Marketing Strategy of the Year
WINNER HARPERCOLLINS
Critically and commercially, Gail Honeyman’s Eleanor Oliphant is Com- pletely Fine was one of the biggest début hits of 2017—and HarperCollins’ creative, co-ordinated and committed marketing strategy was one of the main reasons why. Its four-step strategy began 18 months before publication. First came market research, identifying the target audience and honing the proposition—including a change of title. Next, HC laid foun- dations in the trade, with a blanket proof drop and assiduous courting of Waterstones and independents. Third, the consumer-facing campaign, with widespread advertising and a high-profile Radio 2 slot. Then came the follow-up: the sustained social media spend, including a #smallactso- fOliphant message, and a final push into the Christmas trading period. The whole campaign was backed by high-impact visuals. The book
was the second-bestselling fiction début of the year, with sales nearing 300,000 copies, and it started 2018 by winning the Costa First Novel Award, teeing up the paperback perfectly. “HarperCollins seized the book with passion,” said the judges. “The fantastically strong trade marketing showed the intent to make it a bestseller, and the well-focused consumer campaign drove it through. It had a big budget, but the results were even bigger—it reached every part of the market.” HIGHLY COMMENDED in this category was CORNERSTONE’s campaign for Eskiboy by Wiley. The book had the disadvantage of negligible author support and the challenge of converting music fans into book buyers. Cor- nerstone did so by bypassing book marketing techniques and agencies, and putting video at the heart of the strategy. Content spread quickly via social media and influencers, and received 200,000 views on publication day. “This was an outstanding piece of original thinking . . . It brought the book to the right people in the right way," judges said.
KEY STRENGTHS
Wholehearted marketing to the trade to build anticipation
Consumer advertising and social activity to sustain momentum into Christmas
Cross-format sales neared 300,000; the
title spent 19 weeks on the bestseller lists Cornerstone highly commended for an
SHORTLIST
HARPERCOLLINS Achieved a second shortlisting with its campaign for Why Mummy Drinks by Gill Sims, leveraging the author’s social media following to drive six-figure sales.
LITTLE, BROWN BOOK GROUP Deployed a range of digital marketing strategies, festival activity and audio elements to push e-book sales of The Dry by Jane Harper into six figures.
PAN MACMILLAN Winner of this award in 2017, and shortlisted again for its work on A Column of Fire by Ken Follett, winner of Campaign of the Year at the 2017 FutureBook Awards.
THE BRITISH BOOK AWARDS WINNERS 2018
PENGUIN PRESS Positioned Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls by Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo as part of the con- versation about female empowerment, sustaining sales way beyond publication.
VINTAGE Used smart partnerships with several digital women’s entertainment platforms to make the paperback of The Girls by Emma Cline one of the big summer reads.
WORLD BOOK DAY Stepped awareness activity up a gear to mark its 20th anniversary, achieving record levels of token redemptions and social media impressions.
unconventional approach to Wiley’s Eskiboy
WITH THANKS TO: NIELSEN
Nielsen studies consumers in 47 European markets,
and across more than 100 countries around the world, to give the most complete view of buying trends and media habits.
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