The Reader Lounge, a PRH Research Community, is a rebrand of Penguin Random House’s proprietary in-house research panel, where avid readers share their unique perspectives on their preferences, reading behaviors, trends, and other topics relevant to book publishing. It is used in a variety of ways, from testing concepts to genre studies to learning more about consumer needs.
In 2023, a Consumer Marketing working group focused on rebranding the panel (formerly known as the PRH Reader Insight Panel) and launching a major recruitment strategy targeting younger and multicultural avid readers. The goals of this effort are to increase representation of different communities within The Reader Lounge and to have more diverse perspectives reflected in Penguin Random House’s research.
This initiative is particularly important because these audiences tend to be underrepresented in research, and it can be difficult and expensive to recruit members of these groups through traditional research vendors, who may not have the right reach. This campaign has been extremely successful in promoting The Reader Lounge and helping younger and multicultural readers develop another touchpoint with Penguin Random House.
The rebrand aims to increase engagement with the community and to create a welcoming space for more avid readers by building a strong brand identity, enhancing the look and feel of the opt-in page, and enticing readers to join. These efforts begin with an updated landing page on PRH.com and the launch of the new name, logo, and illustrations.
To broaden the audience makeup of the Reader Lounge, the working group devised a three-pronged recruitment strategy: panel-specific emails targeted to the PRH email subscriber base, social media promotions on various PRH online accounts, and advertisements on IG and TikTok.
Our recruitment strategy and the overall campaign have yielded overwhelmingly positive results, with more than 17,000 new panelists joining The Reader Lounge. Campaign results also indicate a more than 50% increase in eighteen-to-thirty-four-year-old readers—as per a Welcome Survey that members receive upon joining the community—in addition to an increase of multicultural avid readers.
This high-engagement recruitment campaign has also led The Reader Lounge to be featured in The Boston Globe this past December, including interviews with Grant Griglak, Sr. Director of Consumer Insights, and Olivia Oudinot, Sr. Manager of Community Research. The team is excited to work with more publishers in the year ahead to highlight insights from our new avid readers in The Reader Lounge!