What Twitter and Facebook have to do with a short-story, a long seller or an indie short film? Can a viral buzz through the Internet actually help cultural products to reach their target?

1. SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
For publishing houses
Final MA dissertation by Julia Zanoletti

2. AIM OF THE ENQUIRY
01. 02.
How gamification has
changed editorial content.
Usefulness of social
networks for promotional
campaigns of publishing
houses.
2
“Places are designed as fluid, dynamic and plastic dimensions. They can be converted,
overturned, renewed”
Anna Antoniazzi
Contaminazioni. Letteratura per ragazzi e crossmedialità , Apogeo,
2012

3. Gamification for a new profits cycle
3
01

4. Italian case study: Geronimo Stilton World
SELF PUBLISHING GAMIFICATION
Readers can publish short
stories and articles using
editing tools provided by the
online platform.
Videogames (Metamouse
Adventures and Il grande
ritorno) consolidate the
engagement of young and
loyal fans.
FAN COMMUNITY GERONIMO-PROFILE
Book trailers can be voted,
shared and recommended.
A social network for kids inside
the website. Kids can create
their own profile whose safety
is certified by the
trustworthiness of the brand.
4

5. Results
PROFITS
ENGAGEMENT
GREATER
FANS FOR
LONGER
TIME
PROFITS
GREATER FANS
ENGAGEMENT FOR LONGER TIME
5
Young readers feel involved. Parents
consider Geronimo Stilton a highly
reliable brand for the fun and the
growth of their children.
Creating a ‘kids social network’
extend the loyalty of 10-13 years
target. It also keeps and elicits the
main target’s attention (6-10 years
old).
Online social engagement increases
the time spent on the website, so that
the brand’s demand can be kept always
at a high level.

6. English case study: Pottermore
Media franchise set out in March 2012. The ‘gaming approach’ has been chosen as the crucial tool to meet the
interest of the future generation of readers.
COPYRIGHT
Exclusively managing the e-book
version of Harry Potter by increasing
the value of J. K. Rowling’s
copyright.
FOREVER FAN
Long term loyalty project.
6
AIMS:

7. Strategy
7
ENHANCED HOGWARDS
The user lives a full immersion in
Hogward’s world. He can follow
witchery lessons and edit his own
fiction. Extra contents can be
discovered through videogames.
GAMIFICATION
The Book of Spells, created in co-partnership
with Sony. Is a
Playstation3 videogame made up
with a software of augmented
reality which displays the magic
features of the narrative on a
screen.

8. After two weeks from the launch:
8
22
millions
1 billion
47
Print Ads
Print Ads
7 millions
25 min
visits
unique visitors
views
page viewed
time on the website
registered users
5 millions

9. Achievements
FAN
Long-term loyalty of the readers
Elicit the interest of next generations
 Get the attention of people who don’t read
but surf everyday on the Internet.
Providing a new sales cycle coming from
the e-book online selling.
9
Charles Redmayne, Pottermore CEO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGgunhBwJ24
01
02 PROFITS

10. Promotional campaigns through social networks
10
02

11. How can social networks be useful in a
promotional campaign?
What kind of achievements can a transmedia
storytelling attain?
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“The logic is, if doesn’t spread, is dead;
that’s the central theme.
The content that can’t be spread, can’t be
circulating by your audience, is effectively
cut off from the major conversation the
culture is having through the social media”
Henry Jenkins, Lucerna, June 2012

12. IDENTITY AIM STRATEGY
Creating a transmedia storytelling
able to reach a niche audience.
Social networks for a long term,
budget- free promotional campaign.
Case study 01.
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore
12
C
A crew of creatives
with a low budget.

13. Products
SHORT FILM PAPER BOOK APP
Winner of the Oscar Award
for best short animated
film.
It spreads and fuels the
interest of a niche
audience (indie culture
lovers).
Enhanced book. Sold as an
app for iOS (4,49€; 4,99$).
13

14. Social media
campaign
TEASING
The trailer of the enhanced book was
edited on YouTube.
VIRAL BUZZ
The trailer was shared online and it induced
an online word of mouth. Parents started to
edit videos on which they recommended Mr.
Lessmore app, showing their love for the
product.
A FAN’S BRAND
Mr. Lessmore’s fans made crafts inspired by the
story.
14
Step 01.

15. Social media campaign
15
Step 02.
COMMUNITY
The use of social networks has built a
participative community of readers,
parents, teachers, librarians, tech lovers
and creatives.
TWITTER
On Twitter, Mr. Lessmore has become a
mediatic icon through which people
can talk about the pleasure of reading
and learning.

