Category: News

State of the Nation: Key Takeaways

Posted on April 23, 2020 by - News

Comms in the Time of Corona:

A Bookseller Conversation Series in association with BMS and PPC

Hosted by Miriam Robinson

Panel:

Polly Osborn (Simon & Schuster)

Anna Frame (Canongate)

Laura Di Giuseppe (Publishing and marketing consultant)

 

Key Takeaways

– Overwhelmingly the challenges people face right now are staying organised and motivated during the uncertainty and unpredictability of this time, the changing nature of the retail landscape and the saturation of the online space.

– Tips for keeping your day structured and replicating the office environment included breaking your day into 90-minute microtasks, making time for informal chat over WhatsApp or Slack, making sure to stop and celebrate successes with your team, replacing weekly catch-ups with ‘coffee mornings’ for both work and campaign discussion, allowing yourself to find your individual rhythm based on your own set of circumstances, and sticking the kids in front of Disney Plus!

– Regarding furloughed staff, the panelists looked towards the autumn, asking that we be mindful of how busy it’s going to be when staff return to work. Right now communication is key – keeping in touch however you can, and keeping an eye on the trade press and Twitter if you want to keep on top of what’s happening in the industry.

– Physical sales of newspapers are down but digital views are massively up. Features editors are looking for your expert authors if you have them, alongside lifestyle and hobby titles. Remember that newspaper/magazine staff have also been furloughed so be patient, and make sure you’re updating them regularly about moving pub dates.

– When sending PDF proofs it’s all the more important to be precise and thoughtful with your pitches, highlighting page numbers you’d like to draw their attention to where possible. More journalist are using NetGalley which helps.

– When running online events, Zoom is currently the platform of choice. Solicit questions for the authors in advance and make sure you have a clear timeline for promotion shared with all stakeholders. When creating a virtual author tour, it should reflect the variety and quality of a real tour. Think about the audience for each virtual event when planning, and plan the chair and guests as carefully as you would for a physical event.

– On whether this event model can ultimately be a revenue source, panelists agreed it’s possible. 30-minute taster events can be offered for free now, with a more in-depth paid-for version later on. They looked at other models such as Spotify/newspapers with a hybrid free (perhaps with ads) and premium structure. Events have always had issues with accessibility so virtual events may provide some solution here.

– Like press, virtual events organisers require more focussed, creative pitches than ever. If you’re from a small press or have an unknown author, consider who you can pair your author with or whether you can create a compelling panel. Also require more planning – if possible to a test run for virtual events with authors to avoid complication on the night.

– For events and content, focus on building communities that have real profile, sales impact and engagement than vanity metrics. Seventy people tuning in to a well-curated event can go farther than 1,000 views on Instagram Live.

– Marketing during this crisis began as firefighting, moving everything from OOH to online. Now has seen increased engagement in social, display and newsletters, though all complicated by constant changes in the retail landscape. Expect budget cuts across the industry to lead to some hard decisions – make sure everything you do has the required effect/impact by testing copy lines. All of this may lead to greater innovation in the autumn.

– We’re seeing an uplift in eBook and audio sales. People are dusting off their Kindles and also returning to tried and tested brands – safe, no-risk entertainment – for e and audio. Typical ‘commuting’ books such as business are not doing as well. Promote these formats with audio clips and narrators on social.

– In general, it’s worth investing in backlist marketing at the moment as people turn to safe, trusted classics.

– Children’s will also see an increase of evergreen classics. Opportunity for children to be engaging with screens with zoom hangouts for education.

– To support bookshops publishers should prioritise them in the autumn for big-name events, ask their authors to recorded videos for their followers on social telling them to shop in their local bookshop, and send signed stock or anything else that creates a point of difference. When in doubt, ask them (or the BA) what they need!

– Asked what they hope to see change as a result of this crisis, panelists said they’d like to see publishers embrace smart, flexible working; to see events become more accessible with virtual options; and a renewed appreciation across the industry for marketing & publicity teams, who have done so much in a short space of time.

