How do you extend the brand of a best-selling book? Carefully – especially when its iconic title, Purple Cow, parallels the iconic status of its author, uber-marketer Seth Godin.
Concept Development Design/Business Strategy Identity Design Marketing Communications Experience Design Documentary Film
Author/editor Godin and sponsor, MSN, asked us to bring the launch of the follow-up book to Purple Cow, entitled The Big Moo, to life. The brand needed to launch a year-long campaign and communications platform for 33 authors, who donated all royalties to three charities. The target audience for the campaign, business influencers, received more invitations, more business books and more information than they could possibly accept. Cutting through the clutter and creating something “remarkable” was essential to creating a successful launch event that would generate buzz and book sales.
Our initial assessment was that the premise of The Big Moo, “something remarkable is worth talking about,” offered us a central theme on which we could build the campaign. We knew our central idea and our design delivery had to be worth talking about. Taking a cue from the wisdom in the book, we decided to customize the book and its message to specific communities. Playing off the title, we created a brand identity for the book’s launch campaign around a “BIG” theme: life size cows, oversized invitations, big posters of the charities’ recipients of the proceeds, cow bells and moo sound-making cans made a BIG impact. They translated the book’s irreverence and wit into the total brand experience.