Ladybird: A True Publishing Brand is 100

Today Penguin celebrates the centenary of the registration of the Ladybird logo in 1915. It was very interesting to watch the recent televised documentary on the remarkable story of this format and its history. 

The real Ladybird success, came with the introduction in 1940, of a pocket-sized mini-hardback book measuring four-and-a-half by seven inches and based on a standard 56 page folded format, which was cut to size with no waste. On one side of the spread were high quality full-colour illustrations by the likes A. J. Macgregor, Charles Tunnicliffe, Allen Seaby, Harry Wingfield and Martin Aitchison, whilst on the other side the text was simple clean and engaging with verse initially by W. Perring.

The characters created by Ladybird captivated the children of the time and the books were sold in not just bookshops but newsagent and the grocers. Most children in the late 50s, 60s and early 70s were avid readers and collectors of the cheap, simple and distinctive books, which often depicted the post war model British way of life and the innocence of the children Peter and Jane at play, the housewife Mum and breadwinner Dad.

Labybird went further than the Famous Five, Just William and other fictional series of the day. They covered not just stories based on family life, but introduced many to the wonders of nature and history and even covered science and engineering subjects. The series were colour banded, uniform and filled both the shelves and minds of many children in a way that has yet to be surpassed. In addition, all the books were priced the same and were aimed at being affordable and accessible for children to buy themselves.

Would the format and style have adapted to the changing marketplace or was the changes introduced under Pearson inevitable and the death of the design form inevitable? Was DK the closest to matching their audience? Are today’s collectors merely remembering their lost childhoods, or paying respect to what was once a winning format, a clean price point and distinctive brand?

Can we learn today from the Ladybird pre Pearson? Today’s children’s books come in all sizes, have no price point and often the character is the brand. Will tomorrow’s books continue the same, or will someone revisit what once worked and adapt it to today’s growing digital and physical book markets? 

Does Publishing Have Ketchup On Its Hands?

At a time when many are trying to achieve their New Year resolutions to get fitter, TV schedules are littered with the dangers of obesity, the news has increased coverage on the increased obesity of not only of adults, but also children and also the Hairy Bikers top the charts with a book about their own battle to fight their obesity, it is somewhat cynical that the industry celebrates the promotion of 15 million children’s books by McDonalds. Some would that this is a somewhat cynical promotion of heavily discounted children’s books through the sale of what many would regard as junk food.

For the next two years McDonald's is effectively giving customers a voucher for discounted participating children’s books to be used to redeem titles for £1 through WHS. They claim 9 out of 10 parents responded positively to their similar campaign last year and asked them to do more book promotions. Why wouldn't they at £1 a title?

The National Literacy Trust are fully behind the promotion and obviously believe that inducing parents to feed their children in MacDonalds is the answer to getting more children reading and can make a real difference to child literary and ‘well-rounded children’.

It’s as if we have ignored the Jamie’s campaign for better school meals, ignored the news about the increase in obesity, ignored all the TV and media coverage on the dangers of unhealthy eating and junk food, ignored our own industry charts and diet books and rum to pick up a few pieces of silver instead and done so under the banner that it will improve the numbers of children that read.

We have seen the cost of unhealthy eating and lifestyles on the NHS. We have seen proactive legislation and taxation levies on the advertising of smoking and dangers of tobacco. We have banned tobacco companies cynically endorsing sport. We are now witnessing a similar approach to alcohol abuse, but we still fail to grapple with the soft drink and junk food endorsements of sporting events such as the Olympics. Its as if money still talks louder than logic.

The publishing industry, publishers and authors should step back today and ask themselves if they are happy to endorse this somewhat cynical promotion which is clearly aimed at children and whether they will, as a result, be seen to have ‘ketchup ‘ on their hands.

Magic Town: A Place Where Stories Live?

Destination websites have always been attractive to those searching for that one place where they can find everything they want under one roof. The challenge is often to get competitors to collaborate and realise that working together often makes more sense than duplicating cost and effort. Often it needs a third party to pull the competitors together and present the range in a neutral and compelling place.

The Magic Town platform is being launched by Mindshapes with the aim of creating a compelling online site, where children aged from two to six can find interactive classic fairy tales and children’s ebooks. Mindshapes envisage that the parents of children do not want to spend all day trawling the app stores and web looking for suitable and engaging stories for their children and by offering a one stop shop they will capture the growing market. They have got the support of publishers such as Hachette, Penguin and Simon & Schuster and are reportedly in discussion with more. The Magic Town, will also be available on the iPad and is planning to operate on part free part subscription model with some 20 titles available free and subscription access to the full catalogue costing £7.99 a month, or £49.99 a year. They estimate that some 200 stories will be available on the platform in the first year.

  

Mindshapes was founded in 2010 and last year it raised £3.1m in a Series A funding to launch two destination hubs; Magic Town and Language City. Magic Town is accessible via an app and web browsers whilst Language City is browser only. The business model mix of free and subscription, is a logical and one that could resonate with busy parents who may be happy to subscribe to a single and  trusted service.

The challenges we see are not huge but are significant. The model is not one that is easy for publishers and especially ones which carry heavy development costs and hold potentially significant secondary rights. We are reminded of the Jesuit maxim, "Give me a child for his first seven years and I'll give you the man". The target age group is itself relatively small, some 3 years and where do their readers go then? Can they extend the offer or create a follow on offer as the children grow or that can be shared with their older siblings? Will the offer be extended to cover all books in the target age range or remain with just web and app offers and will that be enough to satisfy the needs of the parents? Finally will publishers embrace Mindshapes as just another digital ‘experiment’, or see it as a serious strategic channel and direction?   

We watch with interest at this venture into the world of Spotify for books.