Stationery Icons, the 304-page illustrated hardback by Christopher Leonard-Morgan, has launched its first Christmas campaign, positioning the book as a distinctive gift for stationery enthusiasts, collectors and design lovers. The campaign runs through to Christmas.
Advertising and social promotion
The push combines advertising on StationeryNews.net and PGBuzz.net with promotional activity on Instagram and LinkedIn. The publisher says the campaign is built around the brands, personalities and stories that make stationery an enduring fascination.
Two London events pointed to gifting demand
The campaign follows what the publisher describes as encouraging sales at two recent events: Open House at Stationers' Hall on 20 September and the London Pen Show in Hammersmith on 10–11 October. At both, the publisher says, customers bought copies for friends, family and fellow stationery enthusiasts, underlining the book's appeal as a present.
Leonard-Morgan said the most encouraging signal was how many people saw the book as a gift for someone else. He noted that most people know someone who keeps a favourite fountain pen, treasures a particular notebook or cannot resist a stationery shop, and said the book gathers the stories behind the brands those readers love into a volume they can enjoy and return to over the years.
Featured brands invited to take part
The campaign invites the 100 brands featured in the book to mark their inclusion through their own social-media channels and customer communications, an arrangement intended to extend awareness of the title among stationery enthusiasts internationally.
Richard Webb, Publisher at Narrative Media, said stationery inspires a remarkable degree of affection and loyalty. He said the book's distinguishing quality is the breadth of stories it brings together, spanning six centuries of ingenuity, entrepreneurship and design, and added that the publisher was pleased to give featured brands a chance to share their own stories with customers and followers, building on the wider interest the campaign generates.
Print run and price
The first edition has an initial print run of just 1,000 copies and is priced at £80. It can be ordered directly from stationeryicons.com.