Romance Writers of America 2018 Conference
The 2018 RWA Conference was held in Denver, Colorado.
Harlequin placed cutouts throughout the hotel for attendees to take pictures with. I walked all around the hotel and believe they were the only ones to use this form of advertising. At the top of the cutout is the hashtag: #harlequin. In this manner, Harlequin is encouraging people to not only post, but share content specifically citing them. The book covers that inspired these images were in the lower right hand corner. Not only were readers able to take on the role of the female protagonist, but made aware of available Harlequin titles. If/when people posted their Harlequin-related images, they were not only promoting the publishing company, but the book titles as well.
Ground Floor of Sheraton Hotel. At the check-in desk, attendees could take their picture in front of this backdrop. I wanted to make note of the key words and phrases highlighted on this backdrop. In this manner, RWA wanted to encourage certain key takeaways of the romance genre: compelling, enduring, dynamic, popular, profitable, successful, chart-topping, relationship, fun, heartwarming, diverse, smart, branded, breathtaking, love, happily ever after, uplifting, novellas, novels, paperbacks, e-books, enticing, irresistible, and passionate.
Each RWA attendee could select three of the books shown as a part of the conference included swag. Attendees were given a ticket at check-in and then gave it to a volunteer standing entrance for the book room. The fact that a book room was offered at a writing conference demonstrates that romance genre writers are also romance genre readers: there is a fluidity between the two roles.
