We were asked by our client Sceptre to launch the paperback edition of David Mitchell’s The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet.
The novel’s set in 1799, on the man-made island of Dejima in the bay of Nagasaki: at the time, it was the only gateway between Japan and the West. Mitchell (author of Ghostwritten and Cloud Atlas), uses the setting to weave a story of culture clashes, powerful empires, duplicity, love and murder.
We felt strongly that such a beautiful, evocative and brilliant novel deserved something special so we created a world first; an immersive reading room where people could get a sense of what it might be like to be inside the book itself.
We were asked by our client Sceptre to launch the paperback edition of David Mitchell’s The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet.
The novel’s set in 1799, on the man-made island of Dejima in the bay of Nagasaki: at the time, it was the only gateway between Japan and the West. Mitchell (author of Ghostwritten and Cloud Atlas), uses the setting to weave a story of culture clashes, powerful empires, duplicity, love and murder.
We felt strongly that such a beautiful, evocative and brilliant novel deserved something special so we created a world first; an immersive reading room where people could get a sense of what it might be like to be inside the book itself.
We built a three metre cubed space that evoked the sights, sounds and even smells of the novel, set in 18th century Japan.
We chose Spitalfields as the perfect location for our room with its mix of creative industry and City workers as well as its rich history and literary associations. Visitors could read extracts of the book, enjoy Edo Japanese-inspired materials, as well as sounds and smells to transport them back to the world of Dejima. They could also peruse Mitchell’s notebooks, and enjoy traditional Japanese green tea, provided by TeaSmith of Spitalfields, or even meet the author himself.
Behind all this ‘multi-sensory’ magic, we ran a parallel programme to recruit The Thousand Readers of Jacob de Zoet (do you see what we’ve done there?). Readers were asked to respond to the bits of the book they’ve read by uploading a review, image or film via a specially-devised Facebook tab or to the campaign microsite, www.thousandreaders.com. We chose the best ones to use in our outdoor and digital advertising campaign and all of the ‘1000 readers’ were sent a signed limited edition copy of the book, which was accompanied by a letter from David himself.
The project charmed the likes of Channel 4, BBC Breakfast, The Guardian, the Independent as well as countless literary and cultural bloggers and was seen by more than 250,000 people in situ, with outreach via the campaigns social media channels on Facebook and Twitter supporting the media relations and experiential activity.
Commenting on the project, David Mitchell, said: “ How could I be anything but charmed by a step-inside room of a novel I authored materializing in the heart of Spitalfields market? I enjoyed very much meeting readers of The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet in this multi-sensory bubble of 18th-century Nagasaki. We hope, visitors found the visuals transporting, the sounds intriguing, and the tea (definitely) divine.”