After launching a frontlist marketing service in July that built on its Ignition program, which promotes backlist e-book titles, Open Road has unveiled Activation 2.0. The upgraded program will give publishers a variety of options for targeting what CEO David Steinberger said are very specific reading groups, be it classic mystery or mixed martial arts fans.
In addition to offering improved audience targeting, Activation 2.0 provides publishers with different options to meet specific marketing goals for any individual frontlist title, the company said in a release. For example, dedicated emails to the Open Road direct audience are available to suit publishers’ varying needs, ranging from “Title Awareness”—with a goal of maximizing breadth of reach, viewability, and impressions—to “Performance Plus,” with a goal of reaching a highly targeted segment of readers with an especially strong interest in clicking on and purchasing the title being marketed.
The new options have been created by Peter McCarthy, who joined Open Road in November as chief marketing officer. According to McCarthy, the combination of Open Road’s sophisticated marketing technology and trusted direct reader relationships "enables us to recalibrate Activation to answer three essential questions every publisher needs to ask when marketing a book: ‘Who is the audience we are trying to reach?’ and ‘What is our goal for this campaign?’ and ‘How will we reach the right audience and drive the desired behavior?’”
Since its July debut, most major publishers, as well as independent and university presses, have used Activation to promote new titles across all formats.
