Stationery Icons, a 304-page illustrated hardback by Christopher Leonard-Morgan, has launched its first Christmas campaign, presenting the book as a distinctive gift for stationery enthusiasts, collectors and design lovers.
The campaign runs through Christmas and combines advertising on StationeryNews.net and PGBuzz.net with promotional activity on Instagram and LinkedIn. Its subject is the brands, personalities and stories behind the stationery trade.
Two London events tested gift appeal
The push follows sales at two autumn gatherings: Open House at Stationers' Hall on 20 September and the London Pen Show in Hammersmith on 10–11 October. Both events highlighted the book's appeal as a present, with customers purchasing copies for friends, family and fellow stationery enthusiasts.
Leonard-Morgan said the encouraging part was how many buyers treated the book as a gift for someone else. Most people, he noted, know someone with a favourite fountain pen, a treasured notebook or a habit of browsing stationery shops, and the book gathers the stories behind the brands those readers already favour in a volume they can enjoy and revisit over the years.
Featured brands invited to take part
The campaign invites the 100 brands covered in the book to mark their inclusion through their own social-media channels and customer communications, an effort intended to extend awareness of the title among stationery enthusiasts worldwide.
Richard Webb, Publisher at Narrative Media, said stationery inspires a remarkable degree of affection and loyalty. He described the book's breadth — stories spanning six centuries of ingenuity, entrepreneurship and design — as what makes it special, and said giving featured brands a way to share their own stories with customers and followers would build on the interest the campaign generates.
The first edition has an initial print run of just 1,000 copies, is priced at £80 and can be ordered directly from the book's own website.