Fully-Booked: Camden Market in Celebration of World Book Day

In celebration of World Book Day, Camden Market collaborated with a wide selection of food vendors and traders across Camden Lock, Stables, Hawley Wharf and Buck Street Market to create a World Book Day inspired festival to write home about. Alongside this, we commissioned a research story to find out the nation’s best-loved children’s literary characters and books, which we sold in to national and consumer lifestyle media, with some novel results! The Famous Five Series, Paddington Bear and Roald Dahl came out as the top book, top character and top author respectively.

Throughout a fully-booked weekend, families from across London came down to the market to take part in an array of activities: from readings by some of the nation’s most loved children’s authors including Konnie Huq, Phillip Ardagh, Holly Webb and Nicholas Allan, literary arts and crafts and a very special foodie experience where book lovers were invited to taste some of the most famous food and drinks from their favourite children’s literature.  We left it to the prose…

The plot thickened…after being welcomed by butterfly winged stilt walkers, creating a giant version of the iconic character from The Very Hungry Caterpillar, visitors started their literary journey with a real-life flavour of their favourite children’s stories. Popular food stalls from across Camdens Markets, created a special menu of limited-edition dishes straight out of the pages of children’s books. From Alice in Wonderland’s ‘Eat Me’ cookies to the BFG’s ‘Frobscottle’ among the many amazing culinary creations. There were sweet treats, savoury snacks and delicious drinks to delight everyone.

With little-to-no shelf-control, kids and adults alike enjoyed literary arts and crafts available such as making their own paper dolls like Julia Donaldson. Face painting, caricature drawing and even a Hansel and Gretel treasure trail made it the perfect day out for all the family. Finally, From Home to London joined in the festivities creating Alice in Wonderland inspired pancakes and hosting a ‘Mad Hatter Tea Party’ brunch. Customisable fashion space, Koko Art opened their doors to create World Book Day inspired customised hats, t-shirts and shoes. 

We collaborated with a number of influencers, including Sarah Louse Richards (@sarahlouserichards) and Vicki Broadbent (@honestmum), generating a combined total reach of 313,750 that included additional gifted coverage from Justin (@alldadstalk), Brandiece (@foodguidelondon) and Kimberley (@lifeat.no18)

Coverage came from two different routes: Listings coverage in the lead up to the event, which saw us achieve 26 pieces of coverage with Metro, Londonist, Mumsnet, All in London and a number of key regional titles. Our research story also saw some incredible results achieved, as we garnered 109 pieces of coverage in Daily Mail, Daily Star, The Sun, Daily Mirror, Daily Express, The I and Metro, to name but a few!