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Viking has won the Book Marketing Society award for Non-Fiction campaign for Michelle Obama’s Becoming.
Campaigns from Pan Macmillan, Transworld and Canongate were also announced as winners of the September-December 2018 BMS awards, in association with Total Media, at the BMS Member Meeting on 27th February held at Total Media’s new offices in Soho.
In the Non-Fiction category, the winners were Amelia Fairney, Rose Poole and Poppy North, from Viking for Obama’s memoir. The judges commended this “well-crafted and comprehensive campaign that cleverly navigated around limitations and reached both traditional and non-traditional book buyers through strategic partnerships – including with gal-dem and in the commissioning of a mural”. A strong audio strategy achieved impressive sales results, with the overall campaign contributing to the book becoming the UK Christmas number one, said the BMS.
The judges gave the Highly Commended award to Tom Noble and Katie Moss of Orion for their Ordnance Survey Puzzle Book campaign “because of its effective use of the OS mailing list plus neat touches like geographically personalised POS for stores. As a result, the campaign was able to compete with some heavy hitting clever-gift opposition being published at the same time”.
The Adult Fiction category was won by Sarah Arratoon, Philippa McEwan, Andy Joannau, Ruth Brooks, and Lee Dibble of Pan Macmillan for Tombland by C. J. Samson. Deemed by the judges as “a highly cohesive, multi-faceted campaign ensuring all bases were covered, and exceeding all objectives and previous sales records fan excitement”
In the Guerrilla category (for spends of £2,500 or less), the winning campaign went to Alice Murphy-Pyle of Transworld for Straight Outta Crawley: Memoirs of a Distinctly Average Human Being by Romesh Ranganathan for “a campaign that started before it even started, by making a strong case for the author's (very scarce) time and integrating marketing needs into the whole publication”. The judges commended this “clever and efficient advertising (hoardings in an online football game and also podcast) and the simple but very author- appropriate ideas on a virtually zero budget”.
Highly Commended was given to Tom Noble from Orion Publishing Group for The Holy Vible by Elis James & John Robins campaign for its “generally note-perfect execution”. The judges said it “showed a very clear understanding of how to "get the vote out" and maximise fan preorders and included some witty and appropriate touches”.
The winner in the Multi title category went to Jamie Norman, Alan Trotter and Vicki Watson from Canongate for the Canongate Christmas for a “quirky and distinctly charming campaign, which blended native online advertising with innovative online and physical moments to reach and reward readers across the country. This campaign, which included a Scavenger Hunt and an in-store Giftbot, delivered great results for Canongate, driving brand awareness and sales”.
The Highly Commended award in the Children’s category was given to Hannah Sidorjak of Penguin Random House for Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Meltdown. This campaign made the most of a seasonal Wimpy Kid with clever creative and well-judged media buying and excellent partnerships.
The winning campaign went to freelancer Emily Cox and Natasha Pile from Canongate for The Truth Pixie by Matt Haig, illustrated by Chris Mould, a “highly effective and good value campaign for challenging publication”. The judges said they “didn’t over-rely on the author’s existing brand, but instead extended it into new territory. A concept-led campaign with a lot of creative and carefully honed material (schools packs were superb)”.