Another month has gone by without a single word from Coachella... and there's only one thing I can say - they should really try and sort their 'direct mail' strategies out. The thing is, if you offer someone a chance to sign up for a newsletter, you should be aware that they might actually expect to get any messages (it's not that complicated).
25th March - 30th April
EMERALD: 9 COACHELLA: 0
Similarly as with previous correspondence (for detailed comment on direct mail provided by ECCC click here), new emails share information about newly announced guests arriving at Seattle, upcoming pre-events, sales and promotions in merchandise store etc. There's lots of appealing material and everyone can find something for themselves: from necessary links redirecting to ticket selling websites, to invitation to meetings with fellow comic books' lovers.
There's literally to much good stuff to describe (that would take me forever), but I'm sure part 1 of this posting makes whole idea of ECCC's newsletter pretty clear to all of you. So this time I will only add that ECCC treats their newsletter subscribes in a serious way and Coachella should learn from them. Because showing interest in your target audience - and proving that there wouldn't be THIS event without those people - has a huge meaning and it surely is much appreciated afterwards.
Excitement associated with the beginning of both events has been incredible and created lots of posts over last couple of weeks. Beside fans sharing their enthusiasm and talking over previous editions of those events... beside companies trying to use different advertising strategies to represent their events in the best way possible... there will always be a place for posts published by famous people.
Yes, the world of internet wouldn't be the same without our favourite celebrities. And considering the fact that many many people really care about their opinion and relate on it, I would risk to say that marketing wouldn't be the same without them as well.
Let's be honest, people are more likely to attend the event because their favourite actor shared a note about it on their twitter page, other than because someone handed them a leaflet etc.
And as you can see, both events were lucky enough to be talked about which leads to getting some more attention and recognition. And as it may be pretty hard to say what impact those messages has actually had when it comes to number of people attending, I'm still gonna say that they were interesting to some and helpful while making purchasing decisions to others. For sure.
Getting involved and investing money in events is a chance for every sponsor to take advantage of commercial opportunities linked to it, such as: displaying company's logo/products to wider audience, being associated with famous festival/event, building a good name of your brand etc. On the other hand, organizers of the event get money which is essential for implementation of their projects.
But is there anything else worth mentioning when it comes to sponsors, or is it only about helping with financial matters? Do they organize any competitions? Do they offer any promotions designed specially for participants of particular events?
Well, we're about to find out...
COACHELLA
H&M
TV commercial with Coachella's motives included
Coachella Fansite where you can view a specially designed calendar with all the dates included, a line-up of 2016 edition and info about location of Music and Arts Festival. You can also find a link to the website selling cheap tickets. Some people may find it very helpful and really easy to use.
HEINEKEN
Similar website to the one provided by H&M
A chance to win VIP tickets for festival by simply entering a draw
JBL
A discount for products including: headphones, speakers etc.
T-MOBILE
Live stream from festival - very great idea, especially when we start thinking about all the people that are simply not able to afford tickets or travel expenses.
PANDORA + SIRIUSXM RADIO
A chance to win free tickets to the festival
EMERALD CITY COMICON
SUPERHEROSTUFF.COM
organizing lots of giveaways and competitions
STG (Seattle Theatre Group)
organizing 'Star Trek: The Ultimate Voyage' concert (linked to Emerald City Comicon: date, theme, ECCC being promotional partner)
DARK HORSE COMICS + PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE + BOOM! STUDIOS
exhibiting at Emerald City Comicon (and what comes with it, advertising this event online)
LOCAL COFFEE SHOP PARTNERSHIP
probably some discounts (for coffee and other products) for participants of ECCC 2016
As you can see, both events have some interesting sponsors and even though Coachella's ones may seem a little bit more serious ('better' is not a word I would use), we may have this opinion only because of the fact that we simply know most - if not each - of these brands.
And when it comes to ECCC, our point of view is slightly different, but does it give us any right to consider it worse? No, as long as sponsors are doing their job by helping to develop that event.
