HarperCollins Exec Reveals Secrets to Successful Online Book Marketing
From developing Internet sites for faux companies, posting scripted videos and creating elaborate storylines that add to a novel’s plot, book publishers are finding the need to interact online with potential book buyers and readers like never before. Jeffrey Yamaguchi, HarperCollins’ online marketing manager, talks with Book Business Extra about the changing needs of marketing a book in today’s digital world.
Book Business Extra: Why do publishers have to go to these lengths of creating an elaborate alternative reality to market a book?
Jeffrey Yamaguchi: I think the online space allows you to do that, to really explore what a reader will find in the pages of a book—it’s one of the best things about the Web. You don’t want to just put up catalog copy, so instead you explore the world created in the book. It’s not so much an alternative reality than it is taking the world of the book and bringing it to life through a Web site.
Extra: What’s the biggest change you’ve seen in the way a book is marketed in the last five years? Why is the “old” way not good enough for drawing attention anymore?
Yamaguchi: It’s not that the old way is not good enough—it might be better to call it the traditional way of marketing a book, and those traditions hold. You still have to do those things. But the online world, that is relatively new, and that’s a big part of how people get their information and buy things, so of course we’re trying new things in the online space in terms of marketing books. It’s a very exciting time. Totally wide-open and people are willing to try new things.
Extra: What advice would you give a book publisher who is still marketing only the “traditional” way?
Yamaguchi: I’d tell them they are being left behind and missing out on reaching information-hungry consumers —and therefore sales—and to immediately hire someone who knows how to market online.
Extra: You’ve utilized MySpace and YouTube. Where could book marketing possibly go online that it isn’t yet?
Yamaguchi: Oh, the online world is evolving faster and faster—tagging and community, the way groups of people are connecting and sharing online—that is constantly evolving. MySpace and YouTube are huge, but the younger in-the-know early adopter crowd has already moved on. This evolution just means there is huge opportunity to do new and interesting and effective book marketing in the online space.
Extra: Are there any exciting campaigns you’re working on that are different than anything you’ve done in the past?
Yamaguchi: One of our very exciting campaigns is for Michael Crichton’s “NEXT”— www.nextgencode.com. We created an online campaign that explores the world of the book. There’s a very detailed site that is—at first glance—not obviously connected to Crichton’s book—it is a faux genetics company called NEXTgencode. And through this site you can see a host of videos, click into various support sites, and check out and friend the nextgencode MySpace page. Our hope was to engage readers in a fun and entertaining way, and really entice them into seeking out “NEXT.” We tapped the creative agency Honest—their Web site is www.stayhonest.com —to create the online campaign—all the sites and the videos—and they did an amazing job.
Extra: Do you have any interesting stories of people believing a faux campaign was real?
Yamaguchi: Part of our online campaign for “NEXT” involved a video commercial for perma-puppies [puppies that never grow older]. Hundreds of thousands of people have seen this video. It’s good enough to make people wonder— at that first quick glance—if perma-puppies are actually available. We got some fun feedback in terms of people wanting to know more about perma-puppies.
For more insights into some of the marketing tactics cutting-edge publishers like HarperCollins are utilizing, don’t miss the 2007 Book Business Conference and Expo, March 5-7 at New York City’s Marriott Marquis. Jeff Yamaguchi and a number of other marketing gurus will lead discussions on topics including cross-channel marketing, CRM best practices, webcasts and much more. Log on to www.BookBusinessExpo.com for more information.
- Companies:
- HarperCollins