Watch the video here

Lockdown Learning

Posted on April 22, 2020 by - News

We’ve pulled together some useful resources we’ve seen for online learning during this period. Check them out below – and do send us any suggestions you have.

 

Enrol in Blueprint courses from Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/facebookmedia/training

 

How to use Facebook Live:

https://www.facebook.com/facebookmedia/solutions/facebook-live

 

Beautiful designs with Canva:

https://designschool.canva.com/courses/

 

Lockdown learning from Contagious:

https://www.contagious.com/lockdown-learning

 

Free webinars from Falcon (social media management platform):

https://www.falcon.io/webinars

 

 

Olly Harnett – BBC Creative Director – Our key notes

Posted on February 20, 2020 by - Campaigns, Case Studies

His Dark Materials

Last month BBC CREATIVE Director Olly Harnett, Creative Director (BBC ONE, Radio 2) came in to our Members’ Meeting to talk about some of his recent campaign work.

BBC Creative is the in-house creative team at the BBC, run on an agency model. It was brought in house in 2016 and is made up of around 150 people split between London and Salford.

Here are some of our notes:

HIS DARK MATERIALS marketing campaign case study

Positioning line: tricky title if the consumer hasn’t read the books (or Milton!). Therefore it was important to find the cornerstone of the campaign: ‘one girl will change worlds”. Promises adventure, destiny and excitement.

Marketing challenge: 16 -24 year olds are not watching terrestrial TV. TV trails don’t work anymore. How do we reach them? More OOH activity to reach that audience. Special build OOH for social media pick up. Although shouldn’t seem just like a kids drama.

Campaign activity:

TV TRAIL – very filmic and exciting

SPECIAL BUILD OOH

His Dark Materials

– Story board artist helped create the layout for creative that was used across OOH. No stills ready so went for an illustrative approach for sign off of concept

-Westfield White City – Billboard featuring an armoured bear bursting out of a billboard, breathing out icy breath. Major social media and marketing industry pick-up

-Ad lifts – important not to be too London-centric. Birmingham and Manchester shopping centre vinyl wraps in lifts with selfie spots, audio featuring actors and added peppermint scent

-Cinema spot. Guaranteed audiences of millennials. Shown 1 week ahead of tx date

Results on launch:

10 million viewers of episode 1 across tv and iplayer

Most successful UK drama launch in 5 years

SUSTAIN PHASE

-Snapchat lens where user can turn themselves into the armoured bear

-Continuity idents – adding motifs from the show into regular BBC idents

-Daemon bot – for superfans. What is your daemon? 40 options. Inspired by illustrations in the novels. INCLUDE LINK.

In summary:

Traditional marketing still has its place but we have to find new, exciting and creative ways to reach audiences, particularly our youth audience, who are key to the future of the BBC

Audience questions:

What are your timelines? Very tight, due to special effects and schedule changes. Ideally 4 months notice to get a team in place. Clips arrived very late so clip-based assets were very close-to-the-wire

What’s the mix of skills within the team? All in-house, but we bring in freelancers into the team when we need them.

What didn’t come off? Had to drop our idea to fly a real-life zeppelin over key UK locations because the only available zeppelin was already booked for an Oktoberfest event.

Other work referenced:

Peaky Blinders fan-art campaign

Dracula shadow billboard

  • Inspired by a Japanese artist who makes shadow art
  • By day – stakes hammered into billboard
  • By night – transforms and the shadow left by the stakes forms the shape of Dracula’s face
  • Front page of Reddit twice, picked up by global media

This is a love story: Key takeaways from the Fleabag campaign

Posted on February 20, 2020 by - Campaigns, Case Studies

In January, Helen Flood of Hodder won the October-December 2019 Best Non-Fiction Marketing Campaign award for her wonderful work on the campaign for Fleabag: The Scriptures. Here, she shares her three key lessons from that campaign:

Keep the faith.

