Category: News

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.

The winners were announced at the Book Marketing Society’s meeting held at Simon & Schuster’s offices on 24 February for the all-important Christmas season (campaigns run between Sept-Dec 2014)

Children’s Campaign

The children’s field was particularly crowded, with another masterly campaign for Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul by Jeff Kinney by the team at Penguin Random House Children’s Books up against HarperCollins’ all-out campaign for David Walliam’s Awful Auntie, and Bloomsbury’s stylish campaign for the Harry Potter reissues.  But the crown was taken by Hannah Maloco and Gemma Rostill of Puffin Books’ campaign for some new kids on the block, David O’Doherty and Chris Judge’s Danger is Everywhere.  The judges praised the wit and humour of the campaign, aiming particularly at reluctant readers with Basic Safety Tip videos on YouTube (Is your teacher a vampire?) and with bookshops treated to ‘Danger is Everywhere’ crime scene tape and a poster on ‘Avoiding Danger in Bookshops’.

Adult Campaign

In the Adult section, Sceptre’s Twitter short story campaign for David Mitchell’s The Bone Clocks caught the judges’ attention, as did the innovative digital memory-sharing project ‘Where were you then?’ that Pan Macmillan did for Ken Follett’s Edge of Eternity.  The winner, however, was a stand-out campaign by Fergus Edmondson, also at Pan Macmillan, for Chris Hadfield’s second book You Are Here, offering geeks everywhere the chance to get their burning science questions answered by their own personal rocket scientist.

Shoestring Campaign

In the hotly contested Shoestring category (campaigns under £5k) the judges eyes’ were caught by a quirky online campaign to reach a niche audience for Distilled from Octopus; another publisher-agnostic festival for the SciFi community by Sam Missingham at HarperCollins; and a well-crafted campaign by Sphere for Kate Bush superfans for a £120 book of early photographs taken by her brother – but the award went to an on-trend campaign for How to be Parisian: Wherever you are, with Merle Bennett at Penguin Random House making masterful use of the online blogging community and great brand partnerships to fantastic effect, with little cost.

The winners and runner-ups in full:

• Adult Winner:
  You are Here by Chris Hadfield – Fergus Edmondson at Pan Macmillan
• Children’s Winner:
  Danger is Everywhere by David O’Doherty and Chris Judge – Hannah Maloco and Gemma Rostill, Puffin Books
• Shoestring Winner: 
  How to Be Parisian: Wherever you are – Merle Bennett, Penguin Random House

• Adult Runner-Ups:   
  – Edge of Eternity by Ken Follett – Jodie Mullish, James Luscombe and Dan Brown, Pan Macmillan
  – The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell – Jessica Killingley and Bea Long, Sceptre/Hodder & Stoughton
• Children’s Runner-Up:
  – Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul by Jeff Kinney – Julia Teece, Andrea Bowie, Vanessa Godden, Penguin Random House Children’s
• Shoestring Runner-Ups:
  – Cathy by John Carder Bush – Alexandra Cooper, Sphere/Little, Brown
  – Distilled by Joel Harrison & Neil Ridley – Karla Pett, Mitchell Beazley/Octopus

The marketing campaign for M.R. Carey’s debut dystopian novel was awarded the BMS Best Adult Marketing Campaign Award, at a packed meeting held in the London offices of Nielsen Book on Wednesday 29th october. The Girl with All the Gifts campaign, orchestrated by Felice Howden & Emily Rowland at Orbit, was picked from a record number of more than 40 campaigns submitted for the period May-August 2014, whilst the winner in the Children’s section was the UK tour partnership with Tatty Devine for Fangirl (Kat McKenna at Macmillan Children’s Books). The joint shoestring winners were the campaigns for The Lemon Grove by Vicky Palmer at Tinder Press/Headline and the Virtual Romance Festival from Sam Missingham, Kimberley Young and Charlotte Ledger at HarperCollins.

