2015 Digital Business of the Year
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Blackwell’s brought a historic bookselling business bang up to date with advanced customer relationship management and multiscreen tills
Bloomsbury Academic & Professional added Bloomsbury Collections to digital services including Drama Online and Churchill Central in 2014
Bookouture deployed an array of sales and marketing technology to enhance its e-book publishing
WINNER: HEAD OF ZEUS
DIGITALLY LED BUT with print still very much in mind, Clerkenwell-based Head of Zeus might just be setting the template for trade publishers of the future to follow. Its mantra of “E first and last” recognises that digital technology is the best way to get new books to readers, and to ensure they are readily available in the long term. Its list of e-books is into four figures in just a couple of years, and it sold some two million units last year, clocking up dozens of places on Amazon’s Kindle chart as it did so. Breaking new novelists and breathing new life into neglected books, it now has its eye on digitally under-exploited non-fiction titles. Skilful marketing, dynamic pricing and complex algorithms are all part of Head of Zeus’ successful mix. Publishing is often criticised for a perceived lack of digital expertise, but its sophisticated and custom- built tools—and those of its fellow publishers and retailers on this shortlist—prove that this is a far more advanced industry than many
KEY STRENGTHS
realise. But the company remains in touch with print publishing too, and spins profitable bookshop editions out of many of its e-books.
John Smith’s partnered with Samsung, Kortext and universities to improve the functionality of students’ digital resources
Kobo pushed new boundaries in tablets with the launch of the waterproof Aura H20 and the illuminated Kobo Glo
Lostmy.Name married digital technology to print books to get children reading, and starred in BBC’s “Dragons’ Den” last year
Breaking new novelists and breathing new life into neglected books, Head of Zeus now has its eye on digitally under-exploited non-fiction titles
The Bookseller judges admired the way Head of Zeus distils publishing to its essence, as well as displaying an operational excellence that suggests it is here to stay. “Last year Head of Zeus really made its presence felt,” they said. “It has a simple but brilliant plan that it executes consistently well, and it is starting to shift a lot of units.”
Substantial year-on-year sales growth and impressive profitability In-house streamlining of bibliographic, production and sales ops Digitally savvy marketing, leading to many e-book bestsellers Adroit balancing of digital and print, informed by market nous
Pan Macmillan led the way in trade publishing’s adoption of digital discoverability and data analysis last year
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