Stationery Icons, a 304-page illustrated hardback by Christopher Leonard-Morgan, has launched its first Christmas campaign, positioning the book as a distinctive gift for stationery enthusiasts, collectors and design lovers.
The campaign runs through to Christmas and combines advertising on StationeryNews.net and PGBuzz.net with promotional activity on Instagram and LinkedIn. Its stated focus is the brands, personalities and stories that make stationery such an enduring fascination.
Narrative Media, the book's publisher, describes the title as a premium illustrated volume celebrating 100 stationery brands, and the festive push is the first built around it.
The campaign follows 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, according to the book's team, highlighted its appeal as a present, with customers buying copies for friends, family and fellow stationery enthusiasts. No sales figures were disclosed.
The gifting angle is central rather than incidental: the festive messaging builds directly on the response seen at those two events, where buyers were already purchasing copies as presents.
Gifting at the centre of the pitch
Leonard-Morgan said what had been particularly encouraging was how many people saw the book as a present for someone else. He noted that everyone knows someone who has a favourite fountain pen, treasures a particular notebook or simply cannot resist a stationery shop, and said the book brings together the stories behind the brands those readers love in a volume they can enjoy and return to for years to come.
Featured brands invited to join in
The Christmas campaign invites the 100 brands featured in the book to celebrate their inclusion through their own social-media channels and customer communications, an arrangement intended to extend awareness of the title among stationery enthusiasts around the world.
Richard Webb, Publisher at Narrative Media, said stationery inspires a remarkable degree of affection and loyalty. He described the book's distinguishing quality as the breadth of stories it brings together, spanning six centuries of ingenuity, entrepreneurship and design, and said the publisher was glad to offer featured brands a chance to share their own stories with customers and followers, building on the wider interest the campaign generates.
Print run and price
The first edition has an initial print run of only 1,000 copies and is priced at £80, which places it in the premium gifting segment the campaign targets. It can be ordered directly from the book's own website.
The announcement did not disclose details of retail distribution, further campaign activity or any additional printing beyond the first 1,000 copies.