What Youth Marketers Can Learn From YA Publishers
Posted by anastasia on 06-18-2009
This week there has been a flurry of announcements out of the YA book publishing world concerning technology nicely summed up in this USA Today piece. In a nutshell, Harper Collins is using mobile to promote LC’s new book (Lauren Conrad’s L.A. Candy), Simon & Schuster launched a YA social network called Pulse It and Penguin launched YA Central, aggregating interviews with popular YA authors.
It’s ironic that some of the smartest youth marketing is coming out of an industry many pundits have already written off — book publishing. Here’s what I think these publishers get right:
Using mobile in context to get what teens want (free content!). I don’t know that mobile promotions would work with every teen title, but with Lauren Conrad, who we imagine would be on her PDA constantly, it makes sense. Not sure it would be as effective for a darker title like Wintergirls though it depends on the tone and the correlating content. It seems fun to have to scan a barcode to access content — my hope would be that this content is super exclusive, i.e. you can’t find it anywhere else. Kind of like “easter eggs” online where you are rewarded for unlocking puzzles or following clues. It’s “pull” marketing, enticing young readers in vs. pushing unwanted marketing messages out.
Using the “power of free” to create a network of word of mouth marketers. Pulse It is not just another social network for teens who love to read — it’s a very calculated effort to give teens who register free access to eBooks along with the tools to promote them to their friends (i.e. WRITE A REVIEW IN THE BOOK REVIEW SECTION, and then, if you want, let people know you wrote a review by posting a message on your Facebook profile!). I actually think these guys should take it a step further and expand their points system to rewarding members who post on FB, MySpace (hello – there are still teens on MySpace) or even Tweet their review. I also think they need to build in and promote rewards for these points — free physical books signed by the author perhaps?
Know your adult influencers. To me, Penguin’s YA Central is not really for teens but for the librarians and other adult YA fans who will recommend books to younger readers. Teens may enjoy some of these video interviews (note to the host: be more natural, tone it down a little), but everything about this site and these videos speaks more to librarians, booksellers and other adults who are invested in this genre and want to get teens reading these books. By making the videos easily sharable everywhere (roll over the email and share link at the top of the video to see the widget), they give this audience an easy way to get the word out.
For more coverage of YA books and publishing, check out the Ypulse Books Channel sponsored by The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (LB Teens).
Categorized under: Books & Print