Author: katie
3 things that helped make the Queenie campaign a success
At our last Members’ Meeting, Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams won the Best Debut Campaign award. The judges called it ‘A truly integrated campaign that created multiple opportunities to showcase not just the book, but also the author. Highly coordinated planning plus imaginative touchpoints meant that Queenie launched with an army of advocates.’
Here, Cait Davies of Orion shares some of the areas she focused on in creating this fantastic campaign.
- RETAILERS: Identify and then relentlessly target your key retailers as early as possible. Devise bespoke promotional strategies for each and ensure they feed into the wider campaign strategy – every element should work together and feel cohesive.
- BIGGER PICTURE: Plan your key campaign milestones in close partnership with PR and sales to drive maximum impact – and vice versa
- VISUAL APPROACH: On a long tail campaign, it pays off to work hard on creating a visual story from scratch proof to final book. Carry that branding across every platform, whether trade or consumer facing, to build recognition.
10 key learnings from the YA and Crossover Masterclass
Last month, James Spackman hosted the latest BMS Masterclass, focusing on YA and Crossover. With presentations from Naomi Berwin of Hachette Children’s Group, Roisin O’Shea of Hot Key and Piccadilly Press, Sanne Vliegenthart of Books & Quills and Kat McKenna of Macmillan Children’s Books, it was a fascinating insight into some of great YA and Corssover marketing campaigns.
As always, James hosted a round-table discussion after the presentations, allowing people to bring their marketing challenges to the wider group. Here are a few of the key things that came up on the day…
- Adult and Children’s publishers can have very different definitions of success. Week one chart position remains key for adult firms, whereas kids’ lists have tended to have to look more long term.
- Sometimes a strategically minded author can help a global campaign come together. Leigh Bordugo, for example, insists on coherence between her global publishers, which means assets are shared and there is more noise around key launches.
- The YA community is still thriving but with so many books being published, you can’t just rely on a core of influencers to make your launch talked about.
- There’s no substitute for meeting readers. Don’t assume you know what readers want from your authors of your list. How do you know if a jacketless hardback is the wrong choice? A stream of keen fans at YALC will tell you …
- In a time where getting commitment from retail chains is hard, YALC is a precious thing: hundreds of keen readers who buy multiple editons at full price and give you invaluable insight.
- YA authors’ passion for their books and their community is a huge asset – make sure you use it.
- Look outside the book community to see who’s excelling at communicating with users. The Netflix instagram is A1.
- Look and feel is a critical judgement for YA social channels. Colour, and a blend of high production and authentic/homemade does the trick.
- Don’t try to talk like a teenager if you aren’t actually one yourself.
- A YouTube channel can be a great way to reach the YA audience, but involves a huge commitment and breaking through takes a long time. Not for the faint of heart!
Our next BMS Masterclass will be on non-fiction marketing. You can find out more and book your tickets here.
Winners of the April-June 2019 Awards!
Congratulations to the winners of the April-June 2019 BMS Awards! The full list of winners are…
Best Debut Campaign:
- Highly Commended: The Flatshare by Beth O’LearyMarketers: Bethan Ferguson and Hannah Winter, Quercus, Hachette
The judges said: ‘An attention-grabbing and fun campaign that exhibited the team’s enthusiasm for the book. Clever stunt-marketing with ‘the bed’ was supported by a strong rollout with powerful influencer marketing and a well-targeted consumer strategy.’ - Winner: Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams
Marketer: Cait Davies, Orion, Hachette
The judges said: ‘A truly integrated campaign that created multiple opportunities to showcase not just the book, but also the author. Highly coordinated planning plus imaginative touchpoints meant that Queenie launched with an army of advocates.’
