Where the Kids Are: Marketing Online
By Judith Rosen
Feb 21, 2011 page: 1 | 2 | 3

As recently as three years ago, online was a small piece of what children's marketers did, and it consisted primarily of creating a Web site or a Facebook page, or perhaps allowing for authors to interact with fans on MySpace. But today there is no longer a question whether "to screen or not to screen"; in fact, online efforts are now an essential—at times predominant—part of a publisher's marketing toolkit. "In general we've seen a major shift in resources and dollars to the online market," says Lucille Rettino, director of marketing for the Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Group. "We still do traditional marketing, but if we want to reach kids—even as young as three or four, who are playing with their parents' iPhone or iPad—we need to be in that space."

For teen books especially, the majority of marketing has moved online. "Over the last few years we've been forced to adapt more quickly, because teen magazines like Elle Girl and Teen People have gone away. So we need to find creative ways to reach them," says Linda Leonard, director of new media marketing for Random House Children's Group. Her mantra, like that of many of her colleagues, is to find and engage young customers where they are, which is increasingly online.

Indeed, both Random House and Simon & Schuster have built their own teen communities. Last May, Random relaunched RandomBuzzers.com, first introduced in 2007. Teens can chat with authors, see new book videos (or trailers), preview cover designs, and win Buzz Bucks that can be redeemed for ARCs or signed copies. Since the redesign, the site has seen a continuous uptick in member engagement and stickiness, or time spent on the site, according to Leonard. The site, which currently has more than 62,000 members, received a 2010 Word of Mouth Marketing Association "WOMMY" Award for Best Experiential WOM Program. A Random Buzzers app for iPhone and Android will launch shortly.

Simon & Schuster started Pulse It as a physical book program/advisory board for teens between the ages of 14 and 18 in June 2009. Then in July 2009 it moved online. Since then Pulse It (www.simon-andschuster.com/specials/pulseit) has grown from 3,000 to 26,000 members. And contrary to recent surveys, like one conducted by ABC and Bowker, which found that many teens don't want to read e-books, Pulse It members are drawn to the site's free e-books, along with contests, blogs, and videos, according to Rettino: "I've heard from so many teens, who say, ‘This is great. This is a safe place where I can express myself.' "

Even houses with smaller lists like Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, which is just now developing a teen page for Facebook, have upped their online communications with kids. "Our spend really depends," says Linda Magram, v-p, director of marketing for HMH children's books, "but our efforts are definitely 50/50. The department has been reorganized so we have a marketing director who's our online maven." The company held a retreat earlier this month so that children's and adult marketers could share what they've learned about reaching customers online and work in tandem.

Sometimes cooking up a successful online marketing campaign is exploratory. "We're always looking for an idea that works," says Jason Wells, executive director of publicity and marketing for Abrams Books for Young Readers and Amulet Books. So when The Strange Case of Origami Yoda author Tom Angleberger wanted to alert readers about the title of the next book in the series, Wells suggested an online poll. "We had no idea if it was going to work," he says. "But in the end, after about four months, we had 10,000 votes. Over 50% of readers hoped Darth Vader would appear in the next book." Darth Paper Strikes Back is due out this fall.

Making It Work

Publishers say they spend as much time rolling out an online marketing campaign as a traditional one. "We plan out a year in advance what we're going to be giving them. It's the same for traditional marketing," says Random's Leonard. Online marketing also requires careful vetting of bloggers just like traditional reviewers and journalists. "We look to see how active they are and how they are book-talking," says Deb Shapiro, director of publicity and online marketing at Bloomsbury USA. "They're becoming more selective, too, and not reading and writing about everything. Two or three years ago, it was: gimme, gimme, gimme," For Shapiro, timing is key. "Because it happens so quickly online," she says, "you have to be able to capture and capitalize on it. If you have something in print, it's on a newsstand for a week or a month, and then it's in the doctor's office."

One of the most extensive online campaigns for a single title this year was developed for the third book in Maggie Stiefvater's Wolves of Mercy Falls series, Forever (Scholastic, July 12 laydown). But as Rachel Coun, Scholastic executive director of trade marketing, points out, even with all the bells and whistles, it still centers around the physical book. "Always in marketing it's important to do the traditional and keep up with the times," she says. On Valentine's Day Scholastic kicked off its promotion for the book and series with a video of Stiefvater reading from Forever on her Facebook page, and it sent an e-card with a link to the trailer and a custom heart icon. Teens are encouraged to fill Stiefvater's heart with the name of a friend, who will then be sent a copy of the first book in the series..

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