THE CHALLENGE

Once a year, the world’s number one publisher, Penguin Random House, gathers in the region of 1,500 employees from all areas of its UK business, to celebrate and showcase a selection of their authors, the breadth of their publishing and the power of books and reading to change lives. Penguin Presents is one of the most important pieces of internal communication the company undertakes. We were thrilled to be hired for a second year running to help mastermind, project manage and execute this major piece of corporate communications for Penguin Random House’s biggest brand moment of the year.

RIOT SOLUTION

Working closely with the central brand and communications team, we staged a show at the London Palladium with the theme of Penguin Imagines and created an immersive experience showcasing Penguin’s authors and their ideas with theatrical staging and a sense of wonder. We sourced the right partners with specific expertise in theatre, to help execute a more immersive experience that built on the expectations of last year. The action wasn’t confined to the auditorium – everything from the invitations, the arrival, the refreshments and more was engineered to surprise and entertain. From narrative arc and script writing, to creative vision around talent and staging, plus on-the-ground logistics, we shaped a performance that included a line up of diverse, new voices, established literary figures, global thinkers, entertainers and agenda-setting, cultural leaders. Guests included: biggest star in UK music, Stormzy, ahead of his seminal Glastonbury set; world-renowned artist and activist Ai Wei Wei, and business guru Simon Sinek, plus many many more.

THE RESULTS

The show marked a sea-change in how Penguin Random House UK engages staff and showcases talent. Penguin Random House sought to move beyond the conventional sales conference model that is usual for the publishing industry where forthcoming books are presented with jackets and publication details, and instead wanted to challenge the traditional perception of publishing. Our immersive, theatrical show certainly fulfilled this aim with the client saying: “Riot did a brilliant job and totally delivered on what we asked for – and more.”

WHAT WE DID

CONSULTANCY · PROJECT MANAGEMENT · TALENT · MANAGEMENT · LOGISTICS · PHOTOGRAPHY