Summer winners of BMS awards unveiled

The Book Marketing Society’s seasonal awards for May to August 2018 have been unveiled, with wins for Orion, Hodder & Stoughton, Virago, Faber, Canongate and Pan Macmillan.

The Adult Fiction category was won by Jennifer Breslin from Orion for The Craftsman by Sharon Bolton, deemed by the judges "an exceedingly clever and fitting campaign that targeted retailers and the book trade effectively". Claire Brett and Jen Porter of HQ (HarperCollins) won the Highly Commended Award for their "fully-committed, creative and engaging" campaign for VOX by Christina Dalcher.

In the Guerrilla category (for campaigns spending £2,500 or less), the winner was Fleur Clarke and Sofia Hericson at Hodder & Stoughton for Legendary by Stephanie Garber. The judges said: "This was a highly targeted campaign that demonstrated a good understanding of its audience, with strong partnerships, a clever selection of influencers and a commendable return on investment and sales." Highly Commended was given to Vicky Abbott from Headline for her campaign to market Eat, Drink, Run by Bryony Gordon. Abbott was praised for having "leveraged successful tie-ins and produced interesting audio clips, all resulting in a good return on investment".

In the Multi-title category, first place was given to the campaign from Madeleine Hall from Virago for Virago Modern Classics 40th Anniversary Collection which successfully saw increased engagement across all social channels and a sales profile which continued well into summer. Highly Commended went to Rosanna Boscawen and Leena Normington from Vintage for their "original" campaign for Vintage Summer, which promoted these classic titles as ideal holiday reads.

In the Children’s category, the winner was Sarah Lough, Faber & Faber, for Secrets of a Sun King by Emma Carroll, whose campaign was said to have "targeted teachers with thorough and engaging materials, bringing the book into the classroom and resulting in trade success with a second Waterstones Book of the Month for the author". Highly Commended awards went to two campaigns: Oi Cat! by Kes Gray and Jim Field which saw Fi Evans from Hachette Children’s Group leverage the strong brand visuals for maximum impact and Alex Cowan and Beth Maher at HarperCollins who built on previous campaigns resulting in a better return on investment for Birthday Boy by David Baddiel. 

Judging the Non-Fiction category proved to be a "considerable challenge" and two campaigns achieved a Highly Commended award as well as two being crowned joint overall winners. The joint winners for this category were Jamie Norman, Alan Trotter and Vicki Watson from Canongate for their campaign for Room to Dream by David Lynch, which included live-streaming a ‘Lynchathon’: an eighteen hour long viewing of "Twin Peaks: The Return" for fans. The other joint winner was Jodie Mullish at Pan Macmillan for an "ingenious" campaign for Real Food Kids Will Love by Annabel Karmel, "which clearly showed the reinvigoration of a brand author and retargeting to a more contemporary audience", said the judges.

The first Highly Commended campaign went to Spitfire by John Nichol, with Justine Gold at Simon & Schuster using "eye-catching" visuals and partnerships, with event tie-ins such as Father’s Day to secure impressive sales. The second highly commended award was for Alexandra Cooper from Little, Brown for the campaign for The World’s Fittest Book by Ross Edgley which was said to have "reached a niche and non-traditional book buying audience through inspired creation of endurance events."