BookArmy – though it avoids saying so – is an offshoot of Harper Collins. The two enterprises point in completely different directions. As it was explained to me, the point of BookArmy is to get as many avid book readers engaged as possible and learn as much as possible about their likes and dislikes. At some point in the future (the theory goes) publishers will no longer need to spend a fortune on marketing Max Hastings’ next book by lavishing money on Waterstones or in print. They will go to BookArmy and say “We know you have a database of the 80,000 people in the country who read books of military history. We’ll give you our targeted marketing spend instead.”
…as this paragraph from Alan Rusbridger’s Cudlipp lecture demonstrates. The money will come from smart initiatives like this, where engagement and involvement breeds a relationship between publisher and audience that can be used to fulfill the needs of advertisers who strive to reduce wastage in their marketing campaigns.
This was posted via web from Philip’s posterous
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