Case study - Penguin Random House
Launching global thought leader Yuval Noah Harari
The brief
Riot was first hired by Vintage, part of Penguin Random House UK, in 2014 to launch a new non-fiction title called Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by then-unknown historian, Yuval Noah Harari.
Our work together on Sapiens was such an enormous success that we continued to collaborate with Yuval and his publishing team for many years, spearheading the launch campaigns for follow-up titles Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow and 21 Lessons for the Century, supporting the adaptations for younger readers (Unstoppable Us) and into graphic novel format (Sapiens: A Graphic History), and helping to secure Yuval the #1 bestseller spot time and time again.
Our approach
Highlights from our work with Yuval and his publishing team include:
- Countless front-cover features, interviews and extracts placed across national news, consumer magazines and lifestyle titles
- Agenda-setting broadcast coverage, including a round-table conversation with British teenagers in a London high school chaired by Cathy Newman and filmed for Channel 4 News
- Global exclusives such as Yuval’s first published thoughts on Brexit placed as a breaking news story in the Guardian
- Numerous sell-out public events, including an ‘in conversation’ with Academy Award-winning actor, producer, director and social activist Natalie Portman and a children’s launch with multi-award-winning author and academic Katherine Rundell
- Launch-supporting digital content created with a diverse range of influential Brits including Michaela Coel, Lily Cole, Mya-Rose Craig and William Hague
The results
copies of Sapiens sold globally
0
m
consecutive weeks in top 3 Sunday Times bestseller list
0
total books sold globally
0
m
