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Great M&P brainstorm sparks ideas for new industry-wide initiative for reading
Marketers and publicists gathered at the conclusion of The Bookseller’s Marketing & Publicity Conference yesterday (26th June) to brainstorm a new industry-wide initiative for reading, in a session that sparked dozens of ideas for events, brand collaborations and more.
Participants were asked to collaborate in groups to come up with a big, industry-wide initiative for reading, “something with ambitions to lift books as a category to the dizzying heights of other entertainment sectors”.
The brainstorm followed on the heels of a panel entitled “Breaking Out is Hard to Do” in which Claire Bush, head of marketing at Cornerstone, Hannah Davies, director of prize management and special projects at The Booker Prizes, and Pollyanne Conway, series producer, “Between the Covers” and head of development at Cactus TV, discussed their efforts to reach wider reading audiences and elevate reading as an entertainment format. For example, one way Bush said they “dial up [the entertainment] value of books” was to make audio a “hero format”, particularly in the instance of Will Smith’s autobiography, Will, and reach “buzz followers” and “light readers”.
Likewise, when discussing the genesis of BBC’s “Between the Covers”, Conway said they wanted it to be “proper entertainment, an entertainment show at its heart”, which “didn’t preach to the converted [or] make a show for people who are already readers ”, and which used the relatability of celebrity guests as one way to bring in audiences. Davies similarly said the team were working to ensure the Booker Prizes brand isn’t intimidating or formal, bringing in the likes of pop artist Dua Lipa as one way of reaching new or occasional readers.
Split into groups of around 10, each brainstorming team was initially suggested a “pillar” around which to orientate their thinking, for example “festival”, and were then encouraged over 25 minutes to be completely free in thinking about what an industry-wide initiative for reading could look like. Suggestions included a campaign called “Love Stories” which used the popularity of the romance genre to encourage readers to share the stories they love, with a partnership with Hinge suggested, while a #ReadOneThing campaign was also floated, with people to share which book they would read if they had to pick just one. Another called “Read a New Life” was shared, as was the self-explanatory “GoggleBook” TV show and a reality TV show about publishing, and how books are created, called “All in the Edit”.
