Cambridge Literary Festival - Spring 2026

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Collective Wisdom delivered Cambridge Literary Festival’s most successful publicity drive to date for the Spring 2026 edition, with sales targets for the festival exceeded. The campaign combined strategic storytelling, deep media relationships and fast‑paced collaboration to generate exceptional results: 222 pieces of coverage, with a combined audience reach of 258 million. Our focused brief centred on elevating the festival’s national profile. We identified the lecture series as a powerful narrative anchor, enabling us to position Cambridge as a festival where literature intersects with politics, identity, science and public debate.

We secured a range of high-profile media slots including interviews in The Independent, Country & Town House, The New World and The Week, exemplifying our approach to combining media relations with strategic storytelling and narrative‑building. Our line-up outreach centred around popular names taking part in the festival (such as Mary Berry and Harriet Tyce). The announcement achieved major mass-market impact, with coverage in outlets such as The Independent, The i, Mail Online and The London Standard. Alongside this, Press Association buy-in resulted in over 150 pieces of regional coverage. Our listings and previews strategy secured high‑value cultural placements, including The Observer, Country & Townhouse, The Glossary, The Week, Country Life and Homes & Antiques.