i-media has run a network-wide launch campaign for Charlotte Leonard's new novel One Little Lie, putting the book in front of one of the UK's most engaged retail audiences at exactly the moment they're ready to buy.
The two-week campaign ran across i-media's top 21 highest book-sale motorway service areas, including both Reading East and Reading West, combining 88 D6 and 41 ID6 full-motion screens for an estimated 36,137,157 impressions. Sites were selected using i-media's own book-sale data, targeting the MSAs where travellers are already shown to convert browsing into purchase in WHSmith.
The campaign paired external and internal digital screens with in-store presence, sequencing creative from the forecourt through to the shelf. It's a format i-media argues plays directly to the strengths of full-motion DOOH over static out-of-home: driving a traveller from first sight of the creative to browse-to-purchase action within a single stop.
To mark the campaign going live, Charlotte visited Reading North motorway services to see her book on screen and on shelf, meeting the i-media team and getting a first look at the campaign in situ.
Charlotte Leonard, the Author of One Little Lie, said: "I didn't expect to feel quite so emotional. It was actually incredible to see my book advertised on prominent digital screens in such a busy environment. The ad really did look amazing. My family are from Cornwall so I spend a lot of time in motorway service stations and I always notice the ads. To see my own novel displayed on the screens was a big moment."
Hannah Ainsworth, Chief Marketing Officer at i-media, said: “Brands need to find the opportunities to meet real people in the real world. Motorway service areas are one of the few places left where people genuinely stop, browse and decide. That's a huge opportunity for a book launch. Pairing the screens with WHSmith means we're not just building awareness, we're putting One Little Lie in front of readers at the exact moment they're ready to pick up their next book."
The partnership underlines a wider point i-media is making to publishers and retailers: motorway service areas deliver a captive, dwell-time audience that static out-of-home can't replicate, with the data to prove which sites work hardest for a given category.
One Little Lie is out now, published by Simon & Schuster. The book is available at Amazon, Waterstones, TG Jones and local bookshops. Pick your copy today
