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Picador unveils 'stellar' marketing campaign for Booker winner Stuart's Young Mungo
Picador has unveiled a “stellar” marketing campaign for Booker Prize winner Douglas Stuart’s second novel Young Mungo, with Wolfgang Tillmans’ front cover photograph “The Cock (Kiss)” at its heart.
Published on 14th April, the book tells the love story of Protestant Mungo and Catholic James in Glasgow’s housing estates. It sees Mungo and James become best friends as they find a sanctuary in the "doocot", or dovecote, that James has built for his prize-racing pigeons. As they begin to fall in love, they dream of escaping the grey city, and Mungo must work hard to hide his true self from all those around him.
Picador said it wanted the jacket to honour “the beauty and courage” of Mungo’s story. The publisher said of Tillmans’ image: “The tenderness, passion and defiance of the image set the tone for everything we wanted to achieve in the campaign and is at the heart of all visuals.”
An outdoor marketing campaign also draws on the book’s themes, bringing doocots to life with installations in Waterstones Sauchiehall Street in Glasgow and London Piccadilly. A 12-minute audio extract of the moment the two central characters meet plays inside the doocot, while posters repeat key moments, showcase reviews and encourage on-the-spot QR code donations for partner charity akt, which supports homeless LGBTQ+ young people.
All profits from ticket sales for Stuart’s UK tour will also go to akt, with Pan Macmillan pledging to match the funds raised. Eleven events and four signings are set up with bookshops and festivals, working with indies, Waterstones, Foyles and Blackwell’s, and reaching across the UK, with an emphasis on Scotland.
Events include Douglas in conversation with Louise Welsh at the Mitchell Library in Glasgow on publication day, in association with Aye Write Festival and Waterstones Sauchiehall Street. He will also talk to Jackie Kay, in association with the Manchester Literature Festival and Waterstones Piccadilly, at Damian Barr’s Literary Salon in Brighton, and with Andrew McMillan at Conway Hall.
Broadcast interviews include the BBC’s “News at Ten”, “Today” and “Open Book”, STV’s ’Scotland Tonight’ and BBC Scotland’s “Reporting Scotland”. Graham Norton’s Virgin Radio show and the Scala Radio Book Club, Nihal Arthanayake on BBC Live, Mariella Frostrup’s Times Radio programme, “Good Morning Scotland” and “The Afternoon Show” on BBC Radio Scotland, and Queerly Radio will also feature the author.
Print interviews include pieces by Simon Hattenstone in the Guardian, Sathnam Sanghera in the Times, write-ups in the Sunday Post, the Herald and the Sunday Times Scotland, the New Statesman, the i, and a two-page first-person piece in Elle magazine. Online interviews and podcasts are also lined up.
For retailers, additional content, exclusive editions, signed copies, digital assets and point of sale material has been made available.
Finally, for consumer marketing, the team has highlighted “brilliant review coverage” and made the cover front and centre. A targeted messaging and media-buying strategy extends to paid and organic digital activity, with bespoke advertising on radio station Gaydio, targeted messaging for different audience segments on all social channels and an extensive Amazon campaign.
