Penguin Random House has the most robust consumer marketing team in the industry, so we thought it was time to give you a look behind the scenes at how we support you, your publishing teams, and your books.
Led by Penguin Random House Chief Marketing Officer Sanyu Dillon (check out her Author Portal Q&A here), this talented group of marketers is constantly working both to support imprint teams with tools and best practices and to create meaningful experiences for consumers that elevate the role of reading in people’s lives. We work with insights, data, scale, technology, and a creative spark to understand and engage readers of all ages and backgrounds. Here is a breakdown of what our team does.
Consumer Insights & Analytics
Led by VP & Director Erica Curtis, the Consumer Insights & Analytics team uses audience insights to spark creativity and drive reader-led decision-making across the publishing process. We partner with publishing divisions, sales, and other corporate teams on bespoke research and analysis, and provide tools and training for audience research. Some of our team’s key projects and capabilities include: an Insights portal accessible to everyone at PRH; audience segmentation; seasonal trend forecasting; the PRH reader panel; custom author, brand, and category research; numerous marketing tools and reporting capabilities; SEO; and website analytics.
Notable projects: Persona audience segmentation, Moments seasonal trend forecasting, genre deep dives like “Meet the Romance Reader.” Check out more Insights projects on the Author Portal here.
Creative Strategy
Led by VP & Director Adam Royce, the Creative Strategy team drives the creative direction for PRH’s consumer-facing campaigns. These campaigns grow revenue and reach, raise brand awareness, and connect a broad and diverse audience with Penguin Random House books and authors. We do this by executing across all marketing touchpoints, telling the Penguin Random House brand story, striving for cultural fluency in all that we do, connecting with consumers via Penguin Random House social media channels, partnering with leading brands, producing original events and programming, and acting as a creative hub for collaborations across publishing divisions.
Notable projects: Amplify Black Stories campaign, Today’s Top Books tool, Read to Sleep campaign, lululemon book club
Consumer Engagement
Led by VP & Director Erika Seyfried, the Consumer Engagement team manages Penguin Random House’s corporate digital channels with a readercentric approach to provide relevant and personalized content across the site, email, and advertising. Our goal is to effectively guide consumers in discovering their next great read. The team also works collaboratively with divisions and other corporate teams to foster best practices, benchmarks, and innovation, and to activate and grow our first-party data (data we own about readers) across our entire digital footprint.
Notable projects: PRH Reader Rewards program, PRH.com category pages
Creative Media
Led by VP & Director John Clinton, the Creative Media Design and Video teams integrate compelling audiovisual assets and design-led experiences into all our marketing efforts. We employ strategy, artistry, and efficiency to engage readers on all digital platforms.
Notable projects: Virtual Events strategy and support, the Brightly Storytime YouTube channel
Consumer Data & Marketing Automation
Led by VP & Director Suzie Sisoler, the Consumer Data and Marketing Automation team is focused on implementing and championing a consumer data strategy that strengthens and grows our data resources, fosters data governance and stewardship, cultivates the development of strategic data partnerships, and enables the extension and acceleration of data-driven marketing capabilities. A reader-first data strategy combined with best-in-class personalization and marketing automation solutions will enable more effective marketing efforts at scale, driving growth in reader engagement and revenue.
Notable projects: personalized recommendations via PRH email program, Automated Author Alert email program (To see this in action, spend a minute or so on one of your book pages on PRH.com. You should see a pop-up at the bottom encouraging consumers to sign up for your Author Alerts.)
From creating innovative campaigns to providing cutting-edge research about readers, the Consumer Marketing group at PRH strives to support you and your books at every level. If you’d like to learn more about any of the campaigns or projects above, reach out to your publishing team!
Kelsey Manning is Associate Director, Marketing at Penguin Random House.