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Integrated Marketing

Comics, cosplay, creators and celebrities- all under one 388,800 square ft roof.

Planet Comicon Instagram post promoting artist, Olivier Coipel.
CLIENT
  • Planet Comicon Kansas City
MARKET
SERVICES
  • Discovery + Planning
  • Email Marketing
  • Social Media
  • Marketing (organic)
  • Marketing (paid)

VISIT

A galaxy of adventure for kids of all ages and fans of all kinds.

Summary

Planet Comicon Kansas City is the region's largest and longest-running independently-owned pop culture and comic book convention. First held in 1999 in Overland Park, KS, PCKC has grown into an epic adventure annually attended by 60,000+ fans from across the country. The three-day event now annually fills Bartle Hall, Kansas City’s Downtown Convention Center, with an awe-inspiring pop culture extravaganza spanning nearly eight football fields and featuring more than 90 celebrity, cosplayer and comic creator guests. PCKC also features a wide range of pop culture merchandise, crafts, art and collectibles from more than 650 vendors, hundreds of hours of programming, an exciting cosplay showcase and a family-friendly interactive activity area called the Planet Entertainment Zone.

Challenge

In 2019, PCKC was ready to celebrate its 20th year of existence, set to feature the best in comic books, pop culture, fantasy, sci-fi, and superhero television/film. Strategically speaking, our ultimate goal is simple: to sell tickets. To do that, however, we needed to craft an aura around the event that Planet Comicon Kansas City is the ultimate destination for all comic and pop culture aficionados. While our celebrity, creator and cosplay guests generate a lot of excitement, it is important for us to first and foremost promote the event as a can't-miss-a-moment adventure. We want attendees to be just as loyal to Planet Comicon as a brand as they are to their individual fandoms.

Artist painting superhero art at Kansas City Planet Comicon convention.

Identifying Planet Comicon Kansas City's Audience.

Planet Comicon Kansas City fans are remarkably loyal and passionate. They are tech-savvy, avid movie and television watchers, up-to-date with regard to news and current events (especially in the tech and science worlds), and are active readers. Their passions drive them to seek connection with their interests both offline and online. They are very active users of social media, regularly engaging with actors, artists, media properties, and brands via Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

An eSports player sitting at a computer playing a video game and wearing a headset.

Collage of Planet Comicon Facebook and Instagram posts.
Multi-channel Marketing

We carefully planned and executed a multi-channel organic social media content calendar that leveraged our presence on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram with near-daily postings and engagement opportunities. As the campaign progressed, we provided additional support on social media by targeting Facebook and Instagram users that matched our known social audience demographics within key geographic markets with paid placements and postings that promoted our lineup and offerings. We took advantage of Facebook's rich targeting capabilities, special creative capabilities, and robust tracking and ROI tools.

Outcome

The 20th anniversary for Planet Comicon Kansas City was an incredible success with respect to all KPIs and goals that were set at the beginning of the campaign.

  • Attendance for the weekend topped out at more than 70,000 attendees.
  • Between November of 2018 and March of 2019, PlanetComicon.com experienced 474,013 sessions and 1,453,822 pageviews from 200,695 users. Each session averaged 3.07 pages and 2:55 in session duration, with the average user engaging in 2.36 sessions during that time period.
  • The PCKC email subscriber list grew from 49,350 contacts to 65,415 contacts, a 32.6% increase. Twenty emails were sent during the ticket onsale period and resulted in an average open rate of 39.2%, an average clickthrough rate of 20.82% and generated more than $150,000 in attributable ticket sales.
  • The PCKC Facebook presence grew from 43,684 followers to 57,724 followers, a 32.2% increase. 
  • The PCKC Twitter presence grew from 13,912 followers to 16,424 followers, an 18.1% increase, with 778 tweets generating 3.8 million tweet impressions, 113,100 profile visