Gilded Rage by Jacob Silverman is a fascinating look at Big Tech and just how messy things can get behind the scenes. The book dives deep into Silicon Valley’s major players — including Elon Musk— and the ripple effects their influence has on the world. We loved helping Bloomsbury connect this timely read with progressive nonfiction fans, techies, tech professionals, and more!
Gilded Rage examines how Elon Musk and other Silicon Valley billionaires are shaping politics, culture, and online extremism in surprising and often frightening ways. Silverman pairs sharp reporting with behind-the-scenes insight to reveal just how deeply Big Tech is influencing our daily lives. Kirkus Reviews calls it “a book that should trouble your dreams,” and Publishers Weekly describes it as “sharp and ominous…an essential unmasking of the growing extremism among America’s wealthy.” It’s both an intriguing and unsettling read.
The campaign included a mix of our targeted banner and foot traffic ads. The banners reached liberal and progressive nonfiction readers, tech and science readers, and readers with a strong interest in emerging technology, AI, politics, and journalism. We also layered in traits like tech influencers, Big Tech employees, NPR listeners, documentary viewers, and frequent book buyers, along with media like The Social Dilemma, This Week in Tech, and the Big Technology Podcast, as well as comps like Money, Lies, and God by Katherine Stewart and Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams. Keywords included terms and phrases like Jacob Silverman, Silicon Valley, Elon Musk, tech industry exposés, Big Tech scandals, and must-read nonfiction.
For the foot traffic portion, ads were served to liberal nonfiction, science and tech readers, AI and emerging-tech enthusiasts, and more — all of whom had recently visited, or were currently visiting, Barnes & Noble stores.
The ads saw strong engagement from progressive women in tech (0.26% CTR), our AdBiblio genre read-alikes (0.21% CTR), and nonfiction readers browsing major news and tech outlets like Forbes, Live Science, SF Gate, and SF Chronicle (0.21% CTR). Across both banner and foot-traffic campaigns, results were strong—0.18% CTR for banner ads and 0.22% CTR for foot traffic ads—with a 1.36% and 1.45% interaction rate on sites like NYT, CNN, Washington Post, BuzzFeed, Forbes, and more.
If you’re interested in diving deeper into the world of Silicon Valley, you can pick up your copy of Gilded Rage here. And if you’re ready for your next nonfiction campaign you know where to find me — marybeth@adbiblio.com!