Best Guerrilla Campaign
- Highly Commended: My Lovely Wife by Samantha DowningMarketer: Beth Cockeram, Michael Joseph, Penguin Random House
The judges said: ‘This campaign is a best practice example of how to strategically support an ebook price promotion and take nothing for granted, through a strike team created bringing together editorial, sales and marketing which then enabled a killer bestseller to stay at the top of the bestseller charts.’ - Winner: Lowborn by Kerry Hudson
Marketer: Sophie Painter, Vintage, Penguin Random House
The judges said: ‘A stellar example of a campaign delivering on some clear objectives with a small budget and within a very short timeline. They not only conceived and delivered a campaign to support an important social justice campaign, but also made use of high profile partnerships with relevant charities to deliver a wide range of events and reach new audiences for this book.’
Best Adult Fiction Campaign
- Highly Commended: Hunting Evil by Chris CarterMarketer: Richard Vlietstra, Simon & Schuster
The judges said: ‘What made this campaign really stand out is the way it identified re-engaging fans as a key objective and deployed tactics to do so that feel logical, customer-centric and appropriate to the genre. Demonstrated evidence of strong audience insight, campaign planning, and incentives in play—and a canny and consistent use of storytelling in author-led and interactive social content.’ - Winner: In a House of Lies by Ian Rankin
Marketer: Tom Noble, Orion, Hachette
The judges said: ‘An exemplary, rigorous campaign and campaign report that really does the scale of budget in play here justice; a critical approach is visibly demonstrated from early planning to fine details during execution. Partnerships feel constructive and relevant, though still creative. And the result is to die for.’
Best Adult Non-Fiction Campaign
- Highly Commended: How to Fail by Elizabeth DayMarketer: Liv Marsden, 4th Estate, HarperCollins
The judges said: ‘How to Fail sets the standard for marketing a podcast spin-off. From the audio-first approach to the smart social targeting, the campaign displays a keen understanding of the audience and achieved impressive ROI. It was also deftly executed, harnessing the power of advocates including Bookstagrammers, big name influencers and HarperCollins employees.’ - Winner: The Secret Barrister
Marketer: Paul Martinovic, Pan Macmillan
The judges said: ‘It’s not easy to follow an impressive hardback campaign with something innovative and incredibly successful. What we loved about the Secret Barrister is that it took a relentlessly creative approach, stayed true to the mischievous tone of the book and achieved extraordinary sales.’
Young Adult Fiction Campaign
- Highly Commended: Isles of Storm and Sorrow: Viper by Bex HoganMarketers: Natasha Whearity and Naomi Berwin, Hachette Children’s Group, Hachette
The judges said: ‘This team’s understanding of its audience was impeccable. With that knowledge at the centre of their work they crafted a dynamic, smart campaign with stunning visuals and outstanding results.’ - Winner: A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson
Marketers: Jasveen Bansal & Dannie Price, Electric Monkey, Egmont Publishing
The judges said: ‘This team developed a brilliant core creative concept and used it to drive truly impressive pre-awareness and sales. This, partnered with methodical planning and strategic positioning, broke an unknown debut author onto the scene in exemplary fashion.’
Children’s Campaign
- Highly Commended: Starfell: Willow Moss and the Lost Day by Dominique ValenteMarketers: Alex Cowan and Beth Maher, HarperCollins Children’s Books, HarperCollins
The judges said: ‘The campaign managed to generate fantastic buzz at retail and among influencers, with a great proof tour and 51 bookstores visited in one day. It showed innovation with a mobile-first approach, creativity with the Magical Witch’s kit competition, and a targeted advertising strategy across YouTube, cinemas, shopping malls, schools and online communities like PopJam and Toppsta.’ - Winner: Malamander by Thomas Taylor
Marketers: Jill Kidson, Jo Humphries-Davies, Josh Alliston, James McParland, Walker Books
The judges said: ‘A wonderfully orchestrated campaign which brought the world of Eerie-on-Sea to life, with a brilliantly executed bookseller outreach, an excellently promoted, cinematic trailer, an Eerie-on-Sea Enquirer newspaper created in-house, an interactive map for the website, creative partnerships and POS.’
