Harlequin Mills & Boon
Romantic fiction publisher Harlequin Mills & Boon was the first publisher to produce all its books as eBooks, and approached Midas to generate publicity around this move, which formed the centrepiece of its digital strategy.
In the build up to the launch of Mills & Boon's eBooks, we created publicity with the book and technology trade press, and also with the mobile trade press, to highlight a partnership with GoSpoken.com. Tim Cooper, Mills & Boon's director of digital marketing, was interviewed for a double-page profile piece with leading new media magazine New Media Age, and digital trade magazine Figaro Digital featured a case study of the new Mills & Boon website.
The initial point of eBook sale was the newly redesigned Mills & Boon website. To drive traffic to the website and increase eBook sales, we generated coverage on women's fiction blogs, websites and online magazines, including Cosmopolitan.co.uk, Twitter and GoodToKnow.co.uk (circulation 5,000,000). The Mills & Boon website - with a new online community for romantic fiction fans - was also featured in The Times as the 'website to watch'.
Shortly after the launch of its eBooks, Mills & Boon partnered with both Sony and Cool-ER (eBook Reader providers), which created the opportunity to approach high-circulation media for prize features. Perfect for our target audience, we secured a Mills & Boon eBook feature and Sony Reader competition in the Daily Mail Weekend magazine, and also a major feature and competition with Independent.co.uk (circulation 10,000,000). Women's magazines Woman's Own and Pick Me Up also ran Mills & Boon features with Cool-ER eBook Reader prizes.
Following this initial wave of publicity, a second news story was created via a sampling exercise. Using a specially designed microsite, 10 Mills & Boon eBooks were made available to download for free, with the aim of getting every woman in Britain reading romantic fiction. This provided the opportunity to secure a second round of online trade and consumer coverage.
Mills & Boon's relationship with Sony also produced a branded 'rose pink' Mills & Boon Sony eBook Reader. The perfect Christmas gift, we secured features for this in Grazia and Stylist magazines, in the Daily Mail, Evening Standard, and on Sun Online.
The result of this year-long campaign was focussed, targeted and high impact coverage, leading to exponential growth of eBook sales for Mills & Boon. As the initial campaign period ended, Mills & Boon renewed its contract with Midas for a further 12 months.