talent exchange - sharing your experience - regina eckes

TALENT EXCHANGE EXPERIENCE Regina Eckes/ Assistant Marketing Manager December 2014

Sharing the experience …17 participants travelled to 5 Macmillan offices globally

Making content more DISCOVERABL

E

South Africa 6th – 17th Oct

Sponsor Mandla Balisa

Shanghai 27th Oct – 7th Nov

Sponsor Charlotte Liu

London 8 – 19th Sep & 20 - 31st Oct

Sponsor Dominic Knight

Mexico 27th Aug – 7th Sep

Sponsor Roberto Torres

New York 8-19th Sep

Sponsor Allison Rutledge- Parisi

Destinations

5

1

3

1

7

We’re all in this together!

Karen Fusco Digital Solutions Coordinator

Freeman & Worth 41 Madison, NYC

Leah Rang Associate Editor, English,

Bedford/St. Martin’s, Macmillan Higher Education

Adela Rynkowska Managing Editor

MacEd, Macmillan Iberia Madrid

Laura Pacey Assistant Editor

Palgrave London

Amy Shackleton Senior Publishing Manager

Palgrave London

Greg Kennaugh Legal Counsel

MSE London

My Role

Assistant Marketing Manager, Palgrave, Scholarly books: • Politics • International Relations • Development Studies • Environmental Studies

Me!

• Develop marketing campaigns that reach and grow our target audience

• Attend key conferences to gain exposure for my subject areas

• Aid in book sales through advertising and promotion

• Increase Palgrave’s presence in scholarly publishing around the world

Objectives for the Talent Exchange

Key Business Objectives: • Perform market research; start laying the groundwork for

stronger marketing in the Asia-Pacific region

• Gain a clearer understanding of Palgrave’s Global Outreach Initiative; work with Rachel Krause (commissioning editor) to develop a smaller marketing strategy for the initiative

• Establish relationships with colleagues and create a forum for better communication in the future; Campus Digital group

Key Personal Objectives • See some of the sites! • Make new friends • Eat something I’ve never tried before

Get to know Shanghai

Shanghai is the largest city in China • Population: 24,150,000 • Area: 2,448 sq mi Compare to New York • Population: 8,405,837 • Area: 468.9 sq mi

• Port city historically good for trading • Western influence; “French Concession” area • Cheap cabs • Heavy traffic (train, bike, motorbike, car, bus, cab) • From high-end shops to little markets • Watch out for spitters!

Get to know Shanghai

Shanghai Office

• Opened in 2012 and is the MSE regional headquarters • 40+ employees and growing • 100 staff in the region by the end of 2014 • Young people, young team, very enthusiastic

Shanghai Office

Global branding

Long day at the office

Macmillan Asia Leadership Structure

First Week Learnings

Things to know about China • Middle class country moving from rural to urban; still developing • More money to spend > demand for healthcare, travel and education • Largest country in the number of students studying abroad • 2nd largest country in number of papers published • 2nd largest country in Open Research publishing The Market • HSS still developing; lack of academic freedom • In need of English language learning tools and support • Competition: Elsevier, Springer, Pearson, PLOS, OUP, CUP

MSE Goals • Build Open Research • Grow institutional site licenses • Strengthen educational outreach • Increase HSS awareness

Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press

• Largest university press in China – 2,300 employees, 300 sales reps, 47 languages, 9000 backlist, 1000 new titles each year

• Top English Language Teaching publisher • 10+ year partnership with Macmillan • Bestseller: New Standard English series (Macmillan) – 500,000,000

units sold • Important partnership: Macmillan English Dictionary, Discover China

series

Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare – 10 year project

Children’s books, Disney translations

Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press

Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press

Favorite Scholarly covers:

images are made up of

words!

Renmin University of China

• Research university in Beijing • Four major research centers: Center for European

Studies, Center for American Studies, Center for Eastern Asian Studies, International Energy Strategic Studies

• Two kinds of researchers: older, famous researchers vs. younger less-experienced researchers – how to bridge the two?

• 5-year Librarian Study

Most popular subject areas: globalization, European crisis, American studies, world economics, international politics, political economy, Japanese studies

The Great Wall of China

Great Wall of China – Up and Down

Chairlift up!

Sliiiiiide down!

The Forbidden City

Celebrity Greg

Greg Kennaugh was our very own

celebrity.

Tall folks watch out!

Food in Beijing

Global Outreach Initiative

Global Outreach is Palgrave’s new initiative in place that aims to increase the number of authors in specific regions of the world. • Establishing editorial offices in key areas: Asia-Pacific, the Middle

East, Latin America • Rachel Krause – Asia-Pacific commissioning editor; commissioning

across all subjects (a mini-MSE program) How we can increase awareness of the initiative: • Don’t forget about Rachel! • Create a GO page on www.Palgrave.com • Standard GO information in all

email campaigns • GO presence at conferences

Social Media in China - Weibo

• Chinese word for “microblog” • Similar to Western platforms • Uses # and RT @username • 140 characters – goes a long way for translation! Nature Weibo account - Piao Li • Post English language articles • Freelance translation vendor (CAN) • Posts three times a day • Audience of researchers • Targeted towards science community • Popular with Chinese-speaking audience outside of China

Social Media in China - Wechat

• Largest messaging app in the world • Similar to instant messaging • Friend Circles – more targeted marketing Nature Wechat account – Rice Song • Audience of researchers • Targeted towards science community • Estsblishing best practices • 500 followers gained in September alone • QR codes on all promos and adverts

Censorship

• Government needs to know the contents of all books • Import Council • Flip through, browse TOC and first chapter • Some things do get through • Rejected books are returned with feedback and recommendations • Need to look at sales potential – revised edition might be worth it Nothing criticizing Chinese culture or government!

Marketing

• Growing department; laying the groundwork QR codes on all promos and adverts

• Open Access road shows • Chinese like clean and simple designs • Need English language translations • No direct sales with end users – mainly universities and libraries • Local language is important

Library sell-in uses catalogs on campus visits; many librarians don’t speak English

University levels: • Tier 1: international universities that offer

international curriculum • Tier 2: universities with bilingual courses • Tier 3: local universities with local

language courses

Challenges and Solutions

Challenges: • Very Nature-focused; resources for Palgrave • HSS sales in China • OA in Scholarly publishing • Language barrier • Conference presence Solutions: • More Palgrave representation as the office grows • Increase OA publishing in HSS through commissioning • Print marketing materials in local language • Work together on social media promotions • Attend an APAC conference in 2015; more in 2016

Key Takeaways

China is REAL!

Potential with a young, enthusiastic office

Very open to collaboration

Communication is key – continue the discussion!

We had the BEST time, whether enjoying our first dinner together…

…checking out the city…

…visiting strange places…

…sharing a drink…

…attempting to order food…

…taking in the sights…

…or working hard in the office!

What would I say to future participants?

• Work hard - you get out of it what you put in • Be open and receptive to see, hear and learn things you

did not expect

• It’s always worth it to make new connections and build relationships

• Travelling is great!

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If you would like to know any more please contact me on… https://campus.macmillan.com/people/regina.eckes

212-726-9390 regina.eckes@palgrave-usa.com

New York, NY