“Kids Can on the coolhunt” Special to the Quill & Quire, Nov. 1, 2004

 

Kids Can Press is hoping that the adage “birds of a feather flock together” holds true for young adult readers as well. The publisher’s latest strategy to woo its teen and tween readership online, on television, and on the streets will rely on generating interest mostly through word of mouth among peer groups.

In Canadian publishing, that’s an unusual approach. The reasoning behind the campaign to promote The Mob, the first novel in Clem Martini’s Feather and Bone: The Crow Chronicles trilogy, is the hope that young adults will drive the marketing themselves. “Nobody has ever shown that traditional consumer advertising sells more,” says Kids Can Press associate publisher Karen Boersma. “All evidence seems to be anecdotal. None of us are convinced that’s the way to go.”

Published in August 2004, The Mob is the tale of a plucky and impulsive young crow banished from his flock. Kids Can Press signed the entire trilogy in 2003, and they approached Nelvana, which is owned by Kids Can’s parent company, Corus Entertainment, to consider purchasing the film rights to create an animated feature film. Nelvana signed on, and the two subsidiaries agreed to work together to develop a mutual marketing strategy; the film is slated for release in 2006, after the third and final book is published.

The combined brainstorming session resulted in a campaign that includes the requisite interactive website and three television ads, which have been running on YTV this fall. Two five-second teaser ads, which make no mention of the books in order to create an aura of mystery, are followed by a 10-second ad that finally divulges the product to puzzled viewers.

But the publishing house’s most unusual move is the use of guerrilla marketing tactics. Toronto’s Free for All Marketing was commissioned to hand out 2,000 black leather wristbands with The Mob logo in Toronto. The thinking is that the wristbands will have more impact with readers over the age of 12, who are unlikely to pick up a book recommended by an adult figure. Kids Can hasn’t decided yet whether they will take the wristband promotion across Canada.

“We are putting it directly in the children’s hands. We are marketing to them, not to their parents,” said Free for All project manager Chris Shannon. “Rather than relying on memory, as advertising generally does, we are initiating contact. It’s something they can touch, feel, and act upon right away.”

At press time, Free for All was planning to dole out the wristbands in high youth-traffic areas such as arcades and shopping malls over two days in October. The marketers will also have about 1,000 promotional CD-ROMs on hand, but will choose the recipients carefully. Before handing them out, they will observe the dynamics among the friends and hand over the CD to the young adult who they believe to be the most influential member of the group.

Boersma knows they must tread carefully with this demographic. “It’s hard to build word of mouth without alienating the audience, because kids are very sensitive to being manipulated,” she says.

First-time novelist Martini is hopeful but pragmatic about his publisher’s unique marketing campaign. “You can predict all you want and then people do something quite different. At one point, there was a fear that websites were the enemy. They were the competition and we were going to lose the kids. Instead, we’re finding that it’s a complement.”