Jack Arts
Yellowface: R.F. Kuang
From renowned author R. F. Kuang comes the instant Sunday Times-bestselling novel Yellowface, an incisive thriller that brings humour to a tale of ‘ambition, greed and white privilege’. Following June Hayward as she missteps her way through stealing success from her recently lost contemporary Athena Liu, the story has been rightfully tipped as the ‘beginning of a fantastic career’ for Kuang.
To celebrate the publication of the hugely anticipated book, we worked with Harper Collins on a BMS award-winning mega-campaign across its release. Firstly ramping up the excitement with a teaser campaign of posters and clings that just featured the book’s striking yellow cover and black eyes, followed by unveiling the book’s title across our sites in London, Manchester and Glasgow, including a very special lenticular creative billboard that followed passers-by on Borough High Street.
We didn’t stop there – we also created an in-store installation at Waterstones Piccadilly with a self-typing ghost typewriter and deathly pandan pancakes (visited by Kuang herself), and a live-painted mural for Blackwell’s Oxford which accompanied the author to a launch event. Recently, Yellowface has also made an appearance across our sites in Edinburgh in time for the city’s book festival, plus in chalk graffiti to celebrate Bookshop Day across six bookshops in London.
We are delighted to announce the multi-faceted campaign has won Marketing Strategy of the Year at the British Book Awards – it was a pleasure to bring this captivating campaign to life on our city streets across the country – the judges described it as ‘an audacious, clever and very hard-working campaign that took every opportunity that came its way.’