The judges also awarded some BMS Spotlight Awards in some of the key judging areas. The winners of these were:
Audience Development:
How to Be Right by James O’Brien – For precision use of audience insight for careful audience targeting
Marketers: Caroline Butler, Ebury, Penguin Random House
The judges said: ‘The dirty words Cambridge Analytica were mentioned in relation to this campaign. However the Ebury marketing team used incisive data-driven strategy to do the right thing. They skillfully built a new audience for O’Brien with insight-driven, targeted messages across multiple channels. This is what the future of marketing looks like.’
Innovation:
Tin Can Cook by Jack Monroe – For innovative thinking into how to combine a crowdfunding campaign to support social objectives of book campaign)
Marketers: Jodie Mullish, Jess Duffy, Andy Joannou, Will Upton and Alex Ellis, Bluebird Books, Pan Macmillan
The judges said: ‘A crowdfunding platform isn’t the usual channel for promoting a bestselling cookery book. This is proof that a marketing campaign can break all the rules, shift units and do genuine good in the world. By building on the core message of the book, Bluebird have created something inspirational.’
Creativity:
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata – For creative thinking in using striking assets, developing a unique vending machine for the book and innovative fish bunting!
Marketers: Simon Heafield, Granta
The judges said: “The POS in this campaign created a brand identity for the book that made it stand out. Fun, kitsch, quirky, it brought themes of the book forward effortlessly to connect to a wider audience than the original edition.”
3 key lessons from The Binding
It recently won the BMS Award for Best Adult Fiction campaign and is currently the bestselling hardback novel published in 2019. Here Katy Blott and Sarah Shea of HarperCollins, the masterminds behind the campaign, share their insights into the campaign.
From the moment we acquired The Binding in June 2017 we fell in love with it. The campaign has been a huge team effort and constant work for the past two years! But now with over 80,000 copies sold and having achieved a number 2 Sunday Times bestseller, we’re hugely proud that the hard work paid off. So here are our 3 key takeaways from this magical campaign…
- Finding that one perfect copy line
Right from the start we knew that getting the pitch right would be key – and The Binding was a tricky book to pitch! Testing out different copy lines to find out which messages were favoured by different target audiences was a crucial part of our campaign. We were pleased to discover that one overarching line resonated with all our audiences, and we were then able to use this across everything throughout our campaign: Lose yourself in the most extraordinary debut of 2019.
- Getting the trade to fall in love, and giving something back
The other thing that was incredibly important to the success of The Binding was working closely with Waterstones and independent booksellers. The Binding is a book about books and so we were confident we could find some mega fans amongst the booksellers! We provided them with everything from exclusive proofs, to window kits, to competitions, and it paid off in the form of phenomenal support. When it became clear that readers were really falling in love with The Binding – from influencers, to booksellers, to our colleagues, we made sure to say ‘thank you’ to everyone. From ‘thank you’ cards and gifts to exclusive merchandise, we’ve been able to keep The Binding at the front of readers’ minds for months – and found plenty of reasons to consistently shout about this book on social.
- Making the most of a truly beautiful book
And finally, our design team came up with the most beautiful package for The Binding and knew we had to make the most of this throughout the campaign. We made sure every element of our marketing campaign reflected our unique and unforgettable look, including having brand guidelines, several beautiful editions, and multiple different creatives – all with the same central aesthetic.
5 key takeaways from King of Scars
King of Scars recently won a BMS Award for Best Young Adult campaign. Here, winners Natasha Whearity and Naomi Berwin share their learnings:
- Start building anticipation early
We announced King of Scars 15 months pre-publication and consistently seeded information, exclusives, giveaways, sneak peeks, etc from then until publication. With a brand with a) an existing fanbase but b) the potential to grow significantly, this gave us the opportunity to build maximum excitement amongst fans both old and new.
