Stationery Icons, a 304-page illustrated hardback by Christopher Leonard-Morgan, has launched its first Christmas campaign, with the publisher positioning the book as a distinctive gift for stationery enthusiasts, collectors and design lovers.
The title, which celebrates 100 stationery brands, will be promoted through to Christmas. The campaign combines advertising on StationeryNews.net and PGBuzz.net with activity on Instagram and LinkedIn, and is built around the brands, personalities and stories the book documents.
What the book covers
The 304-page book is illustrated throughout and profiles the brands, personalities and stories behind 100 stationery names, a remit the publisher says spans six centuries. It is aimed at readers who already follow the subject as collectors, designers or long-standing enthusiasts, as well as at buyers looking for a present for them.
Autumn events tested gifting appeal
The campaign follows what the publisher describes as encouraging sales at two London events: Open House at Stationers' Hall on 20 September and the London Pen Show in Hammersmith on 10–11 October. Both, it says, highlighted the book's appeal as a present, with customers buying copies for friends, family and fellow stationery enthusiasts. Specific sales figures for either event were not disclosed.
Leonard-Morgan said the most encouraging signal was how many buyers saw the book as a gift for someone else, citing readers who know a person with a favourite fountain pen, a treasured notebook or a standing weakness for stationery shops. The book, he said, brings together the stories behind the brands those readers already favour, in a volume they can enjoy and return to over the years.
Featured brands invited to join in
The campaign also invites the 100 brands featured in the book to mark their inclusion through their own social-media channels and customer communications, an arrangement intended to widen awareness of the title among stationery enthusiasts internationally. Those channels add reach beyond the paid placements and the publisher's own Instagram and LinkedIn activity.
Richard Webb, Publisher at Narrative Media, said stationery inspires an unusual degree of affection and loyalty. He described the book's distinguishing quality as the breadth of stories it draws together, spanning six centuries of ingenuity, entrepreneurship and design, and said the publisher was glad to give featured brands a way to share their own stories with customers and followers.
Limited first edition
The first edition has an initial print run of 1,000 copies and is priced at £80. Orders are taken directly through the book's own website. A short run and a high cover price place the first edition in the gift market the campaign addresses, consistent with the publisher's description of the book as a premium illustrated title.