Stationery Icons, a 304-page illustrated hardback by Christopher Leonard-Morgan, has launched its first Christmas campaign, presenting the book as a distinctive gift for stationery enthusiasts, collectors and design lovers.
The campaign runs through to Christmas and combines advertising on StationeryNews.net and PGBuzz.net with promotional activity on Instagram and LinkedIn. Its content is built around the brands, personalities and stories that the book says make stationery an enduring fascination.
The 304-page book profiles 100 stationery brands and is positioned around the brands, personalities and stories behind them. The campaign therefore works on two levels: it promotes a Christmas gift for consumers and gives featured companies a reason to talk about the project with their own customers and followers, extending the book’s reach beyond the publisher’s own channels.
The campaign follows encouraging sales at two recent London events: Open House at Stationers’ Hall on 20 September and the London Pen Show in Hammersmith on 10–11 October. Both events highlighted the book’s appeal as a present, with customers buying copies for friends, family and fellow stationery enthusiasts.
Christopher Leonard-Morgan, author of Stationery Icons, said the response had been particularly encouraging because so many people saw the book as a present for someone else. He noted that most people know someone who has a favourite fountain pen, treasures a particular notebook or cannot resist a stationery shop. The book, he added, brings together the stories behind the brands those readers love in a volume they can enjoy and return to for years.
The Christmas campaign also invites the 100 featured brands to celebrate their inclusion through their own social-media channels and customer communications. That approach is intended to extend awareness of the book among stationery enthusiasts around the world, using the participating brands’ audiences as well as the campaign’s own advertising and social activity.
Richard Webb, Publisher at Narrative Media, said stationery inspires a remarkable degree of affection and loyalty. He described the book as particularly special because of the breadth of stories it brings together, spanning six centuries of ingenuity, entrepreneurship and design. Webb added that the publisher was delighted to give the 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 the book’s official website.