We've seen billboards, leaflets and tv spots used to advertise Coachella Festival... but does Emerald City Comicon invest in more conventional marketing?
The answer is YES.
PRE-EVENTS
'Building a good image of a brand'. I guess that's the best description of all the pre-events organized due the date of ECCC where participants are given a chance to:
- win free tickets to Comicon
- dress up as their favourite superheroes
- meet with exhibitors and artists/writers who will have their own panels at Emerald City Comicon.
Making people interested in your event by giving them a hint of what it's gonna look like during the actual Comicon seems like a perfect plan. And it's definitely worth trying.
ECCC Crusaders Party was organized 2 weeks before ECCC 2016
SCAVENGER HUNT
Organizing a scavenger hunt is a great way of getting people's attention. A game starting with information about tickets for ECCC being hidden in different spots of the city sounds really exciting and interesting. People are having a great time while looking for free tickets and with such a positive vibe and the idea of comicon (already created in their minds) being something different and original, they are more likely to buy tickets and attend event afterwards, especially when they are not lucky enough to find free badges.
TV COMMERCIALS
TV commercial for ECCC 2013
LEAFLETS
A leaflet designed specially for DC Comics
'ECCC' SIGN
This huge sign can be seen in Seattle due the date of the event:
And as we can see, Emerald City Comicon is also open for different marketing strategies. But which event is doing better work? Well, it's actually hard to choose and I can only say what's wrong and right with both campaigns, in my opinion of course:
Coachella produces a lot of billboards, leaflets and posters (you can see it everywhere and other people do as well), but they still could do some more tv commercials - 30-second clip of well-made, colourful and fascinating footage from previous edition can do its work. And when it comes to Emerald, they mainly focus on interaction with potential participants (and that's really good, because it's all about people choosing your event over another), but could try to use some more posters, maybe billboards as well - the thing is, if you don't follow their social media accounts or subscribe to their newsletter, you can hardly find any info about those pre-events or scavenger hunts.
Just a couple of days after the beginning of Emerald City Comicon (and posting a short note about some social media stats linked to that event), here we are, watching photos from the first day of Coachella shared by people who were lucky enough to get tickets.
Photo posted by musician @MattPokora (Instagram)
And as the aim of this blog is to compare both events, we will focus on social media stats again.
So yeah, let's find out which event has posted more... by looking at numbers of posts published on official accounts of Coachella (since the last day of 2015 edition - 19th April) and comparing it to Emerald City Comicon's results.
Posts published on official account of Coachella are mostly about line-up and performers, but there are some that include information about the venue (eg. campsites), ticket sale and previous editions.
When it comes to retweets, original posts come from performers who are about to appear on stage during Coachella Festival 2016. Is there any better way to advertise your event? I don't think so.
... Coachella's tried to get people's attention by creating this unique atmosphere that makes you buy a ticket for another edition of festival (without even thinking about other plans etc.) by showing some colourful and joyful footage from previous one. Nice try.
Account on Google+ is mostly used to inform about passes going on sale
And it's not hard to notice that number of posts published by Coachella on this particular platform is nothing when compared to Emerald City Comicon... but we will get back to this in a second.
Coachella publishes tens of photos on Instagram including information about: line-ups, venue, different attractions of festival and throwbacks (previous editions)
And here is the most popular hashtag of Coachella 2016:
80,536 posts
Okey, I think we've got enough data to compare both events. And as I want to make it as clear as possible, here's a diagram that shows number of posts provided by both, ECCC and Coachella:
So yes, we can easily notice which event's been more active online over those couple of months. Why is the difference in numbers of posts provided by both events so huge? Well, we've got couple of options to consider:
Emerald's got way more announcements to make. - Social media accounts of ECCC are full of short notes about new artists/writers/celebrities that join the show (usually introducing one person at a time). Considering the number of panels, exhibitions and M&G sessions, try to imagine how many posts it requires. When it comes to Coachella, festival shared full line-up (photo) of 2016 edition online on 5th January. And that's it. No other artists to be announced. No more artists to write additional posts about.
