Shouting into the Wind Saying my piece in a windy world.

Sorry for the delays on this series, but this should wrap it up. It’s been a month since Comic Con which has given me some time to think about the long term impacts of the event. I even have some advice for networks and con-goers for next year. But that advice will come in a Postscript article next week.

So, let’s continue the report card — how did the TV networks fare at Comic Con? What did they offer and was their presence effective in generating good press and buzz for their shows?

Next on the list: FX.

FX has dabbled at Comic Con, but this year I really noticed their presence. They shared a home with their Fox brethren in their booth, but they highlighted one show in particular for the Comic Con crowd — It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Like The Office, it’s a show that does not fit the genre mold, and yet it is very popular with people who are genre fans. I’ll admit my own skepticism upon seeing that the show would have its own panel on Sunday morning at the Con — who would get up to see that?

Apparently, a lot of people. One of the main rooms, Ballroom 20 was PACKED. I knew the show was popular, but it had more underground popularity than I had imagined. Clearly the show has built a following from its DVD and online offerings. Big plus — they gave away copies of Season 1 & 2 DVD sets and T-Shirts to all who attended the panel. Talk about goodwill! That was above and beyond what was delivered by most shows. FX, please come back to Comic Con. Please continue to hand out DVDs. I started to really watch the show after the Con and now I’m hooked. That kind of publicity does work. Keep doing it. Grade: A

BBC America BBC America really made a splash this year. They sponsored four panels — Doctor Who, Torchwood, Primeval and Spaced. Though new episodes of Doctor Who appear on SciFi, BBC America does show the first three seasons, or has, and will show the latest season sometime next year. Their booth, while flashy was really nothing more than a place to buy merchandise, but it didn’t seem to matter — it was always packed. I heard they sold out a lot of the DVDs they were selling, in part because they handed out coupons at the Con to discount the price. Had I been privvy to that, I would have taken advantage, since their DVD sets tend to be pricey.

On the whole, I’d say BBC America did a good job at the Con, but I’d love to see them go further in their promotions. Postcards of the shows were the only giveaways to fans, and while I don’t think they’ll be tossing out DVDs to the crowd anytime soon, posters or anything with the BBC logo on it would have been nice. I’d have loved a British flag BBC Pin for my backpack, though that may just be the Anglophile in me talking. Also would have loved to have seen David Tennant or Catherine Tate attend the Doctor Who panel, but that is just wishful thinking. Thankfully, brand new showrunner Steven Moffat was available, and that was heavenly for the fans. A very solid effort. Grade: B

SciFi Speaking of SciFi, let’s chat about it, shall we? Now here is one of the “anchors” if you will of the TV section. In some ways SciFi is miles ahead of other cable nets on how to support their shows at the Con. In other ways…well, I want a new booth, for starters. I mean, it’s nice. the purple-y glowy…thing, but I’ve seen it there the last 3 years. I know it cost you a lot. But, c’mon. Really? That’s the best you can do? Why not a replica of Galactica Sitrep? Maybe a Eureka smart house? Something?? Now, you really went all out for marketing Eureka and I am personally grateful for the ice cream I got from the Eureka ice cream truck as I trudged back to the convention center during an unscheduled trip to a drug store six blocks away. It was blistering hot and I hadn’t eaten, so the yummy treat was a godsend! I also really liked the Smarties ™ in a tin handed out at the booth (get it — Eureka, town of Smarties! Yeah, lame, but still effective). Free foodstuffs are a fantastic giveaway at the Con. The buttons for Battlestar Galactica were nice, but I got a handful of Anders and one of Caprica Six. What gives? Best giveaway of the entire con, though…the Starbuck tattoo you handed to me. FANTASTIC. I wanted twenty of them. I suddenly wanted to be Starbuck for Halloween (or I guess since Anders has the same tat, guys could go as them) I also loved loved my purple BIG FRAKKIN BAG, a tongue in cheek play on the Bloomingdale’s Big Brown Bag. Inspired and cheap giveaway. Well done! SciFi was also there promoting Ghost Hunters, and I think that would have gone better had the panel been better designed. I noticed that Stargate: Atlantis was over at the MGM booth, and I had wondered about that, but since MGM produces the show, I didn’t think much of it. Now knowing that show will end and another Stargate show will start up, I think there was an attempt by MGM to build the Stargate brand separate from SciFi (since they have games and comics to promote also). Last year SciFi got a huge boost for Tin Man after heavily promoting at the con. This year they had no huge event to promote, but I’d say that SciFi still has a significant edge on the other cable nets for understanding their audience and catering to it. Just redo the booth. Please? Grade: A

History Channel and Discovery Channel Talk about weirdness, and yet, both seemed to fit. Both channels were represented with a booth and sponsored panels for Mythbusters. The notable giveaway were bags featuring dinosaurs on them. The bags were nicer than most others, smaller, easier to carry and had zippers! Bad news for me, my strap broke. Don’t know how others fared. Linking dinosaurs and Mythbusters to the nerd crowd is very smart indeed. Come back again, as this was a great debut at the Con! Grade: A-

Notable but nothing awesome: Spike, BET (though there was a great Afro Samurai poster being given out, I noticed) and G4 (Yeah they cover the thing and have the stage, but don’t really do much else).

And that brings us to the pay cable channels — HBO and Showtime.

Showtime went to the Con last year with Dexter and was warmly welcomed. They returned, and again Dexterwas heavily publicized. The panel was packed, and I saw the Shepard Fairey poster everywhere. The Dexter bobbleheads went fast, and it looks like anything with Dexter on it was a popular item. It all seems great and fabulous, the same or better than last year…until you check out HBO.

HBO is new to the Comic Con scene, or at least haven’t been there in quite some time, but they weren’t kidding around. They were there to present their new drama, True Blood and boy did they promote. I had already noticed some of the interesting viral promotion activity in Los Angeles, but it really took off in San Diego. Not only do they have the viral marketing around the “Tru Blood” synthetic blood beverage, but there is the “Fellowship of the Sun”, an anti-vampire group and a countering pro-Vampire group which handed out buttons and flyers for their points of view. In some ways it was hard to tell where the viral marketing ended and the straight-forward show marketing began. The panel was well attended, featuring the stars and Alan Ball, the creator of the show. The gift bags though were spectacular — a t-shirt, the first of the series of books on which the show was based, the bag itself again marketing the faux beverage and a comic. If you went to the panel you got a ticket for the bag to pick up at a special location. I actually felt this method worked really well at several panels…so long as you didn’t have to pick up the bags in the exhibit hall which was very messy. HBO is always working to be the best at what they do, and they proved that at Comic Con. Very well executed. Grade: A+.

In summary, there were some really great efforts to promote new and returning shows by the cable nets, and in fact a few weren’t afraid to promote shows which don’t, at least on the surface, appear to be shows that would be popular with the crowd at Comic Con. But more and more the event in San Diego is more about media, less about comics and even less about “Genre” as it is traditionally defined. I believe that TV will continue to be a very large part of Comic Con, for better or worse, and so we can only hope that the marketing teams at the studios and networks continue to think creatively about how to attract this very powerful audience to their products and get the buzz they need to filter out to the “mainstream”. So far it looks like a few are having some real long term success a month out of Comic Con. Some shows are continuing to build buzz and interest while others have waned.

Still, the power of the event cannot be ignored.

Posted under analysis