16. Achievements
Facebook and Twitter helped a niche
product reaching its main target. They’ve
turned customers into a loyal fans
community.
Better chance to extend the target.
16
Customer loyalty built everyday.
Promotional costs knocked down.
Prompt infos on the evolution of the
audience.

17. Black Box is a short story all
written in tweets by Jennifer
Egan. It’s been firstly published,
both on paper and online, by the
New Yorker.
The Italian publishing house
Minimum Fax bought and
translated it, editing the tweets
online.
Twitter became a tool for a
transmedia promotional
campaign.
Case study 02.
Black Box
17

18. Minimum Fax campaign
IDENTITY FACEBOOK
Account since 2008 but
rarely used.
18
1 2 3
The company has always invested in
experimental storytelling and new
communication patterns.
A previous viral campaign
realized for A Visit from the Goon
Squad by Jennifer Egan.
TWITTER

19. Aims and Strategy
brand image
+ readers viral buzz
Social Media
loyalty teasing
+ selling
AIMS
STRATEGY
19
reaching a new target
segment for the launch of
Look at Me
increasing the selling of
Jennifer Egan’s titles
rewarding loyal readers
get a stronger brand image
viral buzz on Twitter and
Facebook
teasing through the editing of
extra content every day

20. The promotional campaign
Paper press of Look at Me
October
22th -31
2012
Preview of Look at Me
20
*
paper press of Black Box
1st of November: Black Box’s
e-book is sold at 1.99€
Twitter campaign, from the 25th to the 31 of October, 2012.
24 tweets per night, each one published every two minutes.
on Twitter and
Facebook
* A discount on Look at Me for customers who bought Black Box. This project wasn’t eventually realized due to
problems with the Italian distributor Book Republic.

21. Results
The retweets instantly reached a wider
audience who had never heard about
Jennifer Egan.
Reading the tweets became a rite to share. The
seriality of the chapters teased the followers,
eliciting the same suspense of a TV series.
01. Readers reaction
VIRAL BUZZ A SOCIAL RITUAL
21

22. Results
22,540 followers at the end of 2013
8,500
22,540
spring 2012
fall 2013
28,800 5,600
Sold copies of A Visit from the
Goon Squad at the end of 2013.
The Twitter campaign has
spread Mrs. Egan’s audience.
Sold copies of Look at
Me.
discard
s
22
02. Twitter and copies sold
Almost nobody stopped
following Minimum Fax
profile during the campaign.

23. Results
23
03. The long tail of online comments
THE RADER
IS THE BEST TEASER
The Black Box campaign provided a
pattern of viral buzz, giving Minimum
Fax the chance to count on long-term
online conversations all focused on
Jennifer Egan.
This pattern was used also for the
launch of another title, Fine impero by
Giuseppe Genna.

24. Conclusion
18€
A Visit from
the Goon
Squad
18€
Look at Me
THE GOOD BUZZ
7.50€/
1,99€
Black Box
24
In a long term outlook, customers
who buy Black Box increase the
selling of other Egan’s titles, as well
as the amount of their purchases.
As a matter of fact, most of the fans
have discovered Jennifer Egan online,
it’s on the social networks that they
share their enthusiasm with Minimum
Fax, and it’s always online that they
recommend A Visit from the Goon
Squad and Look at Me.
They read the
Twitter
comments
and become
fans
a fan spends
5 times more
than his first
purchase
Reach
Amount of money spent by customers who
discover Jennifer Egan.

25. 25
For a future publishing. The Silent History

26. 26

27. “Tecnology is intended to serve the story„
Eli Horowitz
27
WHAT IS IT COMMENTS
Serialized storytelling with a plot
fixed by the authors Eli Horowitz,
Russell Quinn and Matthew
Derby.
Each episode is built around
a real place in the United
States and can be discovered
through a GPS technology.
Readers who are in one of
the places described in the
episodes can read the
chapters and then publish
their on story about that
place.
“There is something wonderful
about having an app like this that
slowly reveals a bit of the story
everyday. I am always looking
forward to each new part.”
Skillz4201
“I lived this wild ride and was
surprised by more haunting
ending. This is a paradigm shifter
for apps and storytelling.”
Carmen1963
Comments published on iTunes.

28. Julia Zanoletti
“Content is simply a resource we use to communicate with each other. It’s a
vehicle through which we express our sense of the world, and so in that sense
what people do with your content is the central thing.”
Henry Jenkins
http://it.linkedin.com/pub/
giulia-zanoletti/
51/5bb/1b8/
giuliazanoletti.tumblr.com/
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+39/+44 079 1857
9254
giu-tti@hotmail.it
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ulia+zanoletti

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02
Thank You