For a really long time in this campaign I worked without any visuals or any knowledge of what the extra material would be. There were no proofs, no audio clips, no meetings with author or agent. All I knew was that a lot of people loved Fleabag and if we presented a campaign pitched to what they loved about the show, that they’d get it.

You can do a lot without an author.

Our three ‘Fleabag parties’ (authorless events) sold out, because people really wanted to come and talk about Fleabag. They loved getting goody bags and taking part in the confessions. And brands loved the show as much as we did – Marks and Spencer gave us 450 free gins and in tins, Becca and Elizabeth Arden sent lipsticks and Philip Kingsley provided the hair masks (because hair is everything). Fans loved visiting the café because they adore the series and wanted to take photos – it didn’t matter that Phoebe wouldn’t be there. We found lots of fans to tweet and share our messaging, and after some convincing even the BBC got on board and tweeted about the book.

Give something back.

Soho Theatre is so important to the Fleabag story, and they do great work with young writers, helping them to bring their work to the stage. I really wanted to work with them as their fans and followers are people who love the craft of theatre and are more likely than anyone else to buy scripts to study the way the show is put together. By sponsoring a bursary for a writer who wouldn’t have otherwise been able to afford to attend a theatre writing course it felt like Fleabag could come full circle and was a great finishing touch to the campaign.

Winners of the October-December 2019 BMS Awards

Posted on January 30, 2020 by - BMS Awards, News

Book Marketing Society Awards

And the winners of last night’s BMS Awards are…

Best Multi-Title Campaign

  • Highly Commended: That’s Not My…

Marketers: Joanna Olney & Sarah Connell (Usborne)

‘We loved the joined-up, strategic thinking behind this campaign, which reached straight into the hearts of the target audience and elevated sales across the range. Very impressive!’

  • Winner: MerkyBooks Pop-Up Shop

Marketers: Emma Wallace, Natalia Cacciatore, Lydia Weigel & Sharifah Grant (Cornerstone PRH)

‘The panel was unanimous in awarding this fantastic campaign to celebrate the Merky Books imprint. The pop-up shop not only successfully connected its growing community of underrepresented readers and writers, but also made some noise within the industry. Excellent work.’

Best Guerilla Campaign

  • Highly Commended: Where’s My Guitar? by Bernie Marsden

Marketer: Liv Marsden (4th Estate HarperCollins)

‘We all absolutely loved the passion that went into making this campaign such a success. On zero budget this campaign built on the loyalty of Bernie’s fanbase and looked to leave no stone unturned in a bid to engage audiences.’

  • Winner: Find Me by André Aciman

Marketer: Phoebe Williams (Faber & Faber)

‘An excellent example of a focused marketing campaign channelling its modest budget into a campaign meeting its core audience where it is! This singularly focused, yet imaginative, campaign deservedly resulted in great sales for this sequel title.’

Best Children’s Campaign

  • Highly Commended: The Taylor Turbochaser by David Baddiel

Marketer: Alex Cowan (HarperCollins Children’s Books)

‘Showed fantastic creativity with an experiential taxi brand activation amplified on social channels; a trailer distributed across cinema, TV and digital; activity at go-karting sites to reach the perfect audience, and retail theatre.’

  • Winner: Earth Heroes by Lily Dyu

Marketer: Hester Seddon & Julia Kathro (Nosy Crow)

‘With only a 4-month lead time from acquisition to promotion, the team managed to develop a brilliantly executed campaign to reach young environmentally-minded readers, with teaching resource packs, partnerships and a video competition that leveraged user-generated content.’

Best Young Adult Campaign

  • Highly Commended: The Places I’ve Cried in Public by Holly Bourne

Marketers: Hannah Reardon Steward & Joanna Olney (Usborne)

‘The team behind this campaign demonstrated a thorough understanding of their audience. They tackled a challenging subject matter with finesse and style, with excellent results.’