- Collaborate with your global partners
We worked incredibly closely with our publishing partners in the US – as well as Australia & New Zealand and other export territories – on everything from messaging and design to major announcement and detailed campaign elements such as social media readalongs. Particularly for a brand with a young, digital-focused readership, that alignment was invaluable in providing clarity of message, driving conversation, and maximising overall impact.
- Work your backlist
As King of Scars is set in a complex fantasy world previously introduced in Leigh’s earlier novels, it was vital that we use our long lead-time to familiarise new readers with the story so far – as well as driving excitement among existing fans by re-immersing them in the Grishaverse. We did this in a strategic, carefully timed, multi-layered way, using a combination of ebook price promotions, event activity, NetGalley coverage, digital advertising and global readalong campaign. Not only did this contribute to the success of the King of Scars campaign and expand Leigh’s overall fanbase, but it also generated significant backlist sales revenue.
- Consistency of message
Early on in the campaign planning process, we agreed on the messaging and visual approach that would be used consistently across territories and all campaign assets. The arresting ‘FACE YOUR DEMONS … OR FEED THEM’ and striking black and gold aesthetic became quickly recognisable and really added to the readers’ sense that they were seeing the book everywhere.
- Know your superfans
Going into this campaign, we knew that Leigh – whilst not yet at the same sales level here as in the UK – had a dedicated and extremely passionate core fanbase, and that these people were our most valuable advocates. We made sure to identify and engage these superfans early on, finding bespoke ways – from exclusive original artwork to personalised chocolate to licenced merchandise and more – to leverage their influence and drive maximum word of mouth.
The BMS Awards are now open!
The January-March 2020 BMS Awards are now open for entry. Submit your campaign here!
3 key takeaways from How to Clean Your House
Earlier this year, Janet Aspey won the BMS Award for Best Guerrilla Campaign, along with her colleague Hannah Sawyer. Here Janet shares three of the key takeaways from that campaign:
- Partnerships were really key for us in this campaign in order to get as big a reach as we could with a small budget, and as much visibility for the book as we could in a short time frame. We knew partnerships were going to be a crucial element for the campaign and that any we secured would need to work very hard for us.This was a late edition to the publishing schedule, which meant we had to be very agile and proactive from the start of the campaign to secure them. This was a mixture of reaching out to brands that Lynsey works with, as well as other cleaning brands to secure as broad a reach as possible.We secured a great range of partnerships – from high end partnerships like AirCraft Home to lower cost partnerships like Marigold and Scrub Daddy. Inclusion in their newsletters, great prizes and promotion on their channels played a huge part in the books success. Working with so many partners has been so useful to me as a marketer; particularly working with them in different ways to get the most out of them.
- Agile marketing was key here and it showed what can be possible in a short time – in just seven weeks before publication. It was a massive team effort for everyone. The campaign is still going for the book, as more and more brands are keen to work with us, which goes to show just how useful brand partnerships can be.
- One thing that didn’t work as hard for us as we’d hoped was our pre-order competition to win a cleaning consultation with Lynsey; had we had more lead time and been able to place this with a media partner this could have worked much harder for us in terms of driving sales. It did however provide a great springboard for the campaign along with the cover reveal, and Lynsey was an asset. Having her lead on elements, and add value to her existing fanbase, was key at the start to make quick impact.
Thank you for sharing Lynsey!
8 takeaways from Michelle Obama’s Becoming campaign
Last month, Amelia Fairney and Rose Poole from the Penguin General marketing team presented some of the highlights of the huge campaign they ran for Michelle Obama’s memoir, Becoming. Even if you don’t have a former First Lady for an author, there is plenty to learn for people planning for event publications:
1) Early consumer insight / analysis is really worth it
9 months ahead of publication, the team went out to speak to people and find out what Michelle Obama means to them. This informed the strategy around the campaign.
They took a film crew to create voxpop videos. These were used as part of the digital campaign further down the line, reaching over 500k people, and are still being used now.
2) Pull in colleagues from across the company
A taskforce was created from across the whole of Penguin Random House – the only criteria for entry was that you had to love Michelle Obama.
