Harper Collins - Online Strategy

Harper Collins - Online Strategy

Online marketing and PR strategy for Harper Collins Fiction

Objective

Harper Collins's largest division Fiction had for a number of years relied on previous agencies to create banners to promote their books online. Suspecting that they could achieve more coverage and better value for their budgets they selected Naked Penguin Boy to play an integral part in devising and developing the online marketing and PR strategy for Harper Collins Fiction with the objective of doubling their impressions.

Target Audience

The target audience varied with each title though overall it was a reasonable male/female split across adults.

Strategy


The overall strategy was to involve the online community with the various titles and provide more interaction with the titles. Spreading awareness and driving sales by finding and focusing more on the target market of the individual titles and making more use of Web 2.0

Each title contained the core Web 2.0 characteristics of simplicity, transparency and virtual communities while remaining immediate, persuasive and non-hierarchical.

Using combinations of Digital PR and Creative concepts each title effectively targeted its audience.

Rich media in expandable, interactive and video formats ensured visual dominance and linked through to either an online retailer or to additional online content. Animations and video's were created and promoted online spreading awareness further and making full use of online communities.
Online games were used to leverage awareness of the novel and its content/plot. Games that were hosted within micro-sites offered additional information about the author, an outline of the plot, links to retailers and the opportunity for data capture by including competition elements and offering users the chance to keep up to date with favorite authors.

In addition to this, Naked Penguin Boy secured third party sponsorship on a number of levels to bolster the online presence. Such third parties include the likes of Nokia, Storm Watches, Warner Brothers Home Entertainment and Champneys Spa Resorts.

Naked Penguin Boy utiliSed their vast database of online contacts to generate various online PR articles; be it in the form of reviews, news features, syndicated online interviews and promotions to encourage purchase of the novel either through footfall into store or through online purchase. The PR extended to online retailer activity where necessary as well as onto the mobile platform, depending on the target audience requirement.

Naked Penguin Boy makes a priority of keeping abreast and ahead of the digital times and in doing so we recognize the power of social networking elements in influencing decisions and in forming opinions. We generated discussion threads in relevant forums about specific titles and authors and participate in the resulting conversations. From this we can gauge opinions, refine campaigns and advise our client on the latest changes and opportunities.

Results

The first campaign produced four times the response as the previous agencies banners and each campaign was successively tuned and improved on.

Out of the 13 titles worked on by Naked Penguin Boy, 7 of the titles were bestsellers with 1 being nominated for the Richard and Judy Book club prize

"I've had the pleasure to use Naked Penguin Boy as a digital agency for the last six months - and they're really excellent at what they do. Smart and creative, they deliver real results ... despite the demands of their clients!" Chris Michaels - Digital Marketing Manager at HarperCollins Publishers

Examples of work

A selection of titles that Naked Penguin Boy has worked on during 2007 includes the following:

  • The Devil Wears Prada - Lauren Weisberger
  • The Dangerous Book for Boys - Con Iggulden
  • The Court of the Air - Stephen Hunt
  • A Hopeless Romantic - Harriett Evans
  • Daughters of Fire - Barbara Erskine
  • The Manny - Holly Peterson
  • The Post Birthday World - Lionel Shriver
  • A Place Called Here - Cecelia Ahern
  • The Blue Zone - Andrew Gross
  • The Last Testament - Sam Bourne
  • Next - Michael Crichton
  • The Gilded Seal - James Twining