Cornerstone unveils branded piano for James' The Mister

Cornerstone has unveiled E L James’ The Mister with a colourful publicity campaign including a “Superfan Sleepover” and a pop-up branded piano in Sloane Square with a female pianist.

James’ new novel, outside of the Fifty Shades of Grey universe, was published on Tuesday (16th April), and is being supported by a large scale multi-platform campaign including London Underground and National Rail, TV and radio advertising.

The “Superfan Sleepover” culminated with a delivery of the book at 11pm on Monday night “with huge social blizzard overnight”, Cornerstone said. With a combined social following of 78.2k Twitter followers, 21.2k Instagram followers and 73.7k Facebook followers, the total social media reach of influencers during the Sleepover was put at 1.9 million, with Cornerstone numbering the reach of all tweets explicitly mentioning The Mister at 18 million since Saturday 13th April. 

There was also a pop-up The Mister branded piano in Sloane Square with professional female pianist, inspired by one of the novel’s protagonists.

A competition, hosted on the Penguin Random House website, received more than 5,000 entries for a chance to win a night in a hotel in Chelsea with £100 towards room service and the book delivered at midnight.

There has been national TV advertising on ITV across the week as well as a national radio campaign planned on the Heart FM Network - featuring an exclusive extract aired at midnight as the book was released - as well as a raft of media interviews.

The New York Times profiled James last week and referenced the campaign planning for the book including a thwarted concept of beaming light pink from a lighthouse in Cornwall (where the book is partially set). In the same interview, James also discussed a ghost story set in contemporary London, which she hopes will be published, and touched on some of The Mister’s political themes.

Additionally there have been regional radio adverts across various stations, running from 16th April for two weeks, reaching more than 684,000 listeners. Amazon-owned Audible will be supporting the audiobook version with spend on their social channels.

On 24th April, James will appear in conversation with romantic novelist Veronica Henry at Chelsea Old Town Hall.