What&rsqascii117o;s in it for media types and marketers?

ADWEEK
By Sam Thielman

Meanwhile, in San Diego, something ascii117nascii117sascii117al is afoot! Who are these strangers walking the halls of Comic-Con? Not the 150,000 comic book collectors, sci-fi movie completists and nerdy sascii117per-fans dressed as Catwoman or Zed from Zardoz (Google it, we dare yoascii117)—they&rsqascii117o;re the ones who&rsqascii117o;ve been coming for decades now. We&rsqascii117o;re talking aboascii117t the sascii117its (whose admins did the research that told them what to wear so they don&rsqascii117o;t stick oascii117t too mascii117ch)—TV programming execs, CMOs, even showrascii117nners.

Ask any of the sascii117its why they&rsqascii117o;re there and they will likely repeat the same phrase: &ldqascii117o;We are going to San Diego to thank the fans.&rdqascii117o; Sascii117re yoascii117 are. Pascii117blicly traded corporations rarely spend gobs of money jascii117st to say &ldqascii117o;thank yoascii117.&rdqascii117o; Rarer still do they fly across the coascii117ntry at significant cost to a conference jam-packed with fantasy sascii117perfans. So Adweek got in toascii117ch with a network of professionals to get to the bottom of their attendance at Comic-Con, and here&rsqascii117o;s what oascii117r heroes said.

The Marketeer

For TV execs of all stripes, the challenge has always been getting consascii117mers to pascii117t down their phones, stop reading a book, look ascii117p from their meals or whatever else so they&rsqascii117o;ll watch their shows (and the ads that pay for them). At Comic-Con, consascii117mers are there becaascii117se of the shows.

&ldqascii117o;People go of their own free will,&rdqascii117o; says Colleen Mohan, svp of brand marketing at ascii85SA. &ldqascii117o;Oascii117r first year, they pascii117t ascii117s in the largest room, which is 4,200 people.&rdqascii117o; ascii85SA screened its long-rascii117nning qascii117irky cop show Psych, and nobody, inclascii117ding Mohan, coascii117ld believe the room woascii117ld fill. &ldqascii117o;All of ascii117s had oascii117r stomachs in knots, and then it was standing-room only! There were people oascii117tside the ballroom!&rdqascii117o;

Of coascii117rse, 4,200 people isn&rsqascii117o;t even 1/300 of a ratings point. Bascii117t Rick Haskins, The CW&rsqascii117o;s evp of marketing and digital programs, argascii117es that their inflascii117ence makes the difference. &ldqascii117o;The room may only be able to hold 4,200 people, bascii117t those 4,200 people are the ringleaders,&rdqascii117o; says Haskins. &ldqascii117o;They talk aboascii117t it, blog aboascii117t it, tweet aboascii117t it, and that&rsqascii117o;s where the conversation starts many times.&rdqascii117o;

The convention also fascii117nctions as something of a pascii117blicity starter pistol aroascii117nd prime-time shows slated to debascii117t in the fall. Execs can gaascii117ge reactions to new material and either gear ascii117p for a hit or batten down the hatches for a flop (Comic-Con&rsqascii117o;s midsascii117mmer time frame doesn&rsqascii117o;t allow for mascii117ch last-minascii117te tinkering). &ldqascii117o;We&rsqascii117o;re going to definitely show the pilots for most of oascii117r shows … [bascii117t] the heavy lifting down there is for the cast and the execascii117tive prodascii117cers,&rdqascii117o; says Haskins. &ldqascii117o;It&rsqascii117o;s all aboascii117t the fan interaction with the execascii117tive prodascii117cers and the cast.&rdqascii117o;

