Booksellers Association
Independent Booksellers Week (IBW) is an annual initiative run by the Booksellers Association, which aims to support the 1,200 independent bookshops, or 'indies', in the UK. Midas PR was asked to help raise consumer awareness of IBW and indies, many of whom are thriving despite difficult trading conditions on the high street.
Strategy
The digital team at Midas PR were first tasked with creating an IBW website which would act as a useful resource for booksellers, consumers and the media alike. This included a downloadable PR toolkit to enable participating booksellers to run their own localised PR campaign to coincide with Independent Booksellers Week.
The media strategy was designed to highlight the fun and creativity of IBW as well as conveying the serious business messages. Eight case studies of some of the most progressive bookstores were compiled to be used as supporting collateral. An emphasis was placed on securing media coverage with business and art correspondents on national broadsheets, in addition to national broadcast channels.
Midas also devised an initiative called 'Overheard in a bookshop', which invited booksellers to submit the funniest comments and questions from customers, the best of which were used in press materials. Individual opportunities were also identified with entrepreneurial bookshops, such as bookshop/ice cream parlour SilverDell in Lancashire. Popular radio presenters were offered the chance to have ice creams made in their honour to celebrate IBW, encouraging listeners to name the product and choose ingredients.
Results
National newspaper articles were secured with the Independent, Observer, The Times, Sunday Telegraph, Guardian Online and Telegraph.co.uk and broadcast coverage included a large feature on BBC2's Working Lunch programme and business bulletins on BBC Radio Four. Simon Mayo's drivetime show on BBC Radio Two and Shaun Keaveny's breakfast show on BBC 6Music both ran interviews with bookseller and ice cream maker Elaine Silverwood who made ice creams especially for them. Overall, more than 130 items of media coverage were achieved for the IBW campaign.
There was an increase of 11% in the number of bookshops taking part in IBW in 2010 compared to the 2009 campaign and the number of events and activities put on by bookshops also went up by 26%. Informal feedback from booksellers was extremely positive.
The IBW 2010 website created by Midas PR proved an invaluable resource for booksellers and consumers, with 176,636 unique visits during the three month campaign. The week was also supported politically by Mark Menzies MP in the House of Commons and through a motion proposed by Aileen Campbell MSP in the Scottish Parliament.
For more information, visit www.independentbooksellersweek.org.uk