The role of the chief media officer is evolving, and marketing and media are only pieces of the job description. During a discussion at Mediaweek, three chief media leaders–Brad Feinberg, Molson Coors vp of media and digital; Shenen Reed, General Motors Global Chief Media Officer; and John Terrana, VaynerMedia Chief Media Officer–met for a discussion…Read More
When Grammy-nominated artist and multi-platinum producer Ryan Leslie released his 2016 album MZRT, there were no billboards, bells, or whistles. Instead, he promoted it via an inbound SMS campaign, without a record label or intermediary. To do this, he used Superphone, a product powered by his platform Disruptive Multimedia. The product empowers artists and creators…Read More
Once you decide to write a book about strategy, it raises the bar for having a strategy for the launch.
People generally focus far too much on the launch of a project. Rocketships need a perfect launch, because just about everything after the launch is simply ballistic. But most of us don’t work at Cape Canaveral.
The world of books is a metaphor for a lot of industries, where old methods aren’t working well but persist in sticking around. First-time authors are often pushed into a cycle of hustle and scarcity, which leads to burnout and disappointment.
The alternative isn’t easy, but it’s worth embracing. It can be effective in more than just a book launch.
Celebrate the true fans
The seductive promise of the book industry (or movies, or fashion, or any business that has “star maker machinery”) is that they will somehow introduce your idea to strangers.
It certainly worked for JD Salinger and even Joni Mitchell. But it hardly works that way now.
This is Strategy had a great launch, perhaps the most successful book I’ve done in years, because 1,000 people showed up first and made a difference. This opened the door for others who wanted to be part of the conversation.
In their rush to reach strangers, traditional publishers ignore the opportunity to dance with people who are already excited. In my case, thanks to purple.space and the loyal readers of this blog, there were folks eager to offer me the benefit of the doubt.
Creating the launch package, with seven books, the collectible (and delicious) chocolate and the powerful strategy deck (check them out) gave this group of magical people first dibs on something special, as well as a chance to share it.
The first step to publishing a book well begins long before you decide to write a book.
Create the scaffolding for the idea to spread
Books aren’t unique, but the math is particularly compelling: They never achieve any of their useful goals in the first week. A network TV show used to get all of its viewers the first and only time it ran. A book, on the other hand, is worth writing if people are reading and talking about it years later.
The launch is a chance to model that behavior. If the launch simply focuses on getting the word out, it’s likely that the word will fade over time. But, if people talk to one another as part of what you’re doing, they’re more likely to continue to do so.
Last week, in hundreds of cities around the world, readers came together to talk about strategy. Not about my book, but about their strategy and how they can improve it. More than eighty bookstores stepped up to volunteer their spaces, and the book became a catalyst for conversation. Getting a copy wasn’t the point–talking about the work to be done was.
Ignore false proxies
How many people liked that post on Instagram? How did the book rank on the Times list? What did the first reviewers have to say?
It’s so easy to see, tempting to manipulate, and, ultimately, pointless. The proxy of the Times list has been so manipulated that it’s now meaningless–and the work publishers and authors put into shifting their efforts into this antiquated measurement is distracting and ultimately wasted.
A false proxy is convenient, vivid and unhelpful. It’s like asking a programmer how many words per minute they can type. It might be useful to be a fast typist, but it doesn’t help you become a great programmer.
Normalize the idea
I did more than 80 podcasts that launched last week. (I’m grateful for the passionate people that power this medium, and delighted by the magic of our conversations). That might seem like a way to get the word out to promote a book, but that’s not really what’s happening. People don’t usually hear a podcast and then open their phones to buy a book.
Instead, a book is a chance to have a conversation. The conversation is the product, the book is just the catalyst.
When an author and publisher spend the time and effort to produce a book, they’re actually demonstrating a commitment and sending a signal that this is worth talking about. The conversations I did, though exhausting, were a foundation for the conversations I hope that others will have going forward.
Successful non-fiction books are now a souvenir of an idea that is spreading and worth understanding.
Abundance instead of scarcity
For four hundred years, the only way to get a book on a store’s bookshelves was for some other book to come off the shelf. There wasn’t enough room for it to be any other way.
Now, with online shopping and digital formats, there’s infinite shelf space. It’s “and” instead of “or.”
That’s one reason why the launch matters so much less than it used to–it’s not a useful proxy for shelf space any longer.
My publisher understands the new math. Instead of focusing on limited access and short-term measurements, the posture is to be promiscuous with the ideas and to weave together communities of practice and interest. The magic of an idea is that if I share it with you, we both have it.
My launch partner on the audiobook has a similar mindset. While the default online marketplace model is to hold search hostage, keeping a huge share of the proceeds in exchange for offering a scarce slot in their store, there are new options. Discovery doesn’t just happen in the online store’s search box. Since most of the readers seeking the book in the early days already know my work and can find this page, I can bypass this scarce resource and offer a reader and author-friendly alternative.
Abundance is generative, and it also gives us room for gratitude. The acknowledgments of a book are my favorite part to write, because so many people, people not mentioned on the cover, are involved in producing and delivering an idea of value. I don’t get to list all the readers, of course, or the people they talk to about the book, and that’s the real point of this post, and the book itself.
If you want to change a system, change the culture. And if you want to change the culture, it helps to create the conditions for people to step up, talk about it, and take action.
Ahead of details of the NBA’s new media deal recently coming out in unsealed court documents, Amazon was already revealing plans for the league’s 2024 Black Friday games and its new NBA studio. At ADWEEK’s Mediaweek event on Tuesday, Amazon head of U.S. video and live sports sales, Danielle Carney, announced that Amazon would have…Read More
Five major Ogilvy clients received golden tickets yesterday morning–but they won’t get them into Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. Instead, the tickets promise entry into Ogilvyland: a satirical fossil fuel funfair dreamed up by activists at the climate campaign group Serious People. The hand-delivered package also included an “oilypop” and a letter to each company’s leaders,…Read More
The presidential race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump has dominated the news cycle since the summer, and October was no different. The one exception to the non-stop election cycle was the brief period last month when all eyes turned to Florida as Hurricane Milton barreled through the Sunshine State. As…Read More
Allergy medication isn’t always the most obvious product category to partner with one of streaming’s buzziest shows, acknowledged Amy Lanzi, CEO of Digitas North America, the media agency of Haleon-owned Flonase. “Allergy is hard and making allergy feel authentic and magical is pretty impossible to do,” Lanzi said on stage at Mediaweek in New York….Read More
Google parent Alphabet reported strong earnings this quarter beating analyst expectations, with search advertising powering that growth along with AI-fueled search products. Google Search and other advertising revenue increased by 12% to $49.4 billion in Q3 2024. However, CEO Sundar Pichai and others did not specify on the call with analysts how much of that…Read More
Political campaigners have been spending billions on ads on streaming services, which promise to marry the persuasiveness of TV spots with the precision of digital targeting. What’s still missing from this winning combination is regulation. “The last time they passed a substantial law around campaign finance disclosure … was McCain-Feingold in 2002,” said Ian Vandewalker,…Read More
Some say traditional media is dying, but legacy brands are finding ways to innovate and endure in an ever-shifting landscape. Leaders from Time, Essence, and Eater convened at ADWEEK’s Mediaweek in New York on Tuesday (Oct. 30) to share the strategies that are helping them grow, retain relevance, and reach new audiences. From reinventing print…Read More
