"We were searching for creative new ways to expand our customer base...  Last year was a challenging time for us, as it was for many independent retailers," says Skylight Books General Manager and Co-Owner Kerry Slattery, "and, while we have many loyal and enthusiastic regular customers, we need to reach out to more of our neighbors who have never visited us, never heard of us, or who haven't been here in a long time.   This is an invitation to drop in--or visit our website." 

"We are trying to use many forms of media in our outreach, and everything is done in-house by our bookseller staff -- not by any outside multi-media specialists. Of course, we constantly evaluate and improve our website (which also allows customers to order every book in print, including e-books), have a newsy monthly e-newsletter, and are active contributors on Facebook and Twitter.  In addition, we have recently started podcasting many of our author events (available for listening or downloading both from our website and from i-Tunes), and, for a recent in-store event with legendary musician Patti Smith, we used a simple borrowed webcam and projector to do a live simulcast of the event to the overflow crowd at our annex next door -- thereby allowing more than 400 people to enjoy the event.

"And Time Warner Cable's 'market test' program was an opportunity that came at just the time I was looking for other creative ways to reach out to new people.   Cable gives us the opportunity to target particular neighborhoods - in our case, it reaches Los Feliz, Silver Lake, Echo Park, Hollywood Hills, Highland Park, Eagle Rock, parts of East L.A., and parts of downtown L.A."

"The challenge was to create a memorable spot that had the energy and personality of our store, not a 'cookie-cutter'-type local commercial."  

That was solved by young filmmaker Jamieson Fry--a longtime friend of the store--and his team, headed by producer Rachel Ward of Rival Pictures.  With a minimal filming budget--enough to pay for lunches, some equipment rentals and token fees - he and his crew, spent a full day filming staff, customers, friends, and the store cat Franny.

The background music ("Just Like Shangri-La") is a song written and recorded by Skylight Books staff member Arlo Klahr and bandmate Aisling Cormack, which Jamieson thought would capture the fun and vitality of our store.

Jamieson had previously done several other book-related projects, including three book 'trailers' (for author T.C. Boyle's "The Women" and "Wild Child" and Dan Chaon's "Await Your Reply"). 

The new spot will air about 350 times a month between 6am and midnight on 10 different cable channels.  "We have a limited advertising budget," Slattery says, "but the monthly cost is actually less than we used to spend mailing out a print newsletter.  Up to now, bookstores have used radio, print advertising and the internet to reach out to new customers -- this just opens up more possibilities."