AudioBooks
Audiobooks can be overlooked by the reading public, and The 40 Best Audiobooks campaign was created by the Audio Publishing Association and the Book Marketing Society to bring audiobooks to the forefront of readers' attention.
Midas first explored traditional PR avenues, securing a two week feature on children's audio in S Sunday Express Magazine, and review of selected titles in The Times. We also arranged a free download week, in association with the News of the World, Audible.co.uk and National Year of Reading.
After securing national newspaper coverage, Midas decided that the best way to further promote the titles was to create a forum in which they - and the medium of audio - could be discussed, thus introducing audiobooks to a new reading demographic. Following the model of a traditional literary festival, Midas devised the first Online Audiobooks Festival, an original event celebrating audio, and in audio form.
Chaired by The Bookseller's Alison Flood - and hosted by TimesOnline over five days in August - the programme consisted of five panel discussions, each exploring a different element of audio. Panellists included actors Kerry Shale, Hugh Fraser, Andrew Sachs and Lorelei King; legendary producer Dirk Maggs, Radio 4 comedian Barry Cryer, and author Robert Rankin.
Results: An analysis by Nielsen BookScan of the sales figures shows that sales increased by an incredible 70% across the 40 best audiobooks, with Fiction sales increasing by a staggering 187%. The 40 Best Audiobooks campaign was deemed to be highly successful by the client, and Midas have been retained to promote this year's trade promotion, and create an annual Online Audiobook Festival.
Ali Muirden, Chair of the Audio Publishers Association said:
‘We were delighted with the publicity Midas PR obtained for our inaugural Audiobooks Promotion in 2008. They showed great flair, originality and lateral thinking in their approach to the PR campaign which resulted in not only a lot of coverage in the media but also the first ever ONLINE book festival. They were a joy to work with, showed great enthusiasm and a love for the product they were publicising and this was definitely reflected in the results they achieved with this campaign.'
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