Every year Guinness World Records uses the occasion of BEA to give booksellers the first official glimpse of its latest edition of Guinness World Records.Another thing Guinness World Records does every year at BEA is bring along one of its biggest record holders. All day today, Ernestine Shepherd, who at 74 is the oldest female bodybuilder, will be in booth 3639 and taking on challenges to her chin-up expertise.
"It's nice to have a record breaker in the booth," says Stuart Claxton, marketing manager at Guinness World Records. "They are all just fabulous characters that we celebrate in the book."
Guinness World Records gets more than 50,000 inquiries from people around the world who want to submit a record claim or propose a record to go after. The company has sold more than 120 million books in more than 30 countries since it was founded in 1955. As a brand, Claxton points out, Guinness World Records has a 97% recognition rate.
"But in 2011, Guinness World Records is more than the annual book," Claxton explains. Guinness has a television development division, which recently filmed a pilot for a cable series in the fall. Guinness World Records does licensing and is taking its act on the road for live community events. "It's us bringing Guinness World Records to you," says Claxton, at festivals, fairs, and road shows.
But as Claxton points out, because record holders want to spread the news about what they do, Guinness World Records is a natural success in the social media realm. "People break records, and then they can be part of the community that shares the content," says Claxton. Guinness World Records has more than 100 million viewers on its YouTube channel, and has been ramping up its Facebook efforts in recent months and has 300,000 likes at last count.
Some new features inside the 2012 book include "mythconceptions," to test records that you think you know well; "the average reader," to find out how much time you spend watching TV, sleeping, laughing, gaming, etc.; "connections," to find country-by-country global connections at the bottom of every page (for example, what links China to Ireland?); and "fact files," stories behind the records.
