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Dive Brief:

• Une Femme, a maker of canned and bottled wines, launched a co-branded book club promotion on social media with Penguin Random House imprint Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, according to a press release.
• The effort includes a monthly giveaway featuring a book authored or co-authored by a woman. Consumers can follow both brands on social media, like the giveaway post and tag friends from their book clubs for the chance to win signed copies of the book, a case of Une Femme wine and other prizes.
• The collaboration is meant to drive social media traction for both brands while also taking advantage of the growing online book club community. It also comes as canned wine is seeing a surge in popularity, with the market expecting to exceed a value of $2.5 billion by 2030.

Dive Insight:

As canned wine continues to ride the coattails of the canned read-to-drink cocktail and seltzer category, Une Femme Wines is gearing up for beach read season by linking itself to the online book club community. Gen Z and millennial women are a core demographic for the canned wine industry. 

Tapping into interest around book clubs could help both Une Femme and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, which has a roster of authors including “The Handmaid’s Tale” writer Margaret Atwood, establish loyalty with target consumers while simultaneously building their social followings. Wine is a popular drink for many book clubs, a social activity largely participated in by women. Book clubs and similar social groups grew significantly in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially online. Even after the world returned to pre-pandemic functioning, many book clubs stayed online. 

The wine brand, which was co-founded by a woman, has largely focused its marketing on women, making upliftment a core tenet of its advertising efforts. The first title featured in the duo’s social promotion is “Yesteryear,” about a “tradwife” influencer, by Caro Claire Burke. Other titles to be featured in future giveaways include “Land” by Maggie O'Farrell, “Someone Else's Husband” by Kimberly McCreight and “Beginning, Middle, End” by Valeria Luiselli. 

Social media-based communities such as BookTok have helped publishers and authors alike increase sales. Online book communities have also impacted the TV adaptation market, with many brands looking to leverage a show’s prebuilt fanbase. For example, Liquid I.V. partnered with Amazon Prime Video’s “Off Campus” show, which is based on a series of hockey-inspired romance novels by Elle Kennedy, to launch a new flavor. Une Femme has also been focused on accelerating national growth, entering into a multiyear partnership with iHeartMedia in early May.

Penguin Random House’s parent company, Bertelsmann, saw a first quarter revenue of 4.4 billion euros, or approximately $5.12 billion, according to an earnings release. Penguin Random House was cited as having a strong global performance, with the “For the Fans! (KPop Demon Hunters)” children’s book by Angela Song selling 1.6 million copies during the period. Film adaptations of “Project Hail Mary” by Andy Weir and “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Brontë also helped the publishing house’s performance.