COMPANY OVERVIEW
Nosy Crow is a multi–award-winning, independent children’s publishing company, based in London. They publish commercial fiction and non– fiction books for children aged 0 to 12, with the aim to encourage children to read for pleasure. Many of their books, such as the Bizzy Bear and Pip and Posy series, are by well–known authors and illustrators and are available in both print and e–book form.
INTRODUCTION
In the haze of coronavirus and a not–so–normal daily structure, the public face a battle of breaking down the facts and trying to understand the rules, highlighting the importance of communicating the correct information in a digestible way. Especially when lives are at stake.
Families with children have been strongly impacted by the virus, and kids have had to adjust like the rest of us. Nosy Crow are aware that many parents and carers are struggling to explain the current situation to children, many of whom are frightened and confused. In their effort to solve this issue, they produced a downloadable book to explain and reassure children. On Monday April 6th, 2020, Nosy Crow issued the free digital book for anyone to read on screen or print out, illustrated by the famous ‘Gruffalo’ illustrator, Axel Scheffler.
CHALLENGE
Raise awareness and boost book downloads
Given the strange and uncertain times, Nosy Crow needed to circulate the book as widely and quickly as possible. Raising awareness of the book across the UK and internationally was important so that as many people as possible could gain access and benefit from it.
Nosy Crow specifically wanted to target a network of contacts beyond the children’s publishing industry, with a focus on health and medical journalists, educational and art correspondents, and media outlets covering the coronavirus pandemic.
APPROACH
Targeted wire distribution to secure earned coverage
Nosy Crow used the PR Newswire service to distribute two press releases to a large and trusted network of media outlets. This aimed to spread awareness of the story by garnering earned media coverage across regional and national publications in different industries and trades. The press releases were also published on the PR Newswire newsfeed which has a monthly visit of over nine million people per month.
187
release pickups
1 million+
book downloads
RESULTS
Boosted earned media pickup and engagement
The distributed releases increased media pick up and search visibility. The visibility report showed that they were picked up by 187 online outlets with a potential audience figure of 74.5 million. There were 296 click throughs to the online book directly from the releases appearing on the PR Newswire newsfeed. In three weeks since the book release date, it had been downloaded one million times from the Nosy Crow website alone.
The story gained coverage in a large number of media outlets and newspapers, including:
- Regional
- Schools
- Libraries
- Local newspapers
- Community social media platforms
- Broadcast and radio
- BBC News
- Sky News
- ITV News
- Channel 4
- BBC Radio 4
- BBC Radio 2
- Local radio stations
- National
- The Guardian
- The Times
- The Sunday Times
- The New York Times
- The Week
- The Sun
- The Observer
- The Independent
“The coverage has been widespread and extensive, and shared among various media outlets. It’s been brilliant and is still going!” said Rebecca Mason, Publicity Manager, Nosy Crow.
