The challenges of timezone differences are something we often encounter as a barrier to regular communication. A personalised audiobook could provide a joyous, easily accessible, asynchronous way to keep up the connection between family members separated by distance or time.
For many families, distance comes with a second dimension: language. Grandparents may be most at home in one tongue while their grandchildren are growing up in another. A personalised audiobook lets a loved one share a story in the language of their heart, or take a gentle step into the language their grandchildren speak every day. Either way, the child hears a familiar voice, and the family hears the sound of connection being kept alive.
The same thinking applies to the festive season, the busiest gifting moment in the calendar. Amid the wrapping paper and the wish lists, a story in a loved one’s voice is the present that outlasts December. It asks for no batteries, takes up no shelf space and never needs the receipt kept just in case.
The end of one chapter, the start of another
As we come to the end of our working lives, retirement gifts can be difficult to keep fresh, memorable and vibrant. Losing connection with our work network of friends and colleagues can be a really sudden wrench, one that’s frequently overlooked. Capturing the voices of colleagues to pass on to retiring friends can be a powerful way to mitigate this sudden reduction in sociability.
There are countless other opportunities to reinforce connection through personalised audiobook gift giving. Think about how things such as personalised audiobooks can start to become your go-to gift idea, providing you with easily accessible, powerful and memorable gifts at key life stages.