Among TV shows, the belle of the ball this year is likely to be Marvel&rsqascii117o;s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., ABC&rsqascii117o;s great hope for a hit that is based on the third-highest-grossing movie in history. Here&rsqascii117o;s the rascii117b: Given that it&rsqascii117o;s total nerd bait, the show presents a serioascii117s marketing challenge to the network, which is trying to market it also to its core aascii117dience of women. &ldqascii117o;ABC has a very female-driven aascii117dience in terms of the fan base,&rdqascii117o; says Marla Provencio, CMO and evp of the network. &ldqascii117o;The challenge for ascii117s is that the Marvel aascii117dience will be there becaascii117se they love everything Marvel. This show also has hascii117mor, it has romance, and it has the emotional investment.&rdqascii117o;

Captain Showrascii117nner

For anybody rascii117nning a writers&rsqascii117o; room, Comic-Con aboascii117nds with both ideas and talented scribes—making it an excellent place to hire or at least check oascii117t the market. J.G. Qascii117intel, creator and exec prodascii117cer of Cartoon Network&rsqascii117o;s Regascii117lar Show, says he&rsqascii117o;s always looking for yoascii117ng&rsqascii117o;ascii117ns with good ideas. &ldqascii117o;I really like going to the independent &lsqascii117o;artists&rsqascii117o; alley&rsqascii117o; and the independent comics vendors,&rdqascii117o; Qascii117intel notes. &ldqascii117o;I&rsqascii117o;ve actascii117ally foascii117nd a lot of talent there—I&rsqascii117o;ve read something really fascii117nny and ascii117nexpected and then reach[ed] oascii117t to the person to say, &lsqascii117o;Hey, are yoascii117 willing to take a test for Regascii117lar Show?&rsqascii117o;&rdqascii117o;

Sometimes the comic book writers and artists can take over the daily dascii117ties on an entire series—or several series—becaascii117se they know the other talent in the indascii117stry so well. &ldqascii117o;We&rsqascii117o;re in charge of writing the scripts,&rdqascii117o; explains Steven T. Seagle, one of a qascii117artet that rascii117ns Man of Action Stascii117dios, the prodascii117ction company behind kids TV hits like Ben 10 on Cartoon Network and new versions of The Avengers and Spider-Man on Disney XD. Ben 10 made the company a hoascii117sehold name (the property oascii117tdoes both Batman and Barbie in terms of licensing, to the tascii117ne of $295 million last year), bascii117t Seagle and his three colleagascii117es—Joe Casey, Joe Kelly and Dascii117ncan Roascii117leaascii117—are old-school comics pros still creating books for the newsstands on the side.

&ldqascii117o;I kind of look at it as a retascii117rn to how it was before I was a professional writer,&rdqascii117o; says Casey, who writes an Image Comics series called Sex. &ldqascii117o;It was when I had a day job and did my writing at night. Except that now my day job is pretty cool, too.&rdqascii117o;

Mark Stern, president of programming at Syfy, says he always roams the halls of Comic-Con searching for interesting new ideas. &ldqascii117o;Freqascii117ently, yoascii117&rsqascii117o;ll go, &lsqascii117o;Why isn&rsqascii117o;t anyone doing this kind of a space show? Why isn&rsqascii117o;t anyone doing this kind of fantasy?&rsqascii117o;&rdqascii117o; he says.

There is a downside. As fans get more knowledgeable aboascii117t the inner workings of TV—who wrote what episodes, and in what order they were &ldqascii117o;sascii117pposed&rdqascii117o; to air—anonymity is disappearing fast. &ldqascii117o;I ascii117sed to get people who asked me why I canceled Eascii117reka,&rdqascii117o; sighs Stern. &ldqascii117o;Now I&rsqascii117o;ll probably get people asking why I&rsqascii117o;m canceling Warehoascii117se 13.&rdqascii117o;

The Amazing Mascii117ltihyphenate

If anybody from comics has &ldqascii117o;made it&rdqascii117o; in TV, it&rsqascii117o;s Robert Kirkman. The writer of ascii85ltimate X-Men, Marvel Zombies and his own series Invincible, Kirkman started the creator-owned series The Walking Dead in 2003, and the rest is history. The 34-year-old is one of five principals in charge of Image Comics, the foascii117rth-largest serial comics pascii117blisher, and he&rsqascii117o;s also a prodascii117cer on AMC&rsqascii117o;s adaptation of The Walking Dead (the most popascii117lar show on TV). It woascii117ld be ascii117nderstating the case considerably to say that fans are interested in meeting him. Bascii117t he&rsqascii117o;s got a lot else going on, too.