  • Winner: It’s Not OK To Feel Blue (and other lies)  by Scarlett Curtis

Marketer: Alesha Bonser (PRH Children’s)

‘This campaign was a masterclass in talent and asset management. It was meticulously planned and expertly executed, with no resource wasted. This team chose not to rest on its laurels and instead is in the process of building an unforgettable brand.’

Best Adult Non-Fiction Campaign

  • Highly Commended: Fleabag: The Scriptures by Phoebe Waller-Bridge

Marketer: Helen Flood (Sceptre/Hodder & Stoughton)

‘Simple and understated, the campaign understood the bones of Fleabag. The quotes worked as in-jokes to those who were fans, and cheeky commentary to those who were not.’

  • Winner: The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse by Charlie Mackesy

Marketer: Rebecca Hibbert (Ebury PRH)

‘We were wowed by the sales numbers this book, by a virtually unknown author, managed to achieve on a modest budget. Props to the marketing team who showed a real understanding of the audience and took every opportunity to build its passion for the title.’

Best Adult Fiction Campaign

  • Highly Commended: So Lucky by Dawn O’Porter

Marketer: Rachel Quin & Sarah Shea (HarperCollins)

‘It’s always a joy to see innovation and passion combined and that’s certainly what we saw in this fresh and exciting campaign. Special mention to the Podcast which we all thought worked brilliantly.’

  • Winner: The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

Marketer: Sophie Painter & Kate Neilan (Vintage PRH)

‘A brilliantly creative and multifaceted campaign ticking all the boxes and more! Audience and retailer understanding was at its core but it went far beyond this and we, as judges, loved the teams desire to innovate. Bravo!’

SPOTLIGHT AWARDS:

  • Audience Development Spotlight:

The Secret Commonwealth  by Philip Pullman

Marketer: Gemma Rostill & Michael Bedo (PRH Children’s)

‘This team took nothing for granted with its approach to audience, unpacking its insight from all possible angles in a way that maintained loyalty, reincorporated lapsed fans and brought new readers into the fold. Inspiring work all around.’

  • Innovation Spotlight

I Carried A Watermelon  by Katy Brand

Marketer: Claire Brett & Joanna Rose (HQ HarperCollins)

‘This stunt was strategic, focused and FUN. With minimal budget this team honed in on one core piece of activity, which they then made work across multiple platforms.’

  • Creativity Spotlight

Wham! George & Me  by Andrew Ridgeley

Marketer: Claire Bush & Vicky Photiou (Michael Joseph PRH)

‘The design of the campaign reflected the nostalgia of the time. In a blink, the 80s backgrounds took you back to Smash Hits and WHSmith stationery, giving the campaign a visual language.’

Full list of 2019 Book Marketing Society Award Winners

Posted on December 13, 2019 by - News

Book Marketing Society Awards

Book Marketing Society Awards

January – March 2019

  • Debut – The Familiars / Stephen Dumugn, Felice McKeown, Sahini Bibi (BonnierZaffre)
  • Fiction – The Binding / Sarah Shea, Katy Blott (HarperFiction)
  • Non-fiction – Pinch of Nom / Don Shanahan, Jodie Mullish, Andy Joannou (Bluebird)
  • Children’s – The Valentines: Happy Girl Lucky / Alex Cowan, Beth Maher (HC Childrens)
  • YA – King of Scars / Naomi Berwin, Natasha Whearity (Hachette Childrens)
  • Guerrilla – How to Clean Your House / Janet Aspey, Hannah Sawyer (HQ)

April – June 2019

  • Debut – Queenie / Cait Davies (Orion)
  • Fiction – In a House of Lies / Tom Noble (Orion)
  • Non-fiction – The Secret Barrister / Paul Martinovic (Pan Macmillan)
  • Children’s – Malamander / Jill Kidson, Jo Humphries-Davies, Josh Alliston, James McParland (Walker)
  • YA – A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder / Jasveen Bansal, Dannie Price (Egmont)
  • Guerrilla – Lowborn / Sophie Painter (Vintage)

