C2E2 Builds a Rabid Following in its Rookie Year

April 29th, 2010 Posted by joshuasinason in Business, Findings, Marketing

For being such a large city Chicago hasn’t really gotten a good comic book convention in a few years. Even the one that was an annual mainstay at the Rosemont Convention Center has since fallen to the wayside. So how did C2E2 (Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo- www.c2e2.com) buck the trend and pull of a successful event when others couldn’t do it on a bigger budget. They went viral and put together a great grassroots campaign and most importantly, they played to their demographic of young males.

One reason the other conventions ultimately went the way of the dinosaurs is that they spread themselves too thin. They tried to be a movie, comic, science fiction, gaming, and memorabilia convention (They even advertised people selling custom suits of armor and realistic swords. I’d imagine that would have been hard to get through airport security.) They thought the best way to get more people was to make it as broad and eclectic as possible. They were wrong.

That would have been like McDonalds starting out serving Burgers, Chicken Sandwiches, and Lattes. They spent decades building up their menu. They started out with 5 things and kept it like that for a long time because they where smart enough to know they had to find there niche before they expanded. C2E2 clearly learned from this because they made sure to let people know they where filling a niche that hadn’t been filled in a long time. The very fist word of there title was “Comic.” Their tagline for their radio ads said “The Comic Convention Chicago has been waiting for.” They wanted to make sure you knew exactly what you where going to get once you walked in the door. And they knew this was something their demographic was chomping at the bit for.

There is one major advantage to having a young audience and that is that you know they are already trolling around Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube. I worked for a small publishing company that was geared toward antique collectors and more than half our battle was just getting them to go online. That wasn’t the case here and C2E2 knew that social media was the place to reach their audience. I wasn’t about to tell a 62 year old Coo Coo Clock restorer to check out our tweets but a 24 year old male has probably already been there 5 times that day. That made it easier for them to make their Facebook (facebook.com/C2E2official) the place to be for updates and discussions. They even made it their question and answer forum so you could ask the show runners what ever you needed to know. Their website home page was ultimately just a nexus for their Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube pages because they knew how valuable a social media following is.

Before the convention even started they had filled their Facebook page with notes, pictures, and links. On the Twitter front they made sure to use Twitter to listen to fans. I’ve said before that the companies that use Twitter (twitter.com/c2e2) correctly follow as many people as are following them. There Twitter connected you to the professionals that attended the show as well as like minded fans. And they even responded to people and sparked debates. With the young-male-social media-using demo you have to realize that they have spent most of their lives being bombarded with internet advertising so if you really want to reach them via social media you have to put yourself on the same level and interact with them as a pear just as much as you would a seller, otherwise you will lose their interest. C2E2 used its Twitter presencde to show that they were as interested in that material as the fans were.

While they were building up their Twitter, and Facebook pages they were getting some really great press from their YouTube (youtube.com/watch) videos. They made a series of short, funny and cheap videos promoting the show. (The only expense they incurred was the price of an action figure from Toys R Us.) They sent these videos to all sorts of shows and local news outlets so they got local, and in some cases, national television exposure without even buying air time. Those videos took on a viral presence all their own. (They really should have called their YouTube channel by their name but other than that they where a success) These videos were a great first step in building their online presence.
Ultimately C2E2 proved that you don’t need a big budget or even a proven track record to have a successful ad campaign. They really didn’t spend much beyond the man hours it took to put things together. Once you find the niche you know you can fill just be sure to play to the demographic you want there.

www.longtail.com/the_long_tail/2007/02/why_niche_brand.html

www.entrepreneur.com/marketing/marketingcolumnistkimtgordon/article49608.html

www.cyberindian.com/web-marketing/golden-rules-of-niche-marketing.php