Graphic Novel with Novel Marketing

Ad featuring art by Peter Bergting (detail)

An author whose regular novels have swept Sweden by storm. An illustrator who is Sweden's most popular fantasy artist. Put them together to create a graphic novel and you have Jens Lapidus and Peter Bergting's Gängkrig 145 (gang war 145), now out in paperback from Månpocket.

The book, which came out in hard cover in 2009, is getting a new life now that it's out in paperback. And a clever marketing campaign is helping it reach new audiences: Posters featuring near-life-size drawings by Bergting have been placed in the very spots they picture: for example, one of the ads features the bus-shelter at Hötorget in downtown Stockholm and the ad has been placed in the very bus-shelter it depicts. 

The ads all refer those reading them to a contest where winners can enter a drawing and win one of four original sketches signed by Bergting. Entry forms were available at shops around Sweden and the sketches have been on view at a special show at the Pocket Shop at Stockholm's Kulturhuset.

An additional three sketches are being auctioned off with the proceeds going to Fryshuset, a Stockholm-based non-profit providing youth services. "Since the book deals with such a dark and violent subject matter, a gang war, we thought it was important to do something for Fryshuset, which works to help young people struggling with violence, among other things," says Rebecka Leffler Johansson, responsible for marketing for the book at Månpocket.

And the campaign has been a real success. "We decided to do a campaign focusing on the art because a graphic novel in paperback is something we've never done before and it is very unique. The response has been great," says Leffler Johansson. "The book has sold 27,000 copies so far, and it's one of the top paperback sellers."