Retailers reveal festive promotional campaigns

Bookshops are rolling out their Christmas advertising campaigns, with Foyles releasing a video in support of its festive push for the first time.

The chain bookseller’s in-house marketing team created a video selling the concept that a book is a gift that can keep on giving, using the strapline: “Give them the gift they’ll open again and again.” It shows someone dressed in pajamas placing baubles on a Christmas tree, eating mince pies and stirring a hot drink before settling down to read a book.

Published on Foyles’ YouTube channel, the video was created in-house by Gavin Read, digital content coordinator, with Simon Heafield, head of marketing and brand development, designer Jeff Clark and graphic design and merchandising co-ordinator Sofia Hericson over a period of several months.

Foyles’ campaign will have more of a multimedia focus than in previous years, with a spread of digital and print marketing. The chain aims to have a wider regional reach this year, to reflect the fact the company now has three shops outside London. But the seven-store bookseller will still roll out advertising across London Underground stations at the end of this month.

Heafield said: “What we were really thinking about this year was what makes books special as a gift. We were thinking of the gift of a book as not just something people want to open as a present, but as something people want to love and possibly re-read many times over. You might not get that experience when opening a different present.”

He added: “The campaign will be more multimedia this year, with a regional focus as we now have three shops outside London, with a mix of digital and outdoor advertising, including on social media and Facebook.”

Blackwell’s Christmas marketing campaign revolves around fresh point-of-sale materials, with a “natural, rustic” look, in all of its shops’ windows. The promotion will extend to an outdoor advertising and newspaper campaign in key locations, Susannah Hobbs, senior marketing manager, told The Bookseller. “The campaign focuses on our specialist booksellers, who have chosen the books to go into their local Christmas campaign, tailoring the offer to their own market,” she added.

Waterstones’ festive marketing campaign will focus around events, meanwhile. “Santa Storytimes” and festive-themed customer shopping experiences will be held in many of its stores, including its Piccadilly flagship, Hatchards outpost and Newcastle premises.

“First and foremost”, though, the company will be focused on “having the right offer for each of our shops’ customers, attractive tables and displays, supported by festive point of sale,” said Sandra Taylor, head of PR and events.

Waterstones’ website will also feature a new “Christmas gifting shop”, supported by social media and email marketing. The chain retailer will also reveal its Waterstones Book of the Year on Thursday 1st December.