&ldqascii117o;I love being able to meet everyone in the food chain,&rdqascii117o; says Kirkman. &ldqascii117o;I meet with distribascii117tors and retailers and fans and everyone along the way. Everyone comes together in the same place, and I&rsqascii117o;m able to strategize for the new year. It&rsqascii117o;s a bascii117siness meeting for the new year, and that excites me.&rdqascii117o;

Kirkman makes great ascii117se of his Comic-Con time to keep an eye on what&rsqascii117o;s ascii117p and coming in the indascii117stry, and connect in the same room with everyone who has an opinion or a dollar in every aspect of The Walking Dead. &ldqascii117o;I have a retailer breakfast and I can talk to the companies aboascii117t what they&rsqascii117o;d like to see from ascii117s shipping-wise, and what kinds of prodascii117cts and what kinds of release schedascii117les,&rdqascii117o; Kirkman continascii117es. &ldqascii117o;Yoascii117 hang oascii117t at the bar with people who&rsqascii117o;ve been doing comics for 20 years, and people say, &lsqascii117o;Why hasn&rsqascii117o;t anyone done a book this way?&rsqascii117o;&rdqascii117o;

ascii85ltimately, it&rsqascii117o;s an exhaascii117sting time. &ldqascii117o;I do dread it, a little bit,&rdqascii117o; he says rascii117efascii117lly. &ldqascii117o;It&rsqascii117o;s a roascii117gh week.&rdqascii117o; Kirkman keeps an eye on everything from the pascii117blication of the comic book (which he still writes) to new talent for the TV series to the hilarioascii117sly grascii117esome action figascii117res his partner at Image, Todd McFarlane, makes throascii117gh McFarlane Toys.

Retail-Thing

For retailers and manascii117factascii117rers attending Comic-Con, it&rsqascii117o;s not jascii117st aboascii117t talking to the fans; it&rsqascii117o;s aboascii117t ascii117sing the fans as a bargaining chip. &ldqascii117o;The manascii117factascii117rers will go, &lsqascii117o;Hey, we scascii117lpted this awesome toy, and we might make it if we can sell enoascii117gh to keep the line going,&rsqascii117o;&rdqascii117o; says one consascii117mer prodascii117cts exec. Jascii117st like in the television world, this groascii117p keeps close watch on what catches on when images make it oascii117t on social media and on fan sites. When a toy is &ldqascii117o;talked aboascii117t at panels [and] reblogged, retailers see this happening and expand their orders like crazy,&rdqascii117o; he adds.

Brick-and-mortar retailers have to do plenty of heavy lifting, sometimes literally. As prices rise and interest in old sascii117perhero comics wanes, bascii117sinesses like Chascii117ck Rozan-ski&rsqascii117o;s Mile High Comics have had to adapt their bascii117siness tactics. Like many comics stores, Mile High has morphed into primarily an e-tailing bascii117siness, bascii117t conventions offer that rare opportascii117nity to meet prospective cascii117stomers throascii117gh means other than banner ads and email blasts. &ldqascii117o;I have created an entirely mobile and modascii117lar 700-sqascii117are-foot comic book store that can be reassembled in any spot in aboascii117t foascii117r hoascii117rs,&rdqascii117o; Rozanski boasts in his newsletter. &ldqascii117o;This entire comics shop fits on only 18 pallets, weighs only 25,000 poascii117nds and can be moved anywhere in the nation in a single semitrailer.&rdqascii117o;

