The Brief
Midas has delivered consumer PR on literary and theatre titles for Audible, the world’s leading provider of spoken word entertainment, since 2009.
In 2012, Midas was appointed to a wider corporate and trade brief to increase awareness and publicity around the success of Audible and audiobooks as a category in the UK.
The Work
For the corporate brief, Midas has focussed on Audible’s role in the growing success of the audiobook category, backed up with core messages of investment in authors, high production values, original content creation, and the use of innovative technology. Midas has helped to boost the profile of senior Audible spokespeople within the publishing industry, and has collaborated closely with the team to amplify findings around listener statistics and other indicators of audio popularity. We have also worked with Audible to promote partnerships with nationally renowned organisations including The Women’s Prize for Fiction, LAMDA, National Literary Trust, Identity School of Acting and Soho Theatre.
Our consumer PR work with Audible sees us handle PR for key original audiobook and audio drama titles. This includes working with the author and their team on building strategy, and securing coverage for the title, whether that is review, interview, or feature. Authors and narrators we have promoted for Audible include Graham Norton, Thandiwe Newton, Stephen Fry, Dame Kelly Holmes, Hugh Grant, Robert Webb, Phoebe Dynevor, Dom Joly and more. We have also worked on the Pfizer vaccine inventors’ story, original works by Bill Bryson and Mark Watson, and audio dramas created in partnerships with London Symphony Orchestra, LAMDA and Arcola Theatre.
We work closely with the Audible team to plan the pipeline of upcoming releases, providing guidance on the publicity viability of titles and creating strategies for individual titles. We also manage reporting on coverage and the regular updating of bestseller charts with trade and consumer press.
In addition to this proactive work, we handle media enquiries from press, monitor media for relevant stories, and help craft responses to the news cycle as necessary.
The Results
We have worked closely with Audible to enhance their image and amplify the importance of audio as a format. We have secured coverage for Nielsen findings on the growth of audiobook popularity through events such as The London Book Fair, have placed interviews for Audible spokespeople on BBC World TV and national press, and have assisted on pieces on audio for The Daily Telegraph and The Economist among others. We have worked to place Audible spokespeople in The Bookseller’s annual ranking of publishing influencers, and to ensure that audio is factored into industry trend pieces across trade press.
Campaigns for Audible original titles have generated review coverage across nationals and lifestyle press, including The Sunday Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Times, The i, The Guardian, The Observer, Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, The Spectator, The Lady, Psychologies and more.
Our work with Audible authors has garnered interviews with BBC Radio 4’s Front Row, BBC One’s Graham Norton Show, BBC Radio 5 Live, Times Radio, PA Media, Digital Spy, Psychologies, Virgin Radio, TalkRadio, The Mid Point with Gabby Logan, The Spectator Table Talk, Sentimental Garbage and more. We have also secured written pieces for authors in outlets such as Cosmopolitan, Stylist, The Independent, The i, Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, Huffington Post, Elle, and Big Issue North among others.
News announcements and features for Audible titles have also appeared in press such as Radio Times, Daily Telegraph, Evening Standard, Woman’s Own, Best, Metro, Bustle, The Bookseller, BookBrunch, The Stage, Chortle, WhatsOn Stage and more.
We have worked with Audible on securing sessions at major book festivals and events to highlight their prominence in the literary space. Recent events have included a dedicated author session at The London Book Fair and an event around the Graham Norton Book Club at Hay Festival.