Generating MARVEL-ous Results

Boston Comic Con

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Marketing Management: Copywriting, Paid Media

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Boston Comic Con // Marketing Management: Copywriting, Paid Media //

TLDR: Kasen’s video scripts and paid media campaigns turned $10K into $1M+ in ticket sales for this annual east coast convention.

Kasen is a big fan of superhero movies. He was over the moon during his tenure at Vertical Rail, when gifted the opportunity to spearhead and manage the 2016 digital marketing program for Boston Comic Con (now Boston Fan Expo).

About Boston Comic Con:

Boston Comic Con (BCC) is the largest pop culture and comic book convention in New England, featuring outstanding lineups of comic book artists and movie/TV actors each year. 

The Situation:

BCC hired Vertical Rail as their agency of record to promote their 2016 event. 2016 was the first year BCC would be investing in digital marketing, and needed an effective display advertising strategy to maximize engagement, traffic, new users and ticket sales within a $10,000 budget.

The Solution:

The timeline for BCC’s project was roughly 3 months: 7 weeks of planning and campaign development, 5 weeks of advertising and campaign management. 

After discussing future goals and past attendance trends with BCC’s organizers, a display advertising strategy was devised around four target audiences: past BCC attendees, comic book enthusiasts, movie/TV/celebrity fans, and Boston families. Multiple versions of a video ad were scripted to appeal specifically to each target audience, with a generalized version made to run as a commercial in New England on the SyFy channel. GIFs were also designed using Adobe Photoshop for use as eye-catching and engaging display ads.

The videos were used to run Facebook and YouTube campaigns, with each variation targeting a slightly different interest group. The GIFs and static display ads were used to target third party comic and pop-culture websites using Google AdWords.

The Results:

At the end of the 5 week campaign, BCC’s event ticket sales totaled $1M+; with on-site ticket sales increasing 65% over 2015. Facebook and AdWords display campaigns generated a 48% increase in new users and 80K+ more website visits. Facebook video campaigns earned 150K+ views and 1K+ shares.