July – September 2019

  • Debut – Our Stop / Hannah O’Brien, Ellie Pilcher (Avon)
  • Fiction – The Testaments / Rosanna Boscawen, Chloe Healy, Sophie Painter (Vintage PRH)
  • Non-fiction – Three Women / Hannah Paget (Bloomsbury)
  • Children’s – Top Marks for Murder / Sonia Razvi (PRH Childrens)
  • YA – The Deathless Girls / Naomi Berwin (Hachette Childrens)
  • Guerrilla – In at the Deep End / Fleur Clarke (HarperFiction)
  • Multi-title – Start Your Voyage / Fleur Clarke, Emma Pickard, Rachel Quin (HarperFiction)

October-December 2019

  • The Starless Sea / Sophie Painter & Kate Neilan (Vintage PRH)Fiction
  • Non-fiction – The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse / Rebecca Hibbert (Ebury PRH)
  • Children’s – Earth Heroes / Hester Seddon & Julia Kathro (Nosy Crow)
  • YA – It’s Not OK To Feel Blue (and other lies) / Alesha Bonser (PRH Children’s)
  • Guerrilla – Find Me / Phoebe Williams (Faber & Faber)
  • Multi-title – MerkyBooks Pop-Up Shop / Emma Wallace, Natalia Cacciatore, Lydia Weigel & Sharifah Grant (Cornerstone PRH)

4 key learnings from Three Women

Posted on December 5, 2019 by - Case Studies, News

Three Women

Three Women

Congratulations to Hannah Paget of Bloomsbury, who picked up a BMS Award for her outstanding work on the Three Women campaign. The judges said she “delivered a highly impactful and beautiful campaign for an unknown US author by building advocacy from both key influencers and booksellers.”

Here are the key learnings Hannah wanted to share about the campaign:

1. Important books are for everyone

While it is often crucial to have a target market in mind, with Three Women we wanted an approach that wouldn’t limit the potential audience. Mindful of the special high/low nature of the book, our aim was to position it as a ground-breaking piece of non-fiction but also a thrilling read. We deliberately kept the messaging around it as broad and open as possible. I carefully planned the first proof, keeping the design pared back and using that amazing Dave Eggers quote, to confidently assert that this was important book to be taken seriously. Settling on the cover image was also long process (our amazing designer Greg Heinimann tried over 100 covers!) as we wanted to make sure we were doing something original and universal that wouldn’t narrow the audience.

2. Booksellers are your friends and key champions

Getting retailers on side was crucial. We knew the author was a huge asset, so we brought her over to the UK four months before publication. Allowing booksellers to meet her, to hear her speak about the book and the eight years she spent researching it, led to a huge increase in booksellers reading and loving it. Through working closely with those key buyers and booksellers we were able to secure strong in-store support. Foyles in particular were incredible supporters. They chose it as their book of the month, had a special edition including gift with purchase, a sold out event before publication and multiple window displays. They’ve gone on to name it their Non-Fiction Book of the Year. Waterstones Gower Street were also amazing at hand selling and created the most beautiful window display!

3. Helpful to determine creative clarity as soon as possible

In order to straddle a serious non-fiction treatment with a highly original and thrilling read, I wanted to ensure visuals around the campaign were pared back and not suggestive or leading. This was established early on and adhered to throughout. I also wanted the marketing materials to feel high-quality and tactile, so I chose a soft touch laminate finish for the postcards and the second proof, which influenced the decision for the finished book. An initial style guide for internal use and for international offices was also incredibly useful for keeping this consistent.

4. Have regular meetings with a core group to keep yourself on track

Working so closely as a team was incredibly important. I would meet regularly with Alexis, the editor, and Emma, the publicist, to go over every detail of the campaign. We drafted and redrafted the initial copy and closely thought through the positioning and messaging. We were all busy working on it separately, but meeting regularly kept our messaging and visuals aligned.

