Stationery Icons, the 304-page illustrated hardback by Christopher Leonard-Morgan that features 100 stationery brands, has launched its first Christmas campaign, positioning the book as a distinctive gift for stationery enthusiasts, collectors and design lovers.
The campaign runs through to Christmas and combines advertising on StationeryNews.net and PGBuzz.net with promotional activity on Instagram and LinkedIn. Its subject matter is the brands, personalities and stories that the book presents as the reason stationery remains such an enduring fascination.
The media plan therefore pairs paid space on two trade news sites with social promotion, placing the title in front of readers already following stationery and publishing news.
Gift appeal tested at two London events
The push follows encouraging sales at two recent London events: Open House at Stationers' Hall on 20 September and the London Pen Show in Hammersmith on 10–11 October. Both, the company says, underlined the book's appeal as a present, with customers buying copies for friends, family and fellow stationery enthusiasts.
Leonard-Morgan said what had been particularly encouraging was how many people saw the book as a present for someone else. Everyone knows someone who keeps a favourite fountain pen, treasures a particular notebook or simply cannot resist a stationery shop, he said, and Stationery Icons brings together the stories behind the brands those readers love in a book they can enjoy and return to for years to come.
Featured brands asked to spread the word
The campaign invites the 100 brands featured in the book to celebrate their inclusion through their own social media channels and customer communications, an arrangement aimed at extending awareness of the title among stationery enthusiasts around the world.
Richard Webb, Publisher at Narrative Media, said stationery inspires a remarkable degree of affection and loyalty. He argued that what makes the book particularly special is the breadth of stories it brings together, spanning six centuries of ingenuity, entrepreneurship and design, and said the publisher was also pleased to give the featured brands an opportunity to share their own stories with customers and followers, building on the wider interest the campaign has generated.
Short first print run at £80
The first edition has an initial print run of just 1,000 copies and is priced at £80, a combination that sits in the premium gift territory the campaign targets. Copies can be ordered directly from the book's own website.
Taken together, the campaign rests on trade advertising, social promotion and participation from the brands covered, with the two autumn London events supplying the gifting evidence behind its Christmas message.