Kensington Publishing Corp., parent company of Zebra Books, is stepping up its branding campaign to mark Zebra's 25th anniversary as a leading romance book publisher. The promotional campaign was launched earlier this year with commercials on the Lifetime cable network, featuring the tag line "Zebra Books. The place to find romance."
In 2000, Zebra plans to expand the campaign, adding radio spots to the television ads and running print ads in both consumer and trade magazines. Kensington will also use its participation at industry events--including BEA, regional shows and the ALA--to emphasize its commitment to romance publishing.
Company chairman Walter Zacharius is hopeful that one of the beneficiaries of the campaign will be Ballad, a new line of historical romances that will be launched next July. Four books per month will be released under the Ballad line. Zebra's newest imprint, the bilingual Encanto Romance, has met with early success
The romance campaign comes after several years in which the company had attempted to broaden its image as more than just a romance publisher, even changing its name from Zebra to Kensington (News, May 13, 1996).
