Gravity, Creativity, and Speed-Reading.

Last month, five intrepid CreativeX-ers competed in the 15th Installment of the annual PDX Adult Soapbox Derby on Mount Tabor, Portland. The team completed 2.5 runs, and, as they reassured the rest of the company, they were “not the slowest.” 

The Speedreaders’ soapbox took inspiration from Powell’s Books, which first opened in Portland in 1971. Four decades on from its opening, Powell’s is the world’s largest independent bookstore and a Portland institution. It served as the inspiration point for this month’s Solve for X: delving into the crossover between publishing and advertising. 

Although this intersection of advertising and reading was specific to a mountainside in Oregon, the jump between the book world and ad land is pretty small. The publishing business has transformed into a multi-billion dollar industry, competing for the attention of consumers around the world, with publishing houses establishing themselves as household brands. 

Speed-read ahead for a whistle-stop tour of what advertisers can take from the world of books.  

Judge a book by its cover (your audience will)  

Book covers are prime creative real estate. In a letter to her agent, Agatha Christie expressed her hatred for the cover design for Sad Cypress, calling it “common” and “awful” and asking for the whole project to be pulped and redone. 

The adage might tell us that we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but in reality, we all do. Everything about a book’s cover tells us something about what we can find on the inside. They’re also what makes you pick it up in the first place. 

The importance of a book’s cover has increased over the past few years with a resurgence in the popularity of print books, especially among younger generations. Research from Nielsen BookData found that in the UK market, print books accounted for 80% of reading purchases in the 13-24 age group, with e-books making up just 14% of sales. 

But many new releases all look the same. “Blob covers” have had the publishing industry in a chokehold for several years (see below for examples). They’ve been described by Alana Pockros as the “unicorn frappuchino cover” and Kyle Chayka as “the Zombie Formalism of book covers”, and while they might look good on a bookshelf or Instagram story, individual authors risk being lost in a sea of sameness. 

The advertising world is also swimming in a sea of sameness. And as trends come and go, strong, original creative work remains the largest driver of sales lift, higher than reach, targeting, brand, or recency combined. Engaging consumers must start with a reassessment of how creative work is being built and how your ad shows up on peoples’ feeds (or your book on peoples’ shelves). 

Building work for specific platforms, as opposed to lifting content from TV ads, is more impactful across the marketing funnel. Bayer drove a 107% increase in brand lift on YouTube by improving their Creative Quality Score, a measure of their ads’ digital suitability. 

Build for influencers

The rise of the physical medium has a digital side to it. In 2022, a survey of readers found that one in four had consulted ‘BookTok’ in their purchasing process, with these consumers accounting for nearly 90 million book sales. BookTok recommendations range from the hyper-specific – “books to read to look mysterious on the Subway” – to the more generalized – “books I would sell my soul to read again for the first time.” The videos receive millions of views a month, with publishers targeting specific book influencers to try and build interest around upcoming releases. 

TikTok has also been used to chart the rise of the ‘performative reader’. Reading has always been considered an attractive pastime, but now a whole genre of TikTok is now dedicated to capturing (and impersonating) the ‘performative reader’, with key titles and book covers associated with the genre. 

Advertisers have similarly tapped into specific influencer communities with huge success, using ‘micro-influencers’ who boast a +5% engagement rate (compared to a standard influencer 1-3%). Beauty brands such as Glossier have broadened their PR list to include thousands of these micro-influencers, with 70% of sales coming from peer-to-peer referrals. 

A brand beyond an ad

Are you a Daunt tote bag owner? Or do you favor Random House? 

With a Daunt tote now part of the permanent collection at the V&A, the accessories connected to books and reading have become undeniable fashion statements in their own right, flaunted by celebrities and book lovers alike. They’re also subtle but highly effective marketing tools for publishers. 

Brands have also successfully made the transition into media forms outside of their traditional product, extending their brand and potential touchpoints to win consumer attention. Coffee cups from Ralph Lauren’s eponymous shops, Heinz’s collaboration with Kate Spade, and of course the Trader Joe’s tote bags that rival those of Daunt books. 

Our team is open to suggestions for the theme of the next CreativeX soapbox — please feel free to share. 

Happy reading!

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