Stationery Icons, a 304-page illustrated hardback by Christopher Leonard-Morgan, has launched its first Christmas campaign. The book celebrates 100 stationery brands and is being positioned as a distinctive gift for stationery enthusiasts, collectors and design lovers. The campaign is scheduled to run through Christmas.
The promotional programme combines advertising on StationeryNews.net and PGBuzz.net with activity on Instagram and LinkedIn. It is intended to highlight the brands, personalities and stories that have made stationery an enduring interest, while drawing attention to the book during the gift-buying season.
Event sales support gifting push
The campaign follows encouraging sales at two London events: Open House at Stationers’ Hall on 20 September and the London Pen Show in Hammersmith on 10–11 October. Both events, according to the launch announcement, underlined the book’s appeal as a present, with customers buying copies for friends, family and fellow stationery enthusiasts.
Leonard-Morgan said the response had been particularly encouraging because many people saw the book as a gift for someone else. He observed that most people know someone who has a favourite fountain pen, treasures a particular notebook or finds it hard to resist a stationery shop. The book, he said, brings together the stories behind the brands those readers love in a form they can enjoy and return to over time.
The campaign is aimed at both committed collectors and general gift buyers. Its timing places the book alongside Christmas retail and social-media activity, while the featured brands are encouraged to use their own channels to reach existing customers and followers.
Featured brands invited to participate
The Christmas campaign invites the 100 brands featured in the book to mark their inclusion through their own social-media channels and customer communications. The intention is to extend awareness of the book among stationery enthusiasts around the world and to let featured businesses share their own stories with customers and followers.
Richard Webb, publisher at Narrative Media, said stationery inspires a remarkable degree of affection and loyalty. He described the book’s breadth as a particular strength, noting that it brings together stories spanning six centuries of ingenuity, entrepreneurship and design. Webb also said the publisher was pleased to offer featured brands an opportunity to share their stories, building on the wider interest generated by the campaign.
Limited first edition
The first edition has an initial print run of just 1,000 copies and is priced at £80. It is available to order directly from the book’s website. The launch announcement noted that customers had already bought copies for friends, family and fellow enthusiasts at the two London events.