Picador Books
This website is an online hub of dicsussion around Picador books. In its first year the site achieved online engagement wins such as 92% of comments being made by Picador's target audience of authors and book lovers, as opposed to site administrators.
The look and feel of picador.com is the most successful aspect of this project, and creates real impact for new visitors. The integration of our content with the social web gives the site a wider remit for discussion with our readers. It’s a great model for an imprint- or category-led site, which we’ve already built on for teen readers with mykindabook.com.
James LongEditorial Director - Digital, Pan Macmillan
Background & Objectives
Picador, imprint of Pan Macmillan, publishes contemporary fiction, non-fiction and poetry from prize-winning writers including Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, to compelling new voices.
Picador already had a blog-oriented site that represented a good initial step towards creating an online dialogue with users, but the team wanted to facilitate better engagement, with a more intuitively designed website that would stimulate discussion of Picador books between readers, authors and Picador staff, in a way that reflects the inclusiveness of the Picador brand.
This would also allow Picador to extend its audience reach, support targeted marketing activity by gathering useful data and, in turn, drive book sales.
Solution
Starting with a detailed audience analysis, Chameleon redesigned and developed picador.com to:
- support and strengthen the brand positioning with an impactful visual design
- increase search engine visibility and conversion from search results pages
- engage and inspire a much wider audience by aggregating content from third party sites such as Twitter and YouTube
- provide a user-centric, intuitive experience for users by re-designing the site’s information architecture
- increase depth and value of content by combining selected external content pulled in from blogs, news sites and social networks, with editorial content
- standardise branding across all online channels
Results
The resulting website is an online hub of discussion for Picador books. With its sideways navigation, the site mimics the motion of book reading, whilst providing an easy user journey and fluid commenting platform.
After Redesign:
Before Redesign:
In Year One
- 92% of comments from public vs. 8% Picador administrators
- Twitter followers increase by 62% to 7,073
- Over 50,000 YouTube channel views
- Site has a loyal fan base of 7% coming back 9 times or more
- Top Referrers (aside from organic search) are online communities, conversations and reviews:
- Mumsnet
- Wikipedia
- Kimbofo’s Reading Matters (blog dedicated to books and all things book-related)
- thedevilinyou.com (Bret Easton Ellis book site)
- emmadonoghue.com (author)
- Creative Review
- The Bookseller
- Poetry Society
- Guardian
