Category: News

The Book Marketing Society has announced new categories for its marketing campaign Awards programme, as the new 2016-17 Awards period gets underway.

The redefined categories will see a clearer split between Adult Fiction and Non-Fiction alongside Children’s, with the ‘shoestring’ category threshold of total campaign spend lowered to £2.5k, halving the previous budget threshold of £5k.

A new category has also been created for “multi-title” campaigns, where marketing activity is geared towards the promotion of backlist titles, or any other grouping of titles coordinated by a single campaign.

The categories now breakdown as follows:

• Adult and Children’s shoestring (up to £2.5k)
• Adult Fiction (above £2.5k)
• Non-Fiction (above £2.5k)
• Children’s (above £2.5k)
• Multi-title campaign (ie backlist, series, or some other grouping of titles)

In addition, judges will be on the lookout throughout the coming year for marketers or marketing teams who could be considered for an ‘outstanding achievement’ award, which would be included as part of the Annual Award announcements in 2017.

Jo Henry, Executive Director of the BMS, said: “We’re keen to encourage a greater diversity of campaigns being submitted by publishers and retailers for these prestigious Awards, and to ensure that those that are submitted are being judged as fairly as possible.  These new categories will result in even more fantastic marketing campaigns to applaud and an even greater clarity in the judging process.”

Winners for the 2015/16 Annual Awards were announced at the Bookseller’s Marketing & Publicity conference in June and included Lean in 15 by Joe Wicks, run by Anna Bowen of Bluebird/Pan MacMillan, Vicky Photiou from Ladybird/PRH Children’s was honoured for her campaign for The Rabbit Who Wants to Fall Asleep by Carl-Johan Forssén Ehrlin, and Caroline Maddison and Justine Gold from HarperCollins were awarded the prize for the Shoestring award – for campaigns under £5,000 – for their work on Scrabble Week. Simon & Schuster Children’s won the award for Best Marketing Team 2015/16.

The Awards are part of the Book Marketing Society’s commitment to promoting excellence in book trade marketing.  The Seasonal Awards reward the best marketing campaigns every four months now in five categories, and the Annual Awards. The Awards are designed to acknowledge the work of marketing professionals within the book industry. The judges – independent marketing and book trade experts– are particularly looking for a professional approach in the following three areas:

• Innovation and creativity
• Ability to reach and engage the target audience
• A good return on investment

Submissions are now open for the first ‘seasonal’ campaign period (May – August 2016). To enter your campaign please visit

https://www.bookmarketingsociety.co.uk/submit-bms-awards

To view information about previous winners visit

https://www.bookmarketingsociety.co.uk/bms-awards

For further information or to learn more about membership to the BMS, please contact

Jon Slack on [email protected]

The winners were announced at the Book Marketing Society’s meeting held at Hachette’s Carmelite House offices on 17 February for the all-important Christmas season, for campaigns run between September and December 2015.

With getting on for half of all consumer book purchases taking place in the period, many being bought as Christmas gifts, there were some major titles jostling for the Awards. In the Shoestring category (campaigns costing less than £5k), Fleur Clarke and Naomi Berwin of Hodder & Stoughton were awarded Highly-Commended for their campaign for the not-quite SF and originally self-published title The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, while the winner’s laurels went to Ingrid Matts of Particular Books/Penguin for her innovative campaign to promote what become Waterstones’ Book of the year, the beautiful The Fox and the Star by Penguin designer Coralie Bickford-Smith.

In the children’s category there was a highly commended for Nicola Way, Hannah Bourne and Catherine Conroy of HarperCollins Children’s Books for their unmissable campaign for Grandpa’s Great Escape by David Walliams as well as one for Natasha Collie, Gemma Rostill and Roisin O’Shea of Penguin’s for their campaign – including the first ever Snapchat book signing – for Zoe Sugg’s second outing, Girl Online: On Tour.  The surprise winner, however, was the campaign by Vicky Photiou at Ladybird for The Rabbit Who Wants to Fall Asleep (another previously self-published title): ‘pure marketing’ according to the judges.