Announcing the Book Marketing Society Mentorship Scheme

Posted on November 26, 2019 by - BMS, News

We’re pleased to announce our first cross-publisher mentorship scheme for marketers.

About

Mentoring is a relationship, usually between a senior mentor and a more junior mentee, designed to provide a neutral and confidential space for discussion, to help with shaping careers and navigating areas of development.

The BMS scheme is designed to be reciprocal, with much of the steering coming from the senior partner, but advice on offer where appropriate from the junior partner. While some larger publishers run their own mentorship schemes, this is designed to be complementary – there is a benefit to cross-industry links and different ways of approaching challenges.

The aim of the scheme is to build networks and support best practice across publishers’ marketing teams.

There are 12 places available in the first year.

How

The mentorship is designed to last for 1 year and each pair commits to meeting at least 3 times over the year. The onus is on the mentee to request a meeting with the mentor checking in if necessary to move things on. We suggest you choose a neutral venue and meet for a coffee –this may need to fall outside work hours but we will leave it to each pair to arrange a suitable time. The suggested meeting duration is 60 to 90 minutes.

For those based outside of London, we recommend arranging meetings via Skype (or equivalent) or by phone.

When

Mentees should apply by 10th December 2019. Matches will be announced by mid-January 2020.

To apply as a mentee

NB Mentee applicants should have at least six months’ experience in an entry level marketing role

Email [email protected] by 10th December 2019. Please include in your email:

  • Name
  • Job title
  • Experience to date
  • Location
  • What you would like to gain from a mentorship – please be as detailed as possible in order to help match you
  • Any specific challenges you’d like to address

To volunteer as a mentor

NB Mentors should be of Marketing Manager (or equivalent) level, or above

Email [email protected] by 10th December 2019. Please include in your email:

  • Name
  • Job title
  • Experience to date
  • Areas of expertise
  • Please let us know if you have mentored before
  • Anything else you think it would be helpful for us to know

If you have any questions, please email [email protected]

The BMS Mentorship Team are:

  • Niamh Murray, Marketing Director, Profile Books
  • Matt Clacher, Marketing Director, Fourth Estate
  • Celeste Ward-Best, Deputy Marketing Director, Little Brown

Winners of the July-September 2019 BMS Awards

Posted on November 21, 2019 by - BMS Awards, News

Book Marketing Society Awards

Book Marketing Society Awards

And the winners of last night’s BMS Awards are…

Best Multi-Title Campaign

  • Highly Commended: The Year of Tracy Chevalier

Marketer: Abbie Salter, HarperCollins

“It was a challenge to reignite the passion of a classic title, re-engage existing audiences and create new ones. This campaign was carefully planned and connected the dots between the titles, loyal audiences and the engagement of new!”

  • Winner: Start Your Voyage

Marketers: Fleur Clarke, Emma Pickard & Rachel Quin, HarperCollins

“This was a well thought-out campaign, bringing traditional branding into the 21st Century to excited existing audiences and incite new one. Through the design of a great suite of assets, and making use of a number of list authors in the UK at the same time, the publisher was able to give this list the brand reboot it deserved with a distinct look and feel.”

Best Guerilla Campaign

  • Highly Commended: The Carer by Deborah

Marketer: Victoria Abbot, Headline (Hachette)

“An imaginative approach to casting the net wide to find the audience for Deborah’s book, demonstrating a real sense of understanding a brand.”

  • Winner: In at the Deep End by Kate Davies

Marketer: Fleur Clarke, Harper Collins

“A fantastic example of trusting your instincts to build on a strong campaign message. Strategic planning lead to a raft of opportunities that gave the paperback the exposure it needed and it really paid off.”

Best Children’s Campaign

  • Highly Commended: Plastic Sucks by Dougie Poynter

Marketer: Kat McKenna, Macmillan Children’s Books

“Leveraging a great publishing proposition, the team harnessed Dougie Poynter’s social media presence with the use of strategic content, devising creative partnerships with WWF, Kidzania, Sea Life London, Sky Ocean Rescue, Summer in the City and devising a school outreach programme and a nationwide event to inspire a new generation of environmental ambassadors.”

