Midas’ campaign for Bookshop.org, the new online retail platform supporting independent bookshops, has been Highly Commended in the PPC Awards, and has been shortlisted for the prestigious CIPR Excellence Awards, PR Moment Awards and the PRCA Dare Awards.
Bookshop.org is book retail website and affiliate network that allows customers to financially support independent bookshops when shopping online.
Bookshop.org launched in the US in January 2020, founded by Andy Hunter. At the request of UK-based booksellers and publishers, Bookshop.org brought forward its UK launch plans to support British independent bookshops in light of the considerable additional pressures created by the pandemic, launching in the UK in November 2020.
In just four months of trading, Bookshop.org generated over £1million in profit for the 410 indie booksellers using the website, with over 200k customers embracing the new platform.
Midas was engaged by Bookshop.org UK from the very beginning, running a PR campaign for the UK launch that secured blanket coverage, with over 300 pieces across print, broadcast and digital media. Coverage spanned dozens of articles in national newspapers (Guardian, Daily Mail, The Times, The Sunday Times, Daily Telegraph, Financial Times, Daily Express, The independent, The i, etc.), interviews across multiple BBC programmes (BBC World News, BBC One Breakfast, BBC Two Tonight, BBC Radio 4 Open Book, BBC Radio 4 Front Row) features in lifestyle media (Stylist, TLS, Time Out, Dazed, The Week, New Statesman, Woman & Home, etc.), and hundreds of pieces in regional outlets and blogs. According to a research conducted by Nielsen, when asked how they first heard about Bookshop.org, 48% of respondents said in the media.
