DK
DK US
Hugely Successful Partnership with LEGO Yields DK's First #1 New York Times Bestseller
DK had its first #1 New York Times Bestseller with LEGO Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary in October. To launch the book, DK organized a whopping 65 events at bookstores and retailers across the country, all of which took place on October 10. There was a real frenzy around the events, with Tweets, multiple blog and web features, and appearances by the 501st Legion throughout the country. A feature on the book on us.dk.com has received over 37,000 hits, DK shipped over 100,000 copies of the book and sales haven't slowed down since publication. The LEGO excitement doesn't end there: The two-volume LEGO Book also hit the New York Times Bestseller list, giving DK two simultaneous bestsellers! These books and two Brickmasters — Pirate and Castle — titles have had strong sales throughout the fall and we expect all of our LEGO publishing to on everyone's wish list for the holidays.
Real Sex for Real Women Author Lands Oprah Radio Spot and More High Profile Media
DK's year began with the ongoing success of Dr. Laura Berman's New York Times bestseller, Real Sex for Real Women. In January, she was a featured expert in Oprah's "Live Your Best Life" series with a follow up webinar on Oprah.com. The book reappeared on the New York Times bestseller list and landed Dr. Berman her own radio show on Oprah Radio network. The author went on to appear on Dr. Oz's new TV show when in launched in the fall and DK is looking forward to the publication of her Book of Love on February 14th.
QVC Network Shoppers Go Wild for The Illustrated Kitchen Bible
DK's Nancy Ellwood appeared on QVC's "In the Kitchen with David" in August to talk about The Illustrated Kitchen Bible. In just over five minutes, QVC sold out of 3,000 books! Nancy is scheduled for a second appearance in the coming months.
DK Books Featured in Major Magazines' Holiday Gift Guides
Year after year, DK's books are among the favorite gifts to give and get throughout the holiday season and this year is no exception. Parents magazine features the Illustrated Quick Cook, Real Simple magazine includes The Beer Book in their gifts for guys selections, Esquire magazine features Open Me Up in their December holiday gift guide, and Bird is included in Ladies' Home Journal's annual holiday guide. Also, WIRED magazine showcases LEGO Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary in its WIRED Store and online holiday showcase.
"Today Show" Appearance Drives LEGO Star Wars to Top of BN.com
DK's own Rachel Kempster made her 4th appearance on NBC's "Today Show" on November 30th as part of DK's annual donation to the Toy Drive. Right after her appearance, DK's LEGO Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary was the #1 bestselling title on Barnes & Noble's website, BN.com, knocking Sarah Palin's Going Rogue from the top spot!
DK Books Collect Awards and Honors in 2009
DK (US) received a bevy of awards in 2009. Here are highlights:
The Parents Choice Award:
- Evolution Revolution — Silver Medal
- Take Me Back — Recommended
- The Most Explosive Science Book in the World... by the Brainwaves — Recommended
Outstanding Science Trade Books for 2010 (chosen by CBC and NSTA):
- The Human Brain Book by Rita Carter
CHOICE Outstanding Academic Titles for 2009:
- Birds of North America
A Best Children's Book of the Year award by the Bank St. Book Committee:
- Show Me the Money by Alvin Hall
DK UK
First Aid Manual is DK's Top Selling 2009 Title in the UK
DK's biggest seller this year has been the ninth edition of the First Aid Manual, with nearly half a million copies sold to date. Publication in February was backed by the seventh First Aid Awareness Week, a national campaign spearheaded by DK in association with the UK's leading First Aid Providers. Extensive media coverage included interviews on GMTV, This Morning (ITV1) and BBC News, features in The Sun, You (Mail on Sunday) and BBC's Community Pages, and a regional radio campaign reaching 170 stations, all of which contributed to First Aid Manual reaching no.1 in the Family, Health & General Chart. Every person attending a UK first aid course organised by one of the Providers receives a copy.
Global LEGO Star Wars Campaign Drives Dictionary Sales
DK (UK)'s LEGO events held in bookshops during the October half term holiday were hugely successful. The global LEGO Star Wars phenomena sparked the visual dictionary to sell 14,000 copies in the UK to date. The campaign went viral with bloggers and fan sites going crazy for the exclusive Luke Skywalker mini-figure. Coverage for The LEGO Book and Brickmasters included a double page spread in The Telegraph Magazine and reviews in Waterstones Books Quarterly, Creative Review and Toy News.
Evolution Revolution and Darwin Anniversary Spark UK Reader Interest
Perfect timing helped the launch of Robert Winston's Evolution Revolution, published in February to coincide with the 150th anniversary of Darwin's On the Origin of Species. The book was released amid fantastic publicity in the UK, which included interviews with Robert Winston on The One Show (BBC1), This Morning (ITV1) and Blue Peter (BBC1). The book stormed up the children's book charts in its first three weeks of publication. It was No.1 by value (Children's General Non Fiction category) and No.3 by value in the overall children's non-fiction market for two weeks, selling 16,500 copies to date.