  • Winner: Top Marks for Murder by Robyn Stevens

Marketer: Sonia Razvi, Puffin Books

“It’s not easy to run a recruitment campaign for 8th book in a series, but the Top Marks for Murder marketer devised fantastic initiatives for renewed bookseller engagement, leveraging the existing fanbase on Twitter and Popjam, and devising creative partnerships across Sblended Milkshake shops, Trampoline Parks, Coffee Shops and school engagement to reach a new audience.”

Best Young Adult Campaign

  • Highly Commended: Crossfire by Malorie Blackman

Marketer: Michael Bedo, Penguin Random House Children’s

“Great core creative idea running throughout the #DearMalorie campaign, supported with presence at Glastonbury and good use of influencers, social advertising and animated trailer.”

  • Winner: The Deathless Girls by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Marketer: Naomi Berwin, Hachette Children’s Group

“A solid campaign which leveraged owned channels and third-party activities, including a mini-brochure in Illumicrate boxes, influencers outreach, presence at YALC, and an animated mini-trailer to target the perfect audience.”

Best Debut Campaign

  • Highly Commended: My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Marketers: Jamie Forrest and Sophie Walker, Atlantic Books

“Oh the beauty of this campaign! Stunning creative, brilliant copy and a tenacity with the paperback which drove sales and made this book unmissable.”

  • Winner: Our Stop by Laura Jane William

Marketers: Hannah O’Brien and Ellie Pilcher, Avon (HarperCollins)

“A sharp, focussed campaign with rigorous audience testing and an unwavering brand proposition, this team outperformed its own objectives, smashing sales targets and shifting industry perceptions.”

Best Adult Non-Fiction Campaign

  • Highly Commended: Gotta Get Theroux This by Louis Theroux

Marketers: Sarah Arratoon, Andy Joannou, Sarah Patel and Connie Roff, PanMacmillan

“We loved how this cheeky and fun campaign captured the spirit of Louis while being underpinned by a smart media strategy.”

  • Winner: Three Women by Lisa Taddeo

Marketer: Hannah Paget, Bloomsbury

“They delivered a highly impactful and beautiful campaign for an unknown US author by building advocacy from both key influencers and booksellers.”

Best Adult Fiction Campaign

  • Highly Commended: The Chain by Adrian McKinty

Marketer: Tom Noble, Orion

“With a limited budget, this campaign demonstrated enormous integrity and passion. Its consistent, bold branding brilliantly tied in with the book’s sinister premise.”

  • Winner: The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

Marketers: Rosanna Boscawen, Chloe Healy and Sophie Painter, Vintage

“For the book event of the decade, the team at VINTAGE were by no means complacent, and created a dovetailed, innovative and highly impactful campaign which made the most of every opportunity.”

SPOTLIGHT AWARDS:

Audience development

  • One Minute Later by Susan Lewis

Marketers: Fleur Clarke and Rachel Quin, HarperCollins

“With thorough, in-depth analysis, the team developed an insight-driven, creative campaign which engaged new, relevant audiences for an author three decades into her career.”

Innovation spotlight

  • Over the Top by Jonathan Van Ness

Marketer: Amy Fulwood, Simon & Schuster

“Really impressive audience targeting tailored to multiple platforms, the most ambitious being the animated Smart TV ads served to Queer Eye watchers, streamers and – surprisingly – video gamers.”

Creativity spotlight

  • The Holiday by T.M. Logan

Marketer: Felice McKeown, Zaffre / Bonnier Books UK

“This campaign was as compelling as a movie trailer. Clever use of language and cohesive branding gave it a life of its own as a fitting prelude to the book.”

Congratulations to all the winners and thank you to everyone who submitted their campaign. Look out for the next round of award entreis coming in the new year!