If you've been in any of several cities across the country, chances are you've seen them. Maybe in a restaurant, a movie theater, a music store—they're even in bookstores. Free postcards, like those from Max Racks and Go Cards, have become a popular marketing tool in a number of fields, including children's publishing.
The titles that children's publishers most often choose for these campaigns are YA novels and picture books with crossover potential, so venues such as movie theaters and record stores are popular. "Our focus so far has been movie theaters in metro and suburban areas—places where teens are hanging out," said Tracy van Straaten, publicity director at Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing. "We specifically booked December for big holiday movie exposure and May for Memorial Day releases—times when teens are at the theaters a lot."
S&S chose the paperback publication of The Watcher by James Howe for its first attempt at this kind of advertising, and 187,500 postcards were distributed in movie theaters in 10 markets last December. Next up are cards for Francine Pascal's Fearless series, which will be placed in movie theaters and Tower Records stores this May. "Our plan is to do one postcard per season moving forward," van Straaten said; forthcoming campaign titles include Wicked #1: Witch by Nancy Holder, and Storyteller's Daughter and Beauty Sleep by Cameron Dokey.
According to Sylvie Anapol, president of Max Racks, clients are charged $4,700 for postcards to be available for one month in New York City, in about 450 venues; the client provides art for the card, and production and distribution costs are included in the fee. Max Racks is in 15 U.S. cities and Go Card has 20 primary markets (including a number of Barnes & Noble stores) and several secondary markets; both companies have targeted programs as well, for venues like college campuses, health clubs and bookstores. Publishers work with postcard-producing outfits to tailor campaigns to their needs, choosing which distribution venues best target the intended audience.
Anapol likens these postcards to "mini billboards," saying, "People walk in, pick it up, take it away and then look at it again—and then they walk into the bookstore with it."
"We did a college/ university buy with Go Card for the hardcover publication of Echo [by Francesca Lia Block], reaching 220 locations," reported Daisy Kline, director of retail marketing at HarperCollins. "For that, 80,000 cards were printed at a very nominal cost. Max Racks and Go Card are pretty flexible in allowing you to adjust the buy to fit your demographics."
Last fall, Random House's postcard promotion for The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares put 280,000 cards in New York City, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and southern Florida, in a monthlong campaign tailored to establishments that do not serve alcohol. Diane Cain, director of trade marketing, reported, "The cards were so popular at B&N that they were completely shopped out, so we went back for a second round of 40,000 postcards to replenish the racks."
Random House also saw good results from a spring 2000 campaign for the Dr. Seuss classic Oh, the Places You'll Go!, which targeted college markets during graduation season. At the current time, however, Random House does not have plans to use postcards to market any of its new titles.
This past February, Scholastic used postcards to get the word out about the launch of its teen-focused PUSH imprint. "We did 150,000 cards in an exclusive promotion in 100 Tower Records stores," reported publicity director Kris Moran. "We felt the music store angle was the right way to reach a hip teen audience."
Scholastic's first postcard was in 1994 for Miss Spider's Tea Party by David Kirk, and the company has since done cards for How Are You Peeling? by Saxton Freymann and Joost Elffers and for the Harry Potter books. "Miss Spider and How Are You Peeling? are vibrantly colored books with a retro feel to them, attracting a hipper audience than a traditional picture book," Moran said. Scholastic plans to produce another Harry Potter postcard this summer and one for Freymann and Elffers's Dog Food in the fall.
Harcourt will launch a fall postcard campaign for Elise Primavera's Auntie Claus and the Key to Christmas; it will be targeted at New York City, where the book is set. More than 80,000 cards will be printed and distributed in October. Also this fall, Harcourt plans a Los Angeles campaign for Gluey: A Snail Tale by Vivian Walsh, illus. by J.otto Seibold. "These particular titles have great crossover potential—they're cool enough to give to your friends who don't have kids," said senior publicist Sarah Shealy. "We hope Max Racks will expose the books to people who wouldn't normally find themselves in the children's section of their local bookstore."
Hyperion's first postcard campaign was in 1998 for The Jungle ABC by Michael Roberts, whose crossover potential was high because of his reputation as a New Yorker cover artist. Most recently, Hyperion used postcards when launching its Volo imprint, to promote The Goosehead Guide to Life by Ashley Power; Go Card distributed more than 150,000 cards in New York City.
The effectiveness of postcard marketing is not completely clear. "Quantitative results with advertising, which this is, is always hard to measure," said Kline at HarperCollins, "but if you have a strong graphic on the front of the card, your probability of getting picked up always increases."
A big-name author or illustrator may help, too, but it's never a guarantee that postcard marketing will succeed. "We saw a spike in sales of The Watcher after the card ran, and I'd like to think that the postcards helped," said Suzanne Murphy, v-p of marketing at S&S. "But we were doing a lot of other stuff for that book, too, and it had good distribution and was in most bookstores. By the end of the year, we should have a better idea about the cards' impact."
Cain at Random House concluded, "Overall, a postcard campaign works when it's part of a whole consumer awareness push. If you have several advertising venues coupled with postcards and can afford to blanket the nation with them, the chance that the postcard component of the campaign will work is higher."
