Our work Rare Birds Books
Rare Birds Books is a book club founded on a simple principle: books should be fun to read. Centred on contemporary women’s fiction, Rare Birds Books selects only the very best pacey and interesting stories with gripping plotlines, amazing heroines, happyish endings and – when the occasion calls for it – totally smouldering love interests.
Members can choose to be part of the club for three, six or twelve months as well as on a rolling basis. They receive a surprise read each month and can log onto the digital book club to discuss the story. Readers can also purchase themed bundles, gifts and candles, directly online or from the brand-new store in Edinburgh.
Ambition
As a start-up launched in 2017, Rare Birds Books appointed Four Marketing Agency to increase the brand’s profile on a regional, national and trade level, to showcase female fiction and ultimately to help generate subscribers. For Rare Birds it was always key to put female authors in the forefront, showcasing the crème de la crème of the talent out there.
Action
Four Marketing Agency developed a PR strategy focusing on the brand’s uniqueness, as well as founder Rachel Wood’s story and her inspiration behind setting up the business. We worked on product and news placement, partnerships, events, features, commentary, as well as press and influencer gifting.
More than just ‘product on a page’, we specifically highlighted ways we could showcase the brand in its many different roles, including running a UK-wide survey which found that women cited reading as their favourite pastime in lockdown.
We also collaborated with Rare Birds Books on a number of key charity partnerships, including installation of an adult and children’s library at Ronald McDonald House in Glasgow (which was so successful Rare Birds partnered with them again the following year) and a collaboration with Fawcett Society – the UK's leading charity for gender equality and women's rights – which saw a bundle of books chosen by the charity, with profits going to the Fawcett Society.
To celebrate the opening of the new Rare Birds Books store in the Scottish capital’s Stockbridge, we worked with the Edinburgh Festival Fringe to create a limited-edition book bundle with proceeds going to support future Fringe performers.
Result
We achieved over 100 pieces of coverage in 2020 across national, regional, trade and lifestyle titles and via key target influencers. Hero coverage included quality articles in Daily Express, Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, The Independent, Evening Standard and Metro plus an appearance on This Morning. Coverage in target audience lifestyle titles included OK, HELLO, Stella, Stylist, Good Housekeeping, Marie Claire, Red and Woman & Home.
This increased brand awareness, set the brand and service apart as an ideal ‘letterbox gift’ during lockdown 2020 and helped boost subscription sales by over 52%. Rare Birds Books was also invited to sponsor or participate in a number of key events such as Edinburgh International Book Festival, Stylist Live and Stella Live.