• Wilbur Smith’s fourth tale of ancient Egypt wants a place on the paperback bestseller list.
• The Quest uses bespoke TV sponsorship to target ABC1 Men with an interest in ancient civilisations.
• The book stays in the top 10 for four weeks, selling a total of 170,000 copies.

The challenge

Wilbur Smith’s The Quest was heading to paperback. The fourth book in the author’s Egypt series, it needed to stand out from the crowd if it was to become a best-seller.

The hardback version had already snared the core Wilbur Smith fans, so the message needed to reach a wider audience of ABC1 Men. Creating hype around The Quest would not only build awareness but also incentivise trade buyers to give it prominence.

For reasons of budget and also tradition, book publishers often tend to focus spend on press and outdoor. Previous Wilbur Smith books had been successfully promoted in this way, but this time round publishers Pan Macmillan and Total Media were looking for a new way to standout.

The TV solution

The theme of the book was ancient Egypt, a subject that has also been a fertile ground for TV schedulers.
The solution was a bespoke sponsorship package targeting those ABC1 Men who liked the genre. Using certain channels offered by Sky Media enabled the sponsorship to access relevant programming on The History Channel, Discovery Knowledge and National Geographic.

Over a period of six weeks, fifteen-second and five-second bumpers ran around handpicked programming on the three channels, under the theme “The Lost Worlds” 

Sky’s in-house creative team, The Victorians, created bumpers featuring a series of computer-generated Egyptian tunnels. As viewers were taken into the tomb, a hieroglyphic symbol could be seen on top of a sarcophagus before it merged with the cover of the book.

On The History Channel, Wilbur Smith appeared with Cities of the Underworld, on National Geographic he supported Ancient Megastructures: The Great Pyramid and on Discovery Knowledge he sponsored Egypt’s Top Ten Mysteries.

The campaign also included outdoor on national rail.

Results

The Quest sold 170,000 copies in the UK with 115,000 leaving book shops during the TV campaign. The book remained in the Top 10 for four weeks.

Across the same period, The Quest outsold the third book in Wilbur Smith’s Egyptian series by 40,000.
Pan Macmillan has invested in TV again in 2009.

“The TV element was instrumental in making The Quest a Top 10 best-selling title in paperback as well as exceeding sales achieved by previous paperbacks on a like-for-like comparison. Retailers were delighted with the longevity of the campaign, which allowed them to promote the book from publication through to their Father’s Day promotions.”

Ellen Wood, Marketing Manager, Pan Macmillan