Literacy Is Golden: Book publisher wins with cause-first, brand-second strategy.
Finding partners for branding initiatives can sometimes be tricky. Rallying marketers around a cause like literacy can be a lot easier, even if you’re just a Poky Little Puppy.
Golden Books Family Entertainment went the latter route to amass a large number of promotional partners for The Big Little Golden Books Read In, a one-day program aimed at teaching children the joy of reading – while exposing them to the Golden Books library in the process.
It’s an idea that’s been “kicking around for awhile” as the New York City children’s publisher searched for “a position statement to the industry,” explains senior vp-marketing Mitch Fried. While the underlying goal is to establish Golden Books as the leading brand in children’s publishing, the overriding theme of improving U.S. literacy levels has made pitching the effort significantly easier. In some cases, even competing retailers have agreed to participate “because they understand the importance of the concept,” Fried says.
The centerpiece of the Sept. 25 event is a 90-minute show at the USTA Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, NY, hosted by TV journalist Deborah Norville and featuring other celebrity readers, along with music and comedy acts and an interactive plaza before and after the show. The idea is to create “a literary Woodstock for kids,” says Fried.
Pizza Hut, Dallas, serves as presenting sponsor through its nonprofit arm, Book It!, a reading incentive program that reaches 22 million kids. New Brunswick, NJ-based Johnson & Johnson Consumer Products and Parents Magazine serve as national promo partners, with the latter providing coverage in two issues and the former contributing an online sweeps, direct-mail drop, and account-specific efforts at Wal-Mart and Target.
“Johnson & Johnson is well-known for its philanthropic efforts, and this fits perfectly into that,” says group promotion manager Pam Mayewski. J&J, which is using the cause to promote its new baby shampoo gel, will also make a donation to the American Library Association, as will Pizza Hut, says Fried. (Golden Books is teaming with the Hut to give one million books to Colin Powell’s America’s Promise campaign.)
The show is a New York exclusive, but the concept is not: Local Read Ins will be staged at about 7,000 retail outlets nationwide including Wal-Mart, Target, Meijer, Barnes & Noble, and Borders Books & Music stores; other chains including grocers Stop & Shop and Albertson’s pitch in with information displays advertising the initiative. Special displays and a Golden Books-only reading list will ensure that the brand doesn’t get lost in the cause, says Fried.
“There are other great reading initiatives out there, but they put the onus on the educator,” says Fried, who wants the Read In to become an evergreen program. “We think an exciting retail environment is a great way to expose kids to books, too.”
And, hopefully, Golden Books in particular.
