Deirdre Horgan, EVP marketing at Indigo Books and Music, pulls out her Blackberry and scrolls through the book she's reading, Cutting for Stone. She's enthusiastically explaining Indigo's latest endeavor, Shortcovers, a free application whereby readers can download books (or just chapters, magazines, newspapers, etc.) to their mobile devices or read them online.

Launched in February in both Canada and the U.S., Shortcovers is the first such service that doesn't require the purchase of a separate reading device. Readers can download an entire book for between $10 and $20 - less than the physical version. And while Horgan doesn't expect it to replace actual books in her lifetime, she recognized the need for Indigo to grow and change with its readers. "We're in the business of stories and written words and reading," she says, "so we need to be where the market is in order to serve our customers."

Horgan, who often finds herself attached to her Blackberry, is already a dedicated user. She's passionate about Shortcovers in the same way that she's passionate about all aspects of Indigo, perhaps because she's been an integral part of almost everything they've done since the beginning.

When Horgan was hired at Indigo in 1998 as manager, special projects, it had one store in Burlington, Ont. When Indigo merged with Chapters in 2001, Horgan went from being SVP marketing of 15 stores to 250 at the tender age of 29, and she's since seen her marketing team double to the 25 members of today. But Heather Reisman, Indigo founder and CEO, wasn't concerned about Horgan's youth. "I never thought age was a factor," says Reisman. "Deirdre could hold her own with any top-notch marketing person of any age at any company."

Horgan not only held her own at Indigo, she led the way on some of the company's most profitable initiatives. Among her greatest accomplishments was the development of iRewards, Indigo's loyalty program. "She led the building of [iRewards] into one of the strongest loyalty programs in Canada," says Reisman. After the merger, Horgan took four different existing programs and created a unified one that crossed all banners (Coles, SmithBooks, Chapters and Indigo), giving members 10% off books for a fee of $25 a year. With over one million members, iRewards has become an integral part of Horgan's marketing strategy - the majority of Indigo's advertising is through direct channels like gift guides and emails sent to iReward members.

The gift guides, also distributed as geo- and demo-targeted newspaper inserts, are one of the cornerstones of Indigo's advertising since 30% of books sold are bought as gifts. Newspaper ads, brochures and in-store posters are among the other elements thought up by Indigo's in-house creative team, led by CD Emmet Sheil. Forgoing the assistance of an agency, Horgan says having the creative team constantly at hand has worked well. "We have a partner who knows our voice in and out and can turn around ads and signs within a matter of hours in order to help us adapt to the changing needs of the customer," she says.