This taskforce brainstormed ideas and also gave feedback on the Marketing & Publicity campaign presented to them.
They felt invested in the book from the beginning and acted as both a sounding board and a great source of ideas.
3) Speak to retailers early
When the cover was ready in Spring 2018, the team went on an UK-wide tour of bookshops. This allowed them to ask questions and tailor specific plans to customers.
In turn, bookshops felt real value and were kept constantly updated.
Waterstones was the biggest retail partner and their support was crucial. They ran an exclusive pre-order competition to win a trip to New York and also held a big author event with them.
4) Start advertising early
The social advertising started in May, and audience groups were built depending on response, with the team really responsive to results.
There were 150 creatives and they saw 45k clicks to retail for a spend of £8k.
5) Create a news moment
There were no firm publicity commitments until late in the day and so the team needed under the radar ways to engage people.
A giant mural created a news moment. The team partnered with Dreph, known for his empowering portraits of black women. He chose what to draw – he didn’t want to just recreate the book jacket.
It was very authentic and he also did interviews about it for publicity, becoming a spokesperson for the book.
Candice Carty-Williams – a Michelle superfan – also did a live review on the Penguin website.
6) Identify the right partners
The team worked with The Advocacy Academy, a social justice fellowship for young people from marginalised communities in London.
They ran an event to fundraise for the Academy selling the book for £5, and also ran a staff book sale with proceeds going to Academy.
The Academy came and spoke to staff at PRH and some of their advocates attended the South Bank event. This relationship, set up for the book, is now ongoing, and has also provided a legacy which is an issue so important to Michelle Obama.
In the week leading to the Michelle Obama visit, the team partnered with GalDem. They partnered on a pop-up shop in Bloomsbury with a programme of events themed to issues that Michelle Obama cared about.
The team also identified the top influencers in different segments, putting careful thought into how to reach and work with them. With the book under strict embargo, they weren’t able to offer much apart from enthusiasm!
7) Don’t forget the audio
Read by Michelle Obama herself, the audiobook was a way to reach non-traditional book buyers. The team devised a plan for the year, including pre-order advertising and early excerpts online. They also offered an exclusive extract to Apple News.
Radio ads sampled the audiobook on Classic FM, and podcast activity has included sponsorship on biggest book podcasts.
BOTW on Radio 4 coincided with launch of the BBC Sounds App – a happy coincidence but also another chance to use the audio.
8) Maximise events
There were two events – one with the Elizabeth Garrett School and a sell-out event at the Southbank Centre.
The team worked with PRH Audiences at both events – capturing content and data, and leading the conversation online. The school talk was videoed and bundled with curriculum resources to send to teachers for classroom use.
Giant banners provided great photo opportunities while they were able to invite Influencers to the Southbank as a thank you for all their support.
Those are the things WE took away, but we’d love to know: What were your key learnings from the presentation?
Winners of the January-March 2019 BMS Awards
Campaigns from HarperCollins, BonnierZaffre, BlueBird (PanMacmillan) and Hachette Children’s have been announced as winners of the January-March 2019 awards at the quarterly BMS Members’ Meeting, held 22nd May at the Havas KX Creative Agency.
The full list of award winners are:
Best Debut Campaign
HIGHLY COMMENDED: The Silent Patient
“a meticulous, strategic campaign which wasted no resource and smashed its objectives”.
Award goes to: Amy Davies, Orion
WINNER: The Familiars
The judges said this campaign “delivered on its objectives in spades, overcoming both market and industry hurdles to create an unmissable title. The approach was targeted, creative and relentless – it took nothing for granted and took no prisoners.”
Award goes to: Stephen Dumughn, Felice McKeown and Sahina Bibi, BonnierZaffre
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Adult Fiction Campaign:
HIGHLY COMMENDED: Lanny
“This campaign turned all its challenges into opportunities in true jujitsu fashion, resulting in one of the year’s most talked about titles.”
