Great minds gift alike.
Several groups and people in the industry--from Random House to a range of bloggers--are concluding that, as M.J. Rose, author most recently of The Memorist, puts it on her blog, "we need to shout that books are still reasonably priced as gifts rather than whisper it. We can't just hope consumers get the message."
In Rose's case, she aims to put into effect two lessons she learned in advertising: that 1) "no one can buy something if they don't know it exists and no one can adopt a new idea if they aren't exposed to it," and 2) "while word of mouth is the most effective advertising tool there is you need to advertise to get the early adopters to know about the product/idea so they can try it and then spread that word." Thus, through Authorbuzz.com, she is creating a holiday campaign to run for a month, starting right after Thanksgiving, that will "deliver a half a billion impressions across some of the most popular blogs and reach over 10 million people."
Altogether 24 books will be featured, appearing on the blogs on a rotating basis and be highlighted in a variety of ways such as under the theme "perfect gifts for under $19." Anyone can run the ads or a generic version of "buy books." Rose plans to adopt the campaign to other holidays.
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Several book bloggers have started a movement to buy only books as gifts for the holiday season. Postings on buybooksfortheholidays.com include book recommendations, excellent cheerleading about the value of books, a pledge to buy only books as gifts, a signup section and more.
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Last but not least, Random House is launching a "books=gifts" campaign that will run in a range of consumer publications such as the New York Times Book Review and the New Yorker as well as on its own websites and in ads on Facebook and YouTube and in e-mail blasts to various lists, including Random House's Special Offers list, among other vehicles.
Authors including Bill O'Reilly, Dan Brown, Deepak Chopra and Chris Paolini will be part of the campaign. Dean Koontz will say, "Books make great gifts because your friends and family need something thrilling to read other than their 401(k) report." Maya Angelou's message is: "Books make great gifts because they're a celebration of family and friendship."