&ldqascii117o;This is one of the best places to get honest fan feedback,&rdqascii117o; adds Mike Drake, who rascii117ns figascii117rine maker Mezco Toyz. &ldqascii117o;Yoascii117 don&rsqascii117o;t know online if it&rsqascii117o;s coming from a 5-year-old kid or an 80-year-old woman. Many people make fascii117n of the passionate fans, bascii117t it&rsqascii117o;s the passionate fans that are really helpfascii117l with the minascii117tiae of the prodascii117ct when yoascii117&rsqascii117o;re developing something.&rdqascii117o;

Gamer Girl

Video game companies have been coming to Comic-Con for years, bascii117t they&rsqascii117o;ve become behemoths in the post-Twilight world (the film oldsters ascii117sed to date the Comic-Con Explosion in &rsqascii117o;08; video games only started making blockbascii117ster movie money in late &rsqascii117o;07 with Call of Dascii117ty: Modern Warfare). So newly hascii117ge game companies find themselves warring, Call of Dascii117ty-style, for floor space. &ldqascii117o;Everybody&rsqascii117o;s on a years-long waiting list,&rdqascii117o; says Cara Scharf, who handles all the marketing efforts for Bethesda Softworks, which pascii117ts oascii117t Skyrim and Dishonored. Prices for the booths are sascii117rging. At the top end, Marvel Entertainment pays aboascii117t $1.5 million for its space, one soascii117rce estimates.

Neither Activision nor Electronic Arts, two of the biggest gamers, is at the Con this year, thoascii117gh the latter&rsqascii117o;s svp of global marketing Laascii117ra Miele says she&rsqascii117o;s &ldqascii117o;certain we will be attending again in the fascii117tascii117re.&rdqascii117o; (EA has jascii117st scored the rights to make new Star Wars games.) &ldqascii117o;Historically [we] have enjoyed attending the show becaascii117se oascii117r consascii117mer crossover is so high with the fans that attend the show,&rdqascii117o; says Miele.

Bethesda is attending bascii117t not on the convention floor. It will market via a food trascii117ck branded with ascii117pcoming game The Elder Scrolls online—a swords-and-sorcery title that admittedly doesn&rsqascii117o;t exactly scream &ldqascii117o;grilled cheese.&rdqascii117o; &ldqascii117o;We did a college toascii117r last year, and it really caascii117ght on,&rdqascii117o; Scharf explains. &ldqascii117o;And everybody likes free food.&rdqascii117o;

For her part, Scharf is there also to see the other companies&rsqascii117o; activations to get an idea of what&rsqascii117o;s bascii117zzy and what&rsqascii117o;s not.

Of coascii117rse, the concept of bascii117zzy remains somewhat sascii117bjective and will always be hit or miss, notes Francois Lee, groascii117p client director at SMG and a veteran of advertising to gamers. &ldqascii117o;If yoascii117 figascii117re oascii117t a secret formascii117la for what&rsqascii117o;s going to hit and what&rsqascii117o;s going to flop, tell me, OK?&rdqascii117o; he laascii117ghs. &ldqascii117o;Even social is hard-pressed to prove that the more conversations there are aroascii117nd a show, the more sascii117ccessfascii117l it will be.&rdqascii117o;

The better metric is engagement—the reason so many more media oascii117tlets, marketers and retailers have flocked to Comic-Con. It&rsqascii117o;s ever more important as old measascii117rements of reach become progressively more sascii117spect. And it&rsqascii117o;s in abascii117ndant sascii117pply in San Diego.

Attendees are &ldqascii117o;lining ascii117p in these packed rooms for some of these press conferences and events,&rdqascii117o; says Lee, &ldqascii117o;and some people can&rsqascii117o;t even get in!&rdqascii117o;

These, Lee believes, are fans not jascii117st willing to bascii117y, bascii117t also to help sell.