Pinch of Nom

Simple, fast and easy cooking was a big trend in the market in 2019, and Kay Featherstone and Kate Allison’s cookbook was unquestionably the leader in the field. But the duo’s huge online following, and their ability to reach readers UK-wide, made Pinch of Nom a standout title.

With community at the heart of the blog of the same name, Bluebird tapped into the blog’s users early in the campaign by testing recipes with them throughout and offering a free mini e-book, accompanied by a pre-order link. From the online following of 1.5 million came more than 140,000 pre-orders.

The book reached far beyond the community to non-habitual and non-metropolitan book buyers; Bluebird’s efforts and ability to extend the book’s reach outside London was unanimously praised by the judges for this category: the campaign also won Marketing Strategy of the Year at this year’s British Book Awards. On top of all that, the book was “clean”, “supremely user-friendly” and “beautifully designed” using the turquoise and yellow colour scheme of the blog.

Rather impressively, from two début authors the book has generated over a million sales to date and was the bestselling book of 2019.