There were also two Highly Commended campaigns in the Adult category, with Bethan Ferguson, Jeska Lyons and Ella Pocock of Quercus impressing the judges with their eye-catching campaign (#showusyourstack) for the surprise Christmas bestseller Norwegian Wood and Clarissa Pabi of Ebury’s campaign for another YouTube phenomenon, The Amazing Book is Not on Fire by Dan Howell and Phil Lester.  The winning campaign, however, came from Celeste Ward-Best at Cornerstone, with the Richard & Judy choice The Tea-Planters Wife. Using geo-targeted advertising to drive sales, this became a stand-out bestseller in the crowded Christmas period.

The winners were announced at the Book Marketing Society’s meeting held at Penguin Random House’s Vauxhall Bridge Road offices on 28 October for the Summer season, encompassing campaigns run between May and August 2015.

There were some major campaigns run over the summer period in the adult category, with Jen Doyle and Sarah Ridley at Cornerstone’s speedy and spectacular campaign to launch the new E.L. James, Grey, resulting in terrific sales and Sarah Shea at Little Brown’s campaign for Judy Finnegan’s pick I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh, praised for its ‘exemplary ‘ collaboration with the author.  Both, however, were beaten into runner-up places by Jen Doyle, Chloe Healy, Natalia Cacciatore and Amber Bennett-Ford’s extraordinary campaign to launch Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman, which culminated in 13 midnight opening events in Waterstones and a Harper Lee festival in Waterstones Piccadilly, which took the winning slot.

In the Children’s category there was a highly commended for Hannah Bourne, Catherine Conroy and Nicola Way of HarperCollins Children’s Books with their YouTube campaign for Darkmouth effectively targeting 9-12 year old boys, but they were pipped to the post by Jessica Williams, Jannine Saunders and Gemma Rostill at PRH Children’s Books for their spectacular campaign for Terry Pratchett’s last book, The Shepherd’s Crown.  This collaboration with Waterstones included a midnight event at Piccadilly that sold out in 15 minutes.

In the hotly contested Shoestring category (campaigns under £5k) the judges eyes’ were caught by Rik Ubhi of Simon & Schuster’s sparkling campaign for Life with a Sprinkle of Glitter which achieved a no. 1 slot in hardback non-fiction on a very minimal budget.  However, the winner’s laurels went jointly to Caroline Maddison and Justine Gold at HarperCollins for their all-encompassing campaign for Scrabble Week and Matt Clacher at 4^th Estate/HarperCollins’ very successful use of partnerships to create another bestselling title for Anna Jones, A Modern Way to Cook.

With thanks to our guest judges Sandra Taylor (Waterstones) and Sandy Mahal (The Space).

The winners were announced at the Book Marketing Society’s meeting held at HarperCollins new offices in Southwark on 10 June for the Spring season, encompassing campaigns run between January and April 2015.

There was stiff competition for the winner in the Adult category, with the campaign by Paul Martinovic of Penguin for the best-selling debut novel Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey and Alice Morley at Orion’s campaign for Davina McCall’s 5 Weeks to Sugar-Free – with five consumers taking the sugar-free challenge – both getting a highly commended. The winner, however, was the stylish and impressive campaign that Sam Voulters of Penguin had put together for Little Black Classics.  Beautiful art direction and an impressive range of partners convinced the judges that this was the stand-out Adult campaign this season.

In the Children’s category there was a highly commended for Laura Mason of PRH Children’s Books’ campaign for The Dinosaur that Pooped a Lot by Tom Fletcher and Dougie Poynter (despite qualms about the content matter!).  Also highly commended was the team at Walker Books (Molly Main, Jill Kidson and Sean Moss) with their campaign for the YA debut novel I’ll Give you the Sun by Jandy Nelson.  The crown was taken, however, by Elisa Offord at Simon & Schuster’s campaign for Hamish and the WorldStoppers by Danny Wallace.  With a great live action trailer, innovative range of partners and a very successful Holiday Cottages competition, the challenge of launching a children’s book by an adult author was successfully overcome.

In the hotly contested Shoestring category (campaigns under £5k) the judges eyes’ were caught by a well-targeted campaign for The Road Beneath My Feet by Frank Turner from Tom Noble of Headline and a very successful social media campaign for All I Know Now by Carrie Hope Fletcher from Sarah Shea of Little, Brown.  Both were highly commended.  The winner was a beautifully art-directed and impressive broad (despite a minimal budget) campaign for Calm by Michael Acton Smith by Paul Martinovic of Penguin – picking up his second Award of the evening.