Leading bookseller Waterstones has today announced the upcoming launch of a branding activity which highlights the importance of bookshops.
Advertisements, which will run in stores as well as across press and outdoor venues, will feature statements including: “Books you can‘t put down are much easier to find when you can actually pick them up,” and “Even the most ardent reader will never reach the end of a good bookshop,” in an apparent attempt to reclaim customers who have turned to e-readers such as Amazon‘s Kindle.
Earlier this year, Waterstones signed a deal to sell Amazon‘s Kindle across its stores as well as from its website as part of its refurbishment programme which will see some 100 stores refurbished with many offering coffee shops and free wifi.
Waterstone‘s Marketing Director Ros Hines explained the significance of the marketing campaign.
She said: “We have a powerful brand, and we should be using that to get over powerful messages that do more than simply promote individual books, but remind people just how good being in a bookshop is and how important they are – and we are – to the British high street.”
Waterstones was sold to the HMV Group last year to Russian investor Alexander Mamut and is now seeking to build a digital presence, with the ads also set to “launch at POS” as well as an online version of new magazine ‘Between The Lines‘.
Featuring interviews and contributions from such literary figures as Sebastian Faulks and Artemis Cooper the free publication, which is set to launch in November, has a print-run of 600,000 and will be available across the retailer‘s store portfolio.
In a similar vein, the book specialist will also launch a new anthology entitled ‘Red‘, having commissioned 18 writers to discuss changes during 2012, with pieces by writers such as Will Self, Suzanne Moore and Max Hastings.
Developed with agency Leagas Delaney, the push reflects “a newly confident Waterstones” according to the retailer and highlights its innovative approach to the traditional practice of reading novels.
“We are in a unique position on the high street, with the power and more importantly the desire to introduce readers to fabulous new books and writers, and we seek to do this in all our customer communications.
“Everything we are doing is about putting books first in a very meaningful way.”
