Stationery Icons, a 304-page illustrated hardback by Christopher Leonard-Morgan, has launched its first Christmas campaign. The book profiles 100 stationery brands and is being positioned as a distinctive gift for stationery enthusiasts, collectors and design lovers. The campaign is scheduled to run through Christmas.
It combines advertising on StationeryNews.net and PGBuzz.net with promotional activity on Instagram and LinkedIn. The promotional work centres on the brands, personalities and stories that the campaign says make stationery an enduring fascination.
The launch follows encouraging sales at two London events. Open House took place at Stationers’ Hall on 20 September, and the London Pen Show was held in Hammersmith on 10–11 October. According to the campaign, both events highlighted the book’s appeal as a present, with customers buying copies for friends, family and other stationery enthusiasts.
Gift positioning and brand participation
Leonard-Morgan said the most encouraging aspect was how many people saw the book as a present for someone else. He noted that many people know someone who has a favourite fountain pen, treasures a particular notebook or finds it difficult to resist a stationery shop, and said Stationery Icons brings together the stories behind the brands those readers love in a book they can enjoy and return to over time.
The Christmas campaign also invites the 100 featured brands to celebrate their inclusion through their own social-media channels and customer communications. The aim is to extend awareness of the book among stationery enthusiasts around the world, using the brands’ existing relationships with customers and followers to support the wider campaign.
Richard Webb, publisher at Narrative Media, said stationery inspires a remarkable degree of affection and loyalty. He said the book is particularly special because it brings together an extraordinary breadth of stories spanning six centuries of ingenuity, entrepreneurship and design. He added that the campaign gives featured brands an opportunity to share their own stories with customers and followers, building on the wider interest generated by the campaign.
The first edition has an initial print run of just 1,000 copies. It is priced at £80 and is available to order directly from stationeryicons.com. The campaign’s timing places the book in the Christmas gift market after its appearances at the two London events.