Stationery Icons, a 304-page illustrated hardback by Christopher Leonard-Morgan, has launched its first Christmas campaign. The book, which features 100 stationery brands, is being positioned as a distinctive gift for stationery enthusiasts, collectors and design lovers.
The campaign runs through Christmas and combines advertising on StationeryNews.net and PGBuzz.net with promotional activity on Instagram and LinkedIn. Its focus is on the brands, personalities and stories that the publisher says make stationery an enduring fascination.
The push follows two London events: Open House at Stationers’ Hall on 20 September and the London Pen Show in Hammersmith on 10–11 October. According to the book’s team, both events showed the title’s appeal as a present, with customers buying copies for friends, family and fellow stationery enthusiasts.
Gift positioning
Leonard-Morgan said the most encouraging response was the number of people who saw the book as a gift for someone else. He noted that many people know someone who keeps a favourite fountain pen, values a particular notebook or finds it hard to resist a stationery shop. Stationery Icons, he added, brings together the stories behind the brands those readers already like in a book they can enjoy and return to over time.
The Christmas campaign also invites the 100 featured brands to mark their inclusion through their own social-media channels and customer communications. The aim is to extend awareness of the book among stationery enthusiasts internationally, using the featured companies’ existing audiences as well as the campaign’s own advertising and social activity.
Publisher view
Richard Webb, publisher at Narrative Media, said stationery inspires a notable degree of affection and loyalty. He described the book’s breadth as a particular strength, saying it brings together stories spanning six centuries of ingenuity, entrepreneurship and design. Webb also said the publisher was pleased to give featured brands a way to share their own stories with customers and followers, building on interest generated by the campaign.
The campaign gives Stationery Icons a promotional push beyond the two London events where it was recently presented. Its £80 price and limited first print run place the title in a premium gift segment, while the 100-brand scope gives participating companies a common theme for their own communications.
The first edition has an initial print run of 1,000 copies. It is priced at £80 and is available to order directly from the book’s website. By linking a premium illustrated format with stories from across the stationery sector, the campaign presents the title as both a reference for enthusiasts and a festive gift for people with a personal attachment to pens, paper and stationery retail.