As we all know, advertising is aimed at people who are potentially interested in particular product - that is why defining a target audience is a first step taken towards success. What is it all about? Well, designating a group of people you are trying to sell a product to (people who are more likely to buy tickets and participate in the event) makes it easier to create a relevant advertisement.
Age, race, gender, religion, social class, hobbies, lifestyle, careers...
People are different (they have various needs and wants) and it is just not possible to reach all of them. That's why it is important to decide who would be interested in buying offered product/coming to the event? And the answer to this particular question seems to be one of the main ingredients of good marketing strategy.
Keeping track of what's hot in the comics market can be a lot of work
What should be done? The person that is responsible for marketing should try and paint a picture of the customer. Emerald City Comicon, for example. We picture loads of comic books' fans. But who actually are they?
Are there more men or women? - Some people would probably say that comics world is a men's thing. But is it for sure? Alex Alonso (Marvel's editor-in-chief) says:
"(...) the eyes don’t lie. If you go to conventions and comic book stores, more and more female readers are emerging. They are starved for content and looking for content they can relate to."18-25 or 40+? - It's not only about one generation of people. Not me, or my brother (and believe me, we love comics and films based on them)... it's my dad who reads most of them.
Where are they from? - ECCC is organized in Seattle (WA), but people from different states will also come to the convention. And what about people from different countries? Are they ready to travel so far to be a part of this event? Or do they have a chance to take part in any similar events happening in a different place, but at the same time.
What other things are they interested in? - For example: COMIC BOOKS lead to FILMS BASED ON COMIC BOOKS, which again lead to ACTORS AND THEIR UNFORGETTABLE CREATIONS. So we could safely say that organizing Meet & Greet session (signing posters or a chance to take a selfie and chat) with actors is a good idea that will make more people come to the event. I would definitely go for that, if you ask me.
And as we look at the program of ECCC 2016 Convention - M&G sessions are a part of the event. Conclusion? This practice actually works.
And as you can see, you don't have to be necessarily linked to marketing to know all of these things. The truth is, we could literally spend hours on asking new questions and creating new theories without further notice. Because that's pretty good fun.
On the other hand, some people would choose tools that nowadays world offers us on a daily basis...
YouGov Profiles (UK) - Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival
Pretty interesting. Thanks to internet tools such as YouGov Profiles (UK), everyone can find out sample demographics of Coachella Festival's participants. Mostly male, aged 25-39, middle class. Interested in music and american football. Listening to BBC Radio 2, shopping at Primark, using Facebook and so on...
Of course using YouGov or another similar website is a good idea to start with, but could you rely on it? Do we really believe someone responsible for such a huge event like Coachella would actually use it? Of course not. At least not me.
There are some other ways to create the picture of target audience, like checking out the data collected for previous editions of the festival. Let's talk about tickets purchased online. Do we only choose them and pay without sharing any other information with the ticket selling company? Exactly. We provide our personal details which can be used to create customer's profile.
And what about line-up of the festival? People come to music festivals to see their favourite artists and bands and depending on genre of music, other groups of people has to be taken into consideration.
Creating a demographic profile of audience is really important
Appropriate research methods, useful websites, knowing how to use the information you are already provided with - all of that lead to well-recognized target audience's profile.
Speaking of websites, it is hard to imagine todays world without internet. People use it to check out the news, contact with friends and family, do shopping, listen to music, watch tv etc. It is a tool that offers huge possibilities - to advertise an event, for example. And yes, I'm thinking of social media platforms.
With hundreds of thousands (I should probably say "millions") of people using social media, it would be a sin not to advertise events online. I mean, social media users not only follow official accounts of Coachella and ECCC - giving the idea of how many people are actually interested in those events; helping to create a profile of a customer - but they also share photos, videos and informations posted on those accounts, making it easier to get to wider audience.
Number of people following two chosen events on social media platforms
Those numbers are really impresive and they show us how many people follow the news about both events. Of course the number of followers is constantly changing and there are people who check out social media accounts more often than others - but still, it kind of gives you the idea of how many people are reached by Coachella and Emerald City Comicon.
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Next time we'll speak about official websites of both events so make sure to check it out.
I'll try to compare them and decide on how many points (in a scale of 1 to 10) they actually deserve.
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