Thinking outside the box (or inside the book package)

Seth Godin made publicity history when he sent galley copies of his book Purple Cow in a sealed milk carton. I worked with Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval, creators of the Aflac duck commercials, who persuaded us to send a stuffed duck that said "Aflac" with every copy of their book, BANG: Getting Your Message Heard in a Noisy World. The team at Consumer Eyes, authors of Karma Queens,Geek Gods, and Innerpreneurs put together a dummy set of suntan lotions to show how the same product could be marketed to three distinctly different consumer groups. (All three captured media attention. In fact, I recall many calls asking for more ducks.

In spite of these highlights, I normally eschew gimmicks. I am leery about sending along something with a book unless it's really different, makes an intriguing pull into the book, or frankly, is just plain cool. Maybe the era of "here's a t-shirt with our book title, and a hat, and a mousepad" turned me off, especially when the tchotchkes didn't do anything to pull people into the book's message.

But this month, I changed my mind with one of our January titles, THE FULL PLATE DIET. The plan, penned by two MDs and a licensed dietitian, is simple – no special food, no restricted menu, no complicated rules to follow. Instead, the authors (who run a nonprofit clinic to help people battle weight issues), espouse upping fiber intake to 40 grams a day. That’s it. Rather than subtracting food, the diet calls for you to add – blueberries to your morning cereal, bean-rich chili to your baked potato, veggies in your marinara sauce. To introduce the book to the media, we sent a box with sample pages from the book along with a package we created that contains a serving of cereal and dried raspberries (combined, they contain 40% of the daily fiber recommended in the book).

The jury is still out on whether it generates a flood of media interest – but we love that it's a simple (and delicious) way to show what this book is all about.

We’ll weigh in soon (pun intended) with the results; but would love your feedback in the meantime!