Top Ads 2006 in Shelf Awareness

Top Ads 2006 in Shelf Awareness 1/12/2007

This was a surprise: a five-year-old backlist title that we heard was fast becoming a “handselling favorite.” We ran a story in the Shelf about it and the marketing director followed up with one week of five top banners. The third and fourth days garnered just as many clicks as the first, demonstrating that multiple placements can really work. The publisher had to go back and print more of the book!

Timing was perfect on this ad as it appeared right around graduation time. It also greatly benefited from having an earlier ad that announced when it was coming out. • It is a graphically simple ad. • It linked to a wholesaler.

This was perfectly timed with a “breaking news” quality: announcing Edgar Award (mystery) Winners. • It provided a sales hook to booksellers, who may not be up to date on award winners. • Clicked through to an awards page on HarperCollins.com. • It also has a call to action: “Click here to sign up for HC’s crime newsletter.”

Animated ad that linked to a website with advice on how booksellers could form a book club centered on this title. • Simple graphics. • Call to action: “Start a ‘You’ve Got to Read This” reading group. • Until recently, this was our top ad for highest percentage of click throughs.

This was our top insertion banner of 2006. Insertion banners are the smaller ads that run between stories. • Call to action: “Click here to hear an audio clip.” • Visually beautiful ad. • Linked to a page that gave information about the audio CD and allowed people to play an audio clip of Sissy Spacek reading the book. • Ran for five days at the end of summer, which is normally thought of as a slow time.

This ad was perfectly timed: late summer, right in time for booksellers to start stocking up on test prep guides and back to school items. • It linked to a full calendar of the many tests coming up: SATs, ACTs, etc. • We heard from booksellers that this was really useful because it’s hard for them to keep track of test dates. • The publisher did placements at intervals: ten ads over six weeks. The click through count continued to rise during the campaign.

Visually appealing ad. • This was a follow-up ad on a review. • Linked to the publisher’s home page with all of the title’s rave reviews. • It was placed at the crest of its buzz. • It was consistently marketed as an “handseller favorite.” The publisher followed up with ads to reinforce the impression. • Note the quote – “display this book by the register…..”

This ad garnered a very high one-day click through rate • Very appealing graphically • Benefited from concurrent, similar titles that were receiving a lot of publicity • Great quotation

Perfect timing: ad ran right as the title was hitting the stores. • Ran a full week as a top banner; clicks were substantial throughout the campaign. • This was a bit of a surprise to us: This type of title would normally be considered a “chain” book, yet garnered so much attention and clicks. • Graphically appealing . • Linked to author website with useful, easily accessed, selling-oriented book information.

Ran three consecutive days in November, with strong click rates each day • Title not releasing until Feb ‘07 but: • Call to action, “Click here for a galley.”

Ad ran the week before Christmas • Thanked the booksellers for a great year • Linked to a homepage on Morrow’s website that had a roundup of holiday titles • Call to action, “Click here to win a free Apple iPod and library of award winning books.”

Just ran second week of January and broke all records of one-day click throughs • Cute and simple ad--the design matches its object.. • Linked to pdf of how to have a “Not A Box” party in bookstores • Ad appeared after book came out (pub date 12/12) calling on booksellers to do something special with the title

Based on this…….

When Reviewing Product to Place on Shelf-Awareness, use the following criteria: • Make sure that we treat this as an industry publication, like PW, many of our ads have seemed end-consumer directed. • Direct orders to wiley.com, wholesalers, or others as deemed by sales. We should not be directing people to online accounts such as Amazon or other competitors of independent accounts such as Barnes and Noble or Borders. • Time the advertisement correctly. Timing is critical – we should be advertising product in time for accounts to buy. • A reminder that the distribution for Shelf Awareness is 1/3 each – Booksellers, Librarians, Publishing Industry

If we advertise once the product is already out, we should be giving a compelling reason (such as a special offer, a major review or some other press). Or if the title is starting to take off and could benefit from an added push. We should not be advertising holiday gift books in December unless it’s tied to a special offer and we want them to restock – it’s too late otherwise. • Tell people what you want them to do in the ads. Order? Thank them? Read more about the book (such as a sample chapter). Take advantage of a special offer? Enter a contest? Stock up? • Indy Composition Services can always help to create quick landing pages if you want a more customized approach.

Process Going Forward • Sale should be incorporated in the planning of the ad schedule – Rob is the one that can work with you to create special offers or help to give the ad a sales twist. • If you have a last-minute ad you want to do, check in with sales (Rob or Chris Cooke) so that you may be able to come up with a special offer or other gimmick that will help drive sales. This will help us gauge the effectiveness of the ad campaign. • Rob will be included by Creative Services in the distribution of the creative for approval. Final approval will still be made by the marketer.

Sales Recommendations: Next 6 Months Feb-July

Plan for Next Six Months To Be Determined…..

Top Ads 2006 in Shelf Awareness