Crime and Clothes

Crime writers have never looked so glamorous. Starting October 1 that is, when some of the most popular - and most famous - authors from German publishing house Ullstein will appear nattily dressed and elegantly posed in ads across Germany. The campaign, interestingly, is not for a series of new detective novels, but for clothing chain Peek & Cloppenburg.

"The campaign is really sophisticated, because it's not loud," says Antonia Besse, marketing director for Ullstein. "But at the same time it's loud enough to show all of our bestselling authors, with their books, in a beautiful surrounding shot by a first class photographer. What more could we want?" Featured authors include Michael Theurillat, Oliver Pötzsch, Hanna Winter, Åke Edwardsson and Liza Marklund, among others.

The first meetings between the two companies started already in April, and it took some time to work out a concept that fit the requirements of both Ullstein and Peek & Cloppenburg, says Besse. "We decided to only bring in our bestselling crime authors, featuring their paperbacks," she says. "And the authors really liked the idea! It was so completely different, a new way of book marketing. The shoot itself was at a lovely location in Bavaria..." And it was fun as well: Besse reports she received text messages at night about how tasty the Bavarian beer was.

The campaign itself will continue for three weeks and is cleverly timed to coincide with the big Frankfurt Book Fair, with flyers in newspapers and magazines and billboards in all the major German cities. Plus there will be point-of-sale marketing at the cashier with reading samples and store window displays at the 75 Peek & Cloppenburg stores throughout Germany. "And of course we will have an online campaign about the making of the bigger campaign, a contest and other social media activities," says Besse. "Peek & Cloppenburg will also get 2,000 books of the authors involved for their window displays etc. It's a lot of awareness and reach." 

(The photo above from the campaign features authors Oliver Pötzsch, Harry Kämmerer, Åke Edwardsson and Nele Neuhaus)