The book industry arguably hasn’t seen a significant tech disruption since the Kindle…which Amazon rolled out in 2007.

So when a TikTok community dubbed “BookTok” started driving sales for the industry in early 2020, with major publishing companies like Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins taking notice, bookish bizzes dogeared their novels and opened the app, fingers buzzing with curiosity.

Take Book of the Month, for example. Samantha Boures, who manages media and influencer marketing there, told Marketing Brew that the company, which lets subscribers choose books from a curated selection each month, started using BookTokers as influencers in late 2020.

• For the uninitiated, BookTokers are users who dedicate their TikTok posts to book-related content, whether it’s reviews, recommendations, or reenactments. In November, Mic declared that the community is “completely changing publishing.”
• Boures said Book of the Month has worked with BookTubers “for a long time” and has partnered with Instagram influencers as well. “We’re knowledgeable about these book communities online. And when we saw this new one springing up, we sort of were like, ‘This makes total sense,’” she continued.
• So her team slowly tested using a handful of BookTokers as influencers. After tests went well, they decided to formalize and create an influencer program around BookTok in early 2021.

Since then, she said the program has continued to grow: TikTok is now the social media channel her team (which handles organic and influencer deals, not paid advertising) spends the most time and effort on.

While it varies from month to month, she told us that anywhere from a quarter to half of the influencers Book of the Month works with across all social media platforms are considered BookTokers.

Read it, post it

Describing BookTokers as “very powerful marketers” who do a great job curating their pages to create fun, intelligent, and relatable content, Boures said some of her favorite accounts she’s collaborated with at Book of the Month include Kevin Norman, Kelsey Munson, The Roomie’s Digest, Ayman's Books, and Books Over Therapy.

For example, Boures shared a few videos of one specific novel—The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood—that Book of the Month paid BookTokers to post about. “That book went on to sell super well for us and get a ton of positive member reviews,” Boures said.

After being all-in on BookTok for more than a year, Boures told us about how her team measures success within the community and what content performs best. Click here to read what she had to say.—PB

Take me out to the ball game…or not.

After almost a year of negotiating, Major League Baseball owners and players’ union failed to reach an agreement before the March 1 deadline. As a result, the first two series and Opening Day have been canceled—and not without cost.

Buy me some peanuts and ad deals: According to Ad Age, teams are missing out on some of the roughly $1 billion in annual ad revenue that baseball brings in as the lockout continues. Official MLB sponsors include brands like Gatorade, Google, Taco Bell, and T-Mobile.

Dale Song, chief partnerships officer at Omnicom’s Optimum sports division, told Ad Age that depending on how long the lockout lasts, it could be difficult for advertisers to move their money to other channels: “All the reasons that advertisers leverage baseball still exist: It’s the right audience, in the right markets, at the right time of the calendar year,” he said. “It occupies a space that is not easily replaceable, so it’s not as linear as redistribution of dollars elsewhere.”

Put me in, coach: Players could also be financially hurt by the lockout, which came after the MLBPA, the union that represents MLB players, said that they are “seeking nothing more than a fair agreement” amid revenue and profit growth. Rob Manfred, the MLB commissioner, called the lockout “defensive.”

The AP reports that Mets pitcher Max Scherzer could stand to lose nearly $233k per game canceled during the lockout. Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole could lose almost $194k. And those are just the big names. With each player earning 1/186 of his base salary each day during the season, another day delayed means more income lost.—KH

It’s not officially spring just yet. But some companies are looking for a fresh start anyway. Here’s a roundup of agency selections from last month + the beginning of March:

• Reynolds Consumer Products, home of aluminum foil, plastic wrap, and garbage bag brands, has chosen DDB Chicago as its creative agency of record. And DDB New York won Kroger Health.
• It’s the end of an era for Steak-umm, the frozen steaks brand that got famous on Twitter thanks to Allebach Communications. The brand has decided to move on, selecting Tombras to handle its creative and media duties.
• Post Consumer Brands, maker of cereals like Pebbles and Honeycomb, picked Mediahub as its US media agency of record. So did Topgolf.
• Grubhub also found a new agency to handle media, selecting UM for the job.
• NerdWallet named Deutsch LA as its lead creative agency.

Bye bye bye: Burger King is currently reviewing its US creative and media agencies, according to reports shared with Marketing Dive. The decision comes months after several marketing departures at the brand.—MS

There are a lot of bad marketing tips out there. These aren’t those.

No code, no problem: Click here for a list (okay, an infographic) of the best no-code growth tools for marketers.

TikTok: Finally, a formula to help you calculate TikTok engagement (plus some tips on how to up that engagement).

Speaking of TikTok: Do creators even want 10-minute videos on the platform? Find out here.

Was this 1936 ad for the Chicago Public Library the original BookTok y/n?

Catch up on a few Marketing Brew stories you might have missed.

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• Entertainment companies say nyet to Russia
• This TikToker is delving into what makes DTC CPG businesses tick