Penguin Canada unleashed a gang of female bikers on the streets of Toronto last Tuesday. Fans of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium book trilogy recognized the women as clones of Lisbeth Salander, the central character of the series including the latest addition The Girl In The Spider’s Web.
For the book’s Canadian release, Penguin Canada brought the character of Salander to life, both on the street and online as she “hacked” the publisher’s Twitter feed.
Early in the day, Salander tweeted out a selfie with the caption “I’m in Toronto,” followed by a series of shots from the experiential stunt and some musings on the day’s trending topics like, “Lisbeth Salander here. Idris Elba is cute, but everybody knows that I’m the new James Bond.”
Sister brand Random House Canada played along tweeting out, “It would appear that Lisbeth Salander has taken over the PenguinCanada Twitter account. Stay tuned.”
It would appear that Lisbeth Salander has taken over the @PenguinCanada Twitter account. Stay tuned. #theGIRLisback pic.twitter.com/IzZGECnRGR
— Random House Canada (@RandomHouseCA) September 1, 2015
The stunt was ripped straight from the pages of the Millennium series, in which Salander is a talented hacker. Beth Lockley, vice-president of marketing at Penguin Random House Canada, explained the characters were the driving force behind the Millennium phenomenon, which led to the film adaptation of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.
Because of the characters’ popularity, Lockley said Penguin chose to put Salander “front and centre” of the marketing campaign.
“People just loved these characters, Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander. They really fell in love with them and they stayed with people,” she said. “Lisbeth Salander is really one of the greatest fictional heroines ever written.”
The Girl In The Spider’s Web represents a massive opportunity for Penguin Random House Canada. The Millennium trilogy sold more than 80 million copies globally, making each book in the series a bonafide publishing blockbuster. The new book also marks the first in the series not written by Larsson, who died in 2004, piling on extra expectations and additional buzz for the book.
Heading into the holiday season, Lockley said Penguin Canada expected the book to be among its best sellers. Given the popularity of the series, the company also put significant ad budget behind its promotion.
In addition to Tuesday’s stunt, the company ran an excerpt from the book and an accompanying ad buy in Metro and the Toronto Star. It is also running digital display ads online and transit ads in Calgary, Vancouver and Toronto.
On the PR side, the company landed segments on Breakfast Television and Global Morning, sent preview copies to a select group of literary critics in Canada and did outreach with book bloggers.
Organized with the help of BrandFire Marketing Group, the women rode scooters around the city for seven hours the day of the stunt, stopping off at busy intersections near Indigo locations to give out 10,000 promo booklets with an extended excerpt and to let consumers know the book was discounted by 40% at Indigo.
The Salander biker gang and Twitter takeover was a hit online. The hashtag #theGIRLisback trended nationally and, according to Lockley, Penguin Canada’s social content had reached over 37,000 consumers.
