Headline Publishing and Zone Romantica:
Headline Publishing and Total Media approached us with clear goals in mind. They wanted to generate awareness of their new title amongst women and increase the book's sales and position on best seller lists. Our challenge was to achieve their aspirations with a modest budget. Sky Media was able to create the ideal sponsorship package, for less than £15,000. The solution was a month long, prime time sponsorship of Zone Romantica - an entertainment channel with an appealing mix of escapist fun and emotionally charged drama specifically tailor made for women. The channel profile was the perfect match for Sheila O'Flanagan's new novel Bad Behaviour, a novel of friendship, love and sweet revenge.
Objectives
- Build awareness of the book's launch amongst ABC1 women
- Increase sales of the book Bad Behaviour by Sheila O'Flanagan
- Increase the book's position on best-seller lists
Carry on reading below or download the full illustrated PDF opposite
The Campaign
The campaign involved a month-long sponsorship of ‘prime time' on Zone Romantica - programming between 7pm and 11pm every evening. Shows featured included Ally McBeal, the soap Chicago Hope and the classic drama series Beauty And The Beast. Whilst a single ad placement may have been sufficient to trigger purchase by the author's core readers, the objective of expanding sales necessitated a media solution that provided strong frequency of exposure. The budget constraints meant that the audience had to be precisely targeted to maximise the reach of the campaign. All these requirements were met by Zone Romantica's ability to attract an upmarket female audience with a wide age range. Using Sky's unique research tool, SkyView, we were able to further clarify the fit by drawing upon several audience insights. By knowing that Zone Romantica's viewers enjoy social nights out, going to the cinema and remaining up-to-date with the latest fashions, we could reassure Headline Publishing that Romantica was the perfect choice.
The Sponsorship
The sponsorship deal included creative production by Zone's on-air department ‘2bCreative'. The execution comprised of branded opening, closing and break bumpers, featuring extracts from the book and front cover graphics. As added value to the campaign, a 30 second competition spot was also aired regularly. This gave viewers the opportunity to win a copy of the book and also generated traffic to the Bad Behaviour/Zone Romantica competition web page. Working closely with Headline, they could ensure the style of the creative was in keeping with the book's content, as well as the channel's prime time programming. To view the campaign creative look at the media player at the top of this page.
Meeting The Objectives
Headline Publishing were thrilled with the results of the campaign with both sales and position on best-seller lists significantly increasing as a result. During the month of the campaign, sales reached 118,000. This is 25% up on sales of the author's previous copies paperback title in 2007. The book also reached number two in the Sunday Times Paperback Bestseller List - Sheila O'Flanagan's highest position to date. Bad Behaviour remained in the top ten for the duration of the campaign. Headline were especially pleased, as these fantastic results were achieved in May, the most competitive period for paperback sales. Following this campaign, Headline Publishing plan to return to Zone Romantica to promote other similarly targeted titles.
"We were delighted to work with Headline on this ideal partnership. Its success was a triumph on both sides, and having found such lovely synergy, we look forward to a long association"
Ingrid Pountney, UK Sales Director, Zone Romantica
