New Delhi: HarperCollins has a new, cute strategy to promote its books on Instagram: calling out an employee over books he has been stealing.
“Keshav Gandhi, return the books you have stolen from our office,” said the post uploaded Tuesday, styled as a ‘wanted’ poster. The smiling photo of Gandhi seemed to show no regrets for his theft.
Even if the humorous post were to be taken seriously by an innocent scroller, the next slide unravels the mystery. Each ‘stolen’ title occupies a slide in the carousel, accompanied by a short description.
“Brand posts about books typically underperform. But the moment something feels like a scam, scandal, or piece of juicy gossip, engagement spikes. People can’t resist earwitnessing a bit of dirty laundry, even when it has nothing to do with them,” Akanksha Srivastava, social media lead at HarperCollins, told ThePrint.
The first of the “stolen” books is The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley, a thriller centred around a lavish summer solstice party that takes a sinister turn. The second is Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke, described as an addictive exploration of the tradwife influencer phenomenon.
“We used our teammate Keshav Gandhi’s real name and face (not AI-generated) to create genuine ambiguity about whether this was actually happening. It worked better than expected. People didn’t just engage with the post—they actually paid attention to the specific books we’d claimed he’d ‘stolen’, reading and discussing them in the process,” added Srivastava.
‘Weirdest book promotion’
The post has now garnered more than 9,000 likes, 15,000 shares, and 400 comments.
“The weirdest rage-baiting book promotion I’ve ever seen and I love it guys,” said a comment.
People are praising the publisher’s unconventional marketing strategy.
“And The Most weirdest book promotion award goes to @harpercollinsin,” said another user.
Others are discussing how Gandhi has “sacrificed his image” for the campaign. Some people have even been posting “Justice for Keshav”, along with laughing emojis.
“We will all remember Keshav’s sacrifice,” a comment reads.
Gandhi, who was the main element of the post, has now even changed his Instagram bio. “Guys, I haven’t taken any book they are lying,” the text reads.
Gandhi is part of the digital marketing and content team at HarperCollins India.
“It’s really funny that there are people defending and some even shaming me on social media,” said Gandhi, adding that his surname also became a point of conversation.
“KESHAV Last name : Gandhi ….He cannot steal,” said a comment.
The campaign also features Drown All the Refugees by Tabish Khair, Allah Miyan’s Workshop by Mohsin Khan, and The Age Code by David Cox.
(Edited by Prasanna Bachchhav)
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