Jeremy Ettinghausen of Penguin Books On How To Build Innovation Into A Brand From The PSFK Conference London

In this 20 minute video from the PSFK Conference London, Penguin’s Head of Digital Publishing Jeremy Ettinghausen talks about penguin brand marketing – past, present and future - and the challenge of reinventing a traditional brand for a digital age. During his talk he presents some of their great projects we’ve featured on PSFK.

* Previously marketers at Penguin were only implementing decisions made by others. Now marketing is at the heart of the publishing process; “marketing sets the table”.
* History - Penguin started advertising Penguin brand in early 00’s “Love Letters”, “Be Here”, “Anything Elise is a waste of paper”, “Read more” campaigns. In 2003 appointed firt creative director and got research that said despite the advertising Penguin brand was still seen as dusty, old-fashioned, worthy.
* In 2004: “good booking” campaign (with books sold to guys as a kind of pickup line). PR was huge but not all good, and noticed the emergence of literary blogosphere critique. General sense that Books are not sexy enough to the “FaceTube generation” - you can’t have a conversation with them, they’re too linear…
* In 2005: building off success of audio books launched ReMix competition, with classic lines from books being made available for people to mashup… Best ones put on an iTunes album. Also Penguin Podcasts - social marketing.
* Now… active in Second Life for over a year, meeting with authors etc. Blogging. Videos on Youtube. “Working hard to make the product do the marketing”… “Rarely buy advertising space at the side of Hammersmith flyover anymore”
* 60th anniversary Penguin Classics - did have a traditional campaign but also Ambient hoarding, Classic reading at Fruitstock, Designer Classics with Paul Smith.
* My Penguin - books with blank white covers for people to decorate themselves and give as gifts; photos of covers uploaded to Flickr
* Dream Eaters - published online in installment form before book released
* Penguin are about “enabling conversations about books, authors and stories”… “Not quite sure where the journey is going yet”

Come listen to more inspiring speakers at the PSFK Conference Los Angeles on September 18 2007 in West Hollywood - psfkla.eventbrite.com.