I am dead impressed with the Britons at Penguin UK. Twice this year I have been wowed by their book marketing campaigns.
It is easy to bemoan the less than creative tactics North American companies use to market books, and then not do anything about it. So I’ve been mulling over the state of affairs in an attempt to generate creative ideas with action items.
One of my reflections is that publishers treat reading as this serious thing that will somehow improve your life and that’s why you should do it. This line of thought in teen marketing particularly sucks. Publishers talk about making reading cool, but I don’t think we actually get around to making it really cool.
So what’s cool and how do you find it?
I think the book publishing industry does a lot of inward looking vs. outward looking. Forget what that other publisher is doing, what are the cool recording studios doing, what’s Apple doing, what are cell phone companies doing? Why not look at industries with high competition. Seems to me that in hugely competitive markets, the creative departments and ad agencies are really driven to create clever and unique campaigns. Is the lack of exciting, memorable book ad campaigns partly due to a lack of competition? I think so.
I don’t know what kind of rabbits I can pull out of my hat in terms of book campaigns, but I’m setting my sights on Penguin UK.
A couple of months ago Penguin launch “Are you good booking”. The site was set up to promote the male counterpart to chick lit, but it wasn’t just about books the boys would like. It was about what books you should have on the coffee table or be able to discuss with a date. What books would make you good booking in the eyes of a lady love who loves reading. Jocks and books, the ladies’ man and books. Sex it up.
The campaign was clever. There were polls and puns and lots of sex talk. I vaguely recall a list with books that had great sex scenes. I can’t find the original screen shots I took, but the site does still have Good Booking Monthly selections and the cheekiness is carried through in some of the copy. For example, “Hornby Days are Here Again.” Can’t you hear the ladies cooing, “oh Nick.”
So that was number 1. Number 2 is Penguin Remixed. Hear Penguin. Sample Penguin. Remix Penguin.
I know some of you cool kids already know about this, but I’m gob-smacked by this most awesome use of spoken words. I’ve been to other sites with audio readings by the author. Those are lovely, but really author readings are better live and the audio clips don’t normally make it anywhere interesting–like passed around to your friends and saved in your playlist. Enter Penguin.
Penguin has taken 30 of the “best spoken word samples from some of the greatest books of all time and the finest actors around.” Read here: Penguin has published many of the greatest books of all time, many being Penguin Classics–you remember the orange spine, the penguin logo … anyway they have posted the media samples for us to play with and they are cool. Not just wouldn’t it be nice if the kids thought books were cool, but truly pass-on-to-your-friends cool. Try these samples on for size. There’s a contest too to submit personal entries. Books, music, online contests: I like it.
Check out Penguin Remixed but make sure you have an intervention plan in place. This site is addictive.
Have you seen any great campaigns lately for books? Or that could be modified for books? I’m on the lookout.
By the way, Geist magazine has a cool Haiku Night in Canada video and a Listening Room.