More doesn't always mean better. - I've said that tens of times and I'm gonna do this once again. Sharing huge amounts of posts have its advantages and disadvantages. On one hand you can provide your audience with all the information you consider necessary and valuable, on the other hand some people get easily annoyed when they are literally attacked with tens of messages that come up on their facebook or twitter walls - and they are more likely to unsubscribe/dislike the page.
Emerald is more 'desperate' to get to wider audience. - I know it may sound strange, but Coachella is already very recognizable and have thousands of followers and attendants who are more than ready to attend another edition. They simply may not feel the need to seek interest as crazy. As for Emerald, it is still a new event that keeps on developing itself, trying to build a good image and get more interest by interacting with their potencial audience online.
First day of Emerald City Comicon 2016 has finally arrived and fans are beginning to share their comic adventure with the world (using social media platforms, of course).
Tens of photos from ECCC 2016 are already posted online
And as they are flooding the internet with posts and photos from the event, I cannot think about better blog posting but the one about social media itself.
The thing is, I'm not going to write a long post about social media being a huge marketing tool helping to achieve marketing communication and branding goals. I mean, we already know that. Instead, I will show you some stats and numbers of social media posts provided by ECCC since the last edition of the event (27-29th March 2015).
ECCC posted their own tweets and shared posts published by fans and artists as well
We automatically link twitter with hashtags (#) and thanks to hashtagify.me website, we are able to take a closer look at two hashtags most associated with this particular event:
#emeraldcitycomicon
#eccc2016
As we can see all hashtags are related to comic books' world and some of the top influencers include official websites of tv series (based on comics and having their panels at ECCC), actors (guests of the event) and comic books publishers. Are we really surprised? Of course not.
And considering the number of followers owned by some of those accounts... it's really easy to say that even one post about Emerald City Comicon published by them can have a huge importance while getting to wider audience.
3455 photos using #ECCC2016 hashtag (and 217 using #emeraldcitycomicon2016) were posted by fans, actors and comic book publishers due the date of the event).
Announcements of guests, posts with information about panels and workshops, competitions, photos showing previous editions of the event, videos and many more - everything's there...
+ 4 videos posted on YouTube got 4,670 views
Connect such an impressive number of posts published by Emerald City Comicon with number of followers on those accounts - it kind of gives you the idea of how many people can be reached only by using social media. And when you add other marketing strategies to that, you are just a couple of small steps away from huge success of the event.
Is there any better way for an event to be represented other than by fans wearing official t-shirts (or displaying any kind of merch) with huge smiles on their faces?
Exactly! People care about opinion of others, and it is more likely that they will attend particular event if they know someone hardly speaking of anything else and wearing official t-shirts etc. If any person can be that excited after attending this event, why wouldn't you be? Just give it a try.
So yes, we can say that public showing of t-shirts, hats, or even bags with official logos of ECCC and Coachella can be considered a less advanced marketing strategy (not as direct as posters or radio/tv ads and also a bit unpredictable, but still...)
How does that work?
Super-excited participants of ECCC and Coachella get a chance to buy souvenirs they can boast about while waiting for next year's editions of events.
Both events get a free advertisement in exchange for an eye-catching, well-designed merch. Sounds complicated? Believe me, it's not.
While an adequate design and right price will get people to buy particular product and for example: wear t-shirt with logo of the event in public (people are proud of attending their favourite events and official merch is a proof they can show to the world), the company will gain free marketing campaign (because this particular product is shown to wider audience, making logo or name of the event more recognizable). Fair enough?
It is worth to mention that both events offer a wide range of merchandise. And designs are different every year so that people can buy new products more than once, of course.
Designs for ECCC 2016
What else I can say... If only a thought-through strategy of getting as many customers as you possibly can is correct, success in 'merchandise marketing' is just around the corner.