ADULT WINNER

The Girl With All The Gifts by M. R. Carey
Marketers:  Felice Howden and Emily Rowland, Orbit / Little, Brown

• Cover test helped identify most appropriate way to reach target audience (readers of commercial, emotional fiction)
• Identified supermarkets (Tescos) as key – but also provided assets for other retailers; book became Waterstones Book of Month
• Targeted premium entertainment websites, in line with the best media suggested by audience profiling
• Majored on lead character as way to engage audience most effectively – and used other authors to help spread the word
• Pay with a Tweet campaign gave people incentives to engage
• Extraordinary ROI for debut (and genre) novel

CHILDREN’S WINNER

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
Marketer: Kat McKenna, Macmillan Children’s Books

• Partnered with Tatty Devine to produce a ‘fangirl’ necklace on sale June to September to tie in with July author tour
• Exclusive edition necklace produced as competition prize
• #fangirlselfie competition so fans would share news about the necklace and be further excited by the collaboration
• Raised awareness for the book beyond bookstores and hardcore fans to whole new audience
• On very small budget achieved 50% more sales than previous books
• Also raised interaction with and views of MyKindaBook platform

JOINT SHOESTRING WINNERSThe Lemon Grove by Helen Walsh

Marketer: Vicky Palmer, Tinder Press/Headline

• Great feedback from the trade and glowing lead review in Good Housekeeping but…
• … it failed the Good Housekeeping ‘Reader Recommendation’ test
• A definite marmite book polarizing audiences
• So, refocused target audience and got the discussion going via social media
• Promoted as the perfect summer read: ‘Temperatures are rising. But it’s not the weather causing it‘
• Plus incentivised promotion via Toni & Guy salons resulted in a huge increase in her previous sales

Campaign Title:  Virtual Romance Festival
Marketer:  Sam Missingham, Kimberley Young, Charlotte Ledger, HarperCollins

• Genuine first – publisher-agnostic Festival organised by a publisher!
• Clear set of objectives including direct engagement with audience and attracting authors: both fans & writers targeted
• Survey to find 100 top romance books of all times; Spotify list of the authors’ favourite romantic songs
• Competitions to win a year with an editor, a year’s worth of books, and join authors in a Hangout
• Strong branding and Festival poster mimicking eg Latitude
• Delivered on three online platforms – Twitter, Facebook and Google hangouts

A number of campaigns were also awarded as ‘Highly Commended’

ADULT

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
Marketers: Flora Willis, Victoria Beddows, Diana Broccardo, Serpent’s Tail

• A small company really getting behind a book – and making it very big indeed
• Twitter campaign #page77 for people to share their experiences of reading the book and the twist
• Moved into paperback quickly to take full advantage of the Booker news
• Targeted outside London with flyposting in Brighton, Edinburgh, Manchester
• Collaborations with LoveReading and Mumsnet fired up support and generated more reviews

The Goldfinch Donna Tartt
Marketer: Stephen Dumughn, Little, Brown

• Strong messaging to target audience: ‘Read it this summer. Remember it forever’
• Taken out of the literary fiction ‘box’ with mass market campaign through Tescos and Blinkbox
• Tesco twitter account asked: ‘Where will you be reading The Goldfinch this summer?’
• Competition for private viewing of the Goldfinch in Amsterdam with ASOS
• Gelupo provided free ice-cream for publication day stunt
• Sales up over 30% on previous book

CHILDREN’S

A Puffin Book
Marketers: Andrea Bowie, Nicola Chapman, Natasha Collie,  Puffin Books

• 20 classic Puffins given beautiful new covers and Extra! Extra! Read All About it! pages at the end, including rare archive material, quizzes and unexpected tidbits
• Virtual timeline for nostalgic audience but also a useful resource for schools
• Teachers sent a ribbon wrapped gift
• National Trust ‘Name a Puffin’ vote
• Librarians, bloggers, bookstores sent postcards: ‘What’s your favourite? Tell us, take a photo and…tweet tweet @puffinbooks’
• International sales of all titles up +250%

SHOESTRING

The Gollancz Festival
Marketers: Jennifer McMenemy (Marketing), Sophie Calder (Publicity), Gollancz

• Persuaded participating authors to read their one-star reviews on camera – genius!
• Timed when sci-fi fans and authors in London – but delivered internationally too
• Very well organised, throughout the day virtual and real activities, starting with a tweet-up on what people had for breakfast…
• Sold out in three weeks with no paid-for media at all
• Partnered new authors with established names

Judges for this campaign round included: Jo Henry and Alastair Giles of the Book Marketing Society, Orna O’Brien of the London Book Fair, Sheila O’Reilly of the Dulwich Bookshop, Sara Mulryan of Nielsen BookScan and Liz Thomson of BookBrunch