In Depth

« Back to Features

Ponies, vampires and beasts

20.04.07 Hannah Davies

While bookshops are preparing for a busy summer of children's book sales with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows due out in July, the publishers of other new children's titles are hoping for a piece of the retail footfall action.

An array of innovative marketing strategies have been dreamed up to tap into the buzz around books that comes with Harry Potter and the school summer holidays, from pink ponies on telephone boxes to street teams of vampirates. As ever, online activity is prominent, and there are an abundance of animated trailers, mini-sites, competitions and collectors' cards on their way, all hoping to generate maximum exposure for the books in question. Puffin, Orchard, Random House, Walker and Simon & Schuster here give us the lowdown on their big campaigns for summer.

The Devil's Breath

The Devil's Breath is David Gilman's début and is the first of a new adventure series for boys, Danger Zone, featuring Max Gordon, a "hero for the 21st Century," says Jodie Mullish, Puffin publicity manager. The books include a heady mix of "violence, volcanoes, extreme sports and exotic locations" adds Kirsten Grant, Puffin marketing director. Rachel Airey, W H Smith children's buyer, tips The Devil's Breath as "one of the biggest books of the summer", and Puffin's campaign aims to ensure her prediction is correct. Embracing the popularity of the boys' genre, it will focus on the adventure aspects of the series with a "knock-out survival" adventure competition in June, in partnership with Waterstone's and supported by advertising in Cartoon Network and Doctor Who magazines. For independent bookshops there will be collector's cards; a dumpbin is available; and for W H Smith there will be an exclusive sampler promotion in Toxic Magazine.

An innovative mini-site, which is running a trailer with the slogan "feel the heat, face the danger" can be found at www.thedangerzone.co.uk. From June it will feature environmental facts, survival tips, a competition to find Max's father using Google Maps, and a blog written by Gilman. For each new book in the series the site will be re-skinned to match the different continent featured in the book. A pre-awareness campaign has the trailer posted on MySpace and Google Video, and advance copies, teaser postcards and an audio reading by Gilman are being mailed to retailers.


Beast Quest

Orchard has re-formed its successful link-up with series creators Working Partners to develop Beast Quest, its "biggest new children's series since Rainbow Magic" Nicola Wilkinson, head of publicity, says. Written by a team under the pseudonym Adam Blade, the series launches in July with six titles: Ferno The Fire Dragon, Epos the Flame Bird, Solus the Dragon, Tagus the Horse-man, Nanook the Snow Monster and Sepron the Sea Serpent. Each book features a different beast enchanted by an evil wizard that Tom, the lead character, must free to prevent the beast from destroying Avantia, the world they inhabit. Orchard is confident of Beast Quest's popularity after market research into what boys want from a new series. Bold, exciting jackets were a must and Orchard has commissioned a computer games designer to create these. Strong branding features throughout the campaign, with Beast Quest T-shirts, die-cut posters and innovative 3D dumpbin display units for bookshops. Collector's cards and bookmarks will be available with every book "to incentivise children to buy the whole range" says Mariesa Dulak, Orchard head of marketing.

Secret codes on the cards will allow access to exclusive parts of the Beast Quest website, www.beastquest.co.uk, which goes live in June. The site will feature a movie-style trailer (already seen by some retailers), quizzes, games and screensavers. Interactivity is foremost in the campaign, with a design-your-own beast competition where fans vote online for the winner, who receives Beast Quest artwork of their design. Consumer advertising will run in Toxic Magazine, and special competitions with booksellers will include prizes such as fast-track tickets at theme parks. A promotional price of 99p will be offered for book one and the series is pitched for the summer reading slot.


Katie Price

Katie Price, who has sold more than a million copies of her adult books, is turning her hand to children's fiction with the launch of Katie Price's Perfect Ponies. The books, featuring pony-mad Katie and her girlfriends, are being marketed as "good fun reads, packaged to appeal to girls who love all things pink and pony-related", Barry O'Donovan, Random House Children's Books marketing manager, says.

The first strand of the marketing campaign plays on Price's popularity among young women who may buy the books for their children, and feeds off women's magazine advertising for the hardcover of Crystal, her novel for adults, which is published simultaneously by Century. Outdoor advertising in phone boxes shows, at adult's eye level, a photo of Price holding the pony titles, while at children's eye level the ad shows the series jackets, with Price's face inside a pink rosette.

The second strand of marketing is designed to appeal to young pony fans, with competitions and giveaways in girl's magazines including National Geographic Kids, Girl! and Animals and You. Prizes include pony trekking holidays and sets of the books. A website, www.katiesperfectponies.co.uk, has a "substantial budget earmarked for it", O'Donovan says. The site goes live in June and is designed to be a major brand-building exercise for Price's children's books with a fan club, online community, and competitions to win riding lessons. The series will be price-promoted through Asda and W H Smith, and buy-one-get-one-free dumpbins are available for independents.

Tim Lott

Tim Lott, Whitbread prize-winning author of adult books, has written his first book for children, Fearless. It is a fable about the future starring heroine Little Fearless who, after being forced to labour in a laundry, escapes to tell the outside world about the fate of the girls who are imprisoned in this so-called educational establishment.

Lott's move into children's books forms a key plank of the strategy: he will appear at the Edinburgh Book Festival and Bath Literature Festival in panel discussions about adult authors who have tried writing for children and teens. Fearless will be available in a young adult and adult edition. Walker hopes the book will appeal to Lott's adult fan base thus enabling parents and teens to read and discuss it together.

Proof copies are going to Lott's media contacts, as well as retailers and librarians, "to get a buzz going", Jill Kidson, consumer marketing manager, says. An online agency will help Walker to reach teens on social networking sites such as Bebo and Habbo Hotel, and a recorded author clip has been produced for Amazon.co.uk and other websites.

The publisher has also struck a deal with books-to-mobile phone service iCue, to enable readers to sample chapters on their mobile phones. Fearless will feature in retailers' summer reading slots, including a three-for-two offer.

Vampirates

This is the third book in the Vampirates series following the high seas adventures of Grace and Connor Tempest and the crews of the vampirate ships. Having already sold in excess of 150,000 books, S&S is using existing fans to embark on an adventurous marketing campaign.

"Since having a World Book Day 2007 title (Vampirates: Dead Deep) our database of fans has grown, so communicating online with our readers is vital," Kat Hayes, marketing and publicity executive, says.

S&S is developing www.vampirates.co.uk to include e-news alerts; a meet-the-author clip; a print centre with downloadable Vampirate-branded goodies including T-shirt transfers, bookmarks and door-hangers; and themed games, including pirate pinball and treasure hunts.

Further online activities include a blog by author Justin Somper on "The Blue Peter" website and audio serialisation podcasts on iTunes. Somper will be involved in a tour covering the south-west of England and East Anglia, and will appear at the Edinburgh Book Festival for the second year running. Advertorials will be printed in magazines including Kraze Club. A viral side to the campaign will see the creation of a Vampirates Street Team by "the recruitment of 50 fans, provided with 'join the crew' stickers and other marketing materials to promote Vampirates", Hayes says. The most creative promotion will be awarded a prize and all members of the team will win signed editions of the book and a chance to have lunch with Somper or win a pirate day.

Flagship Feature children's Hannah Davies

See Also