Award goes to: Katie Hall, Faber
WINNER: The Binding
“This campaign had it all – long-lead strategising, immaculate targeting, innovation and engagement. It placed the book as physical object at the core of everything it did, and this confidence – plus an absolutely colossal amount of hard work – paid off in its stellar sales.”
Award goes to: Sarah Shea and Katy Blott, HarperFiction
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Adult Non-Fiction Campaign:
HIGHLY COMMENDED: Marvel Fearless and Fantastic
In a crowded marketplace, this team used an arsenal of channels, forged new partnerships and thought way outside the box to cut through the noise.”
Award goes to: Jamie Elby, DK
WINNER: Pinch of Nom
“This was a dynamic, creative and highly professional campaign that has set a new standard for converting Online engagement into physical sales. From the clever early release of information to Pinch of Nom’s fanbase, driving unprecedented early pre-orders, to the sustained multichannel push that has resulted in record breaking sales, this has been a marketing masterclass.”
Award goes to: Don Shanahan, Jodie Mullish and Andy Jouannou, BlueBird (PanMacmillan)
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Young Adult Campaign:
HIGHLY COMMENDED: A Curse So Dark and Lonely
“Clever use of subscription box Fairyloot and a strategy that led to an amazing first week in sales.”
Award goes to: Emily Moran, Bloomsbury
WINNER: King of Scars
“An impeccable executed six month campaign which combined clear audience targeting and creativity, from retail activation to Waterstones pre-orders. The campaign had well thought out branded partnership with subscription boxes Ilumicrate which generated a strong ROI across sales and engagement.
Award goes to: Naomi Berwin and Natasha Whearity, Hachette Children’s
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Children’s Campaign
HIGHLY COMMENDED: A Pinch of Magic
“Very clear targeting and school outreach, with a stand out partnership with the Reading Agency, Skype call with the Author and use of Authorfy. Innovative approach to partnerships and technology.”
Award goes to: Olivia Horrox, Simon and Schuster
WINNER: The Valentines: Happy Girl Lucky
“Excellent audience understanding and cohesive messaging throughout, with great brand partnerships, VOD and social activation. In addition, this campaign achieved wider social engagement creating a strong platform for the series.”
Award goes to: Alex Cowan and Beth Maher, HarperCollins Children’s Books
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Guerrilla Campaign
HIGHLY COMMENDED: Chasing the Sun
“A tenacious campaign yielding phenomenal results, with strong retail partnership and a clear creative message throughout, on a very small budget.”
Award goes to: Flora Willis, Profile Books
WINNER: How to Clean Your House
“A multi-platform campaign leveraging a strong existing platform with creative brand partnerships and social activation.”
Award goes to: Janet Aspey and Hannah Sawyer, HQ
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For the first time, the BMS also awarded some Spotlight Awards in some of the key judging areas. The winners of these were:
- Audience Development: Double Crossed, for its close targeting and growth of a hard-to-reach demographic – Stephanie Naulls, Ebury Publishing
- Innovation: The Hunting Party, for its innovative and agile approach to reinvention which snowballed into a mass success – Abbie Salter, HarperCollins
- Creativity: The Dirty Dishes, for hyper-creative use of resource, partnerships and content – Don Shanahan, Jodie Mullish and Jess Duffy, Bluebird (PanMacmillan)
A NEW LOOK FOR THE BMS
Welcome to the Book Marketing Society. We’re delighted to unveil the new branding for the society.
We’re grateful to Graphic Designer Amy Lines who has reimagined the logo and introduced a fresh new colour palette.
The Bookseller today reveals the branding to the wider trade beyond our membership.
Over the course of the year ahead we’ll be working more closely with The Bookseller to showcase the great campaign work coming out of the publishing industry’s marketing departments – whether from publishers, retailers or book charities and other organisations.
You can read an interview with the new Co-Chairs discussing the new look BMS here.
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