Picoult and Cannon campaigns in BMS quarterly wins

The Book Marketing Society has revealed the winners of its seasonal awards for September 2016 to January 2017.
 
The Adult Fiction prize went to Vickie Boff and Fleur Clark at Hodder & Stoughton for the campaign for Jodi Picoult’s Small Great Things, which aimed to reinvent the author’s perception as “only” a chick-lit author. Proofs without the author’s name forced readers to “read without prejudice” and the advertising creative could be interpreted two different ways, used cleverly with corner posters.
 
Harper Fiction’s Hannah Gamon and Katie Moss were highly commended for their campaign for Joanna Cannon’s The Trouble with Goats and Sheep, featuring farmyard animal puns galore and a goat and sheep cheese selection gift for booksellers.
 
The best Adult Non-Fiction campaign went to Paul Martinovic of Viking for John le Carré’s The Pigeon Tunnel, which made the most of an enigmatic author—including le Carré-associated actors doing readings and “judicious use” of existing photos and recordings of the writer
 
The GCHQ Puzzle Book campaign, by Katie Bowden of Michael Joseph, and the campaign for Ben Macintyre’s SAS Rogue Heroes by Rosa Poole of Viking, were jointly highly commended in the Adult Non-Fiction category.  The GCHQ Puzzle Book campaign used a different strategy for four identified target audiences, with customised copylines and puzzles for each, while the SAS Rogue Heroes campaign made the men of the original SAS regiment the focus of the creative, despite the challenge of working with the current SAS authorities.
 
Anna Bowen of Trapeze’s campaign for Trayaurus and the Enchanted Crystal by gaming YouTuber Daniel Middleton (DanTDM) was named the best of Children’s. It featured an online Top Trumps game developed from the book’s content, which had 1.1 million plays in the first 48 hours.  Hannah Bourne and Andrea Bowie of Puffin’s campaign for Tom Fletcher’s The Christmasarus and Hannah Sidorjak of PRHC’s campaign for Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Kitty in Boots were jointly highly commended.
 
The Multi-Title campaign award had two winners: Bethan Ferguson and Jeska Lyons of Quercus’ campaign for the Enid Blyton for Grown-ups books, and Alice Morley and Fleur Clarke of Hodder & Stoughton’s King for a Day campaign to promote Stephen King’s backlist.
 
The Enid Blyton for Grown-Ups campaign, prevented from using the Famous Five branding, commissioned hampers and a special edition Five Go Bookselling short story to send out to bookshops. King for a Day saw online events promoting eight different titles on the author’s birthday. An Audible collaboration to announce the release of a new title in audio download format resulted in the biggest Daily Deal ever.
 
Pan Macmillan’s Wrapped with Love campaign, a “hugely ambitious” digital first campaign that featured 15 20-second videos of innovative ways to gift-wrap a book, was Highly Commended.
 
The Guerilla campaign prize went to Aimee Kitson of Constable for Ian Wright’s autobiography A Life in Football. The campaign concentrated on Wright’s fanbase and Arsenal FC social media and blogs, and had “terrific” sales on a £2,000 budget. Highly Commended was Jodie Mullish and Jessica Farrugia of Bluebird’s campaign for How to Hygge by Signe Johansen, which created the Hygge Weekend, partnering with several brands for a huge social media and newsletter reach.
 
Jo Henry, VP of Insight & Analytics at Nielsen Book, said the list of submissions was “incredibly rich” and that the judges felt “the strength of the campaigns generally reflects the terrific marketing skills now working within the industry.”