Britain's Best Dish Benefits from TV Tie-In and Media Hits
DK (UK) published the tie-in book to the popular ITV cookery show, "Britain's Best Dish" in September. Trails for the book followed each episode, plus an ad on itv.com saw the book reach number 2 in the national and regional food chart and number 24 in the overall non-fiction chart. The publicity campaign included numerous extracts and reviews in Saturday Express, The Times and TV Quick, plus coverage on foodie websites and blogs.
DK's Christmas Gift Titles for All Ages
Sales in the UK for DK's Christmas gift titles are shaping up well, with BradyGames Strategy Guide to Modern Warfare 2 and The Halo Encyclopedia for the gamers; Open Me Up and Train Your Brain To Be A Genius for the kids; and Science, War and Cook Express for the grown-ups.
DK Eyewitness Travel and Rough Guides (UK)
House of Commons Crowns DK "World's Bestselling Travel Publisher"
DK was named the "world's bestselling travel publisher" in the House of Commons during Prime Minister's Questions, after naming Bristol a top city to visit in 2009, and an article about DK's The Road Less Travelled was the most viewed on Times Online for more than two days.
Smile! PhotoBritain Competition Attracts 8,000 Entrants
The DK PhotoBritain Competition, launched in partnership with PhotoBox, Waterstone's, and Landmark Trust, received 8k entries. During the competition, DK's Great Britain book became the bestselling guide to that destination.
Rough Guides.com Passes 5 Million Visitor Mark and Traveldk.com Wins Awards
Roughguides.com was the most trafficked site in the Penguin Group with over 5 million visits YTD (Oct 09) and July's newsletter had the highest click-through rate to-date. A new SEO strategy for Roughguides.com and Traveldk.com launched with new monthly articles, keyword optimized, on both sites. Traveldk.com won a British Travel Award 2009 for innovation, voted for by consumers and the travel trade, and the site launched ten new destinations earlier in the year. DK also won Gold for the Best Guidebook Series at the 2009 Wanderlust Awards.
New RG and DK Apps Launched This Year
During 2009, Rough Guides launched 200 travel guide applications, each priced £0.49/€0.49, for the Vodafone 360 App Shop, and DK created 30 applications, priced £4.99/$7.99, for the iPhone and iPod touch.
DK Eyewitness Travel and Rough Guides (US)
DK's Eyewitness Moscow Guidebook Outperforms Smart Phone Apps
An Associated Press article earlier this year reported how the DK Eyewitness Moscow guidebook bested smart phone apps in a Conde Nast Traveler comparison. Three journalists were sent to Moscow: one with an iPhone app, one with a Blackberry app and the other with DK's guidebook. The guidebook user performed better overall, proving the value of DK's thoroughly researched printed content.
Major Publications Tout Off the Tourist Trail
In November, The Wall Street Journal included Off the Tourist Trail in its Best Travel Gift Ideas feature and USA Today praised the book for "serving up plenty of fresh ideas." The book was also featured in Men's Journal's "What's New" column.
Top 10 Sticker Campaign Hits Hundreds of Locations Featured in Top 10 Guides
DK also embarked on a Top 10 sticker campaign in 2009 by reaching out to hundreds of restaurants, hotels, museums, and retail outlets featured in DK's bestselling Top 10 guides.
Earthbound Gets National Exposure Via the AP and Popular Web Sites
Rough Guides' Earthbound garnered national media attention from the Associated Press with its beautiful photographs and unique QR codes. The article appeared in Salon.com, CBSnews.com, Businessweek.com, and Yahoo.com, among others.
DK (Canada)
Canadian Children Pick Up DK's Open Me Up
DK Canada's biggest selling children's book of 2009 has been the successor to the hugely popular Pick Me Up and Do Not Open series of "shufflepedias". 70,000 Open Me Up postcards were distributed in copies of the popular Canadian kids magazine — The Magazine, which featured a two-page excerpt from the book. The postcard had information about a contest at our Open Me Up mini-site to win a PlayStation PSP 3000. Spreads and content from the book were posted at the mini-site as well — with links to the other titles in the series (Pick Me Up / Do Not Open / Take Me Back) and a Human Body Quiz. 70,000 Open Me Up bookmarks were also distributed to all children's bookstores in Canada.
The Human Brain Book Tops DK's List for Adult Readers
One of the top adult sellers of 2009, The Human Brain Book was lead the title in DK Canada's online Human Body Boutique along with its bestselling cousins The Human Body Book and The Concise Human Body Book, guaranteeing that The Human Brain Book was front and centre for all website traffic for September and October. The Human Brain Book was the lead title in our DK Speed Dating presentation (Deep Thinker Seeks Same for Inquisitive Nights!) at the Canadian Bookseller's Association annual conference and all attendees received a DK branded human brain (stress ball).
Big Promotional Buzz Drives Bestseller Success for DK's LEGO Star Wars Titles
Even though the two new DK LEGO titles didn't release until September, we previewed them at Fan Expo in August. This science-fiction and comic book convention is the largest of its kind in Canada and was the perfect venue to promote these new books. We offered coupons to purchase the books at a discount from our website after release. We also launched an online LEGO Boutique with a press release to all the LEGO clubs in Canada, who also each received review copies. A special coupon code was sent to LEGO Club members, enabling them to receive a discount on online orders of DK LEGO books. These new titles — along with LEGO Brickmasters — were amongst DK's top sellers of the year in Canada.