National Book Awards Design Refresh

NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS

The National Book Awards celebrate the American literary prizes bestowed annually by the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization that aims to ensure that books maintain a prominent place in our culture. Previous winners include William Faulkner, Toni Morrison, Flannery O’Connor, Jesmyn Ward, and Ta-Nehisi Coates.

For the 75th National Book Awards, Really Useful Media was once again entrusted with producing the live broadcast, marking our fifth consecutive year of collaboration with the National Book Foundation. For this iteration of the awards cycle, our goal was to achieve a cohesive production approach for three key events, including the Finalist Reading and the Teen Press Conference in addition to the National Book Awards ceremony itself, and to elevate the production values to meet viewership and fundraising goals.

FINDING THE RIGHT MESSAGE

We have collaborated closely with the National Book Foundation team since 2023 to craft program videos for the Awards Ceremony that serve as fundraising calls-to-action in support of the foundation’s year-round programming. To mark 75 years of the Awards, we crafted a narrative that wove together favorite—and prescient—moments from the archives, incorporating book covers of beloved past winners and new interviews with more recently honored authors, to celebrate the rich legacy of the awards. This process involved in-depth discussions with foundation leadership and iterative reviews to ensure the videos resonated with National Book’s values and audience.

ENGAGING AUDIENCES EVERYWHERE

For the ceremony itself, streamed live from Cipriani Wall Street, we built on the knowledge and success of producing in-person, hybrid, and online ceremonies since 2020. We meticulously refined the event's run of show and visual aesthetic. To increase engagement and elevate production values, we implemented creative solutions that integrated audience reactions and dynamic graphics into the program. Our collaboration extended to working closely with Cipriani’s in-house audio and video teams to ensure the flawless execution of technical cues for a seamless experience for at-home viewers.

“We have been tremendously grateful to collaborate with the wonderful team at Really Useful Media to produce the livestreams of both the National Book Awards Ceremony (since 2020) and Finalist Reading (since 2013). Their team is truly exceptional in thinking through every detail or challenge, and in producing an extraordinary event, and I couldn’t recommend them more highly!”

– Ruth Dickey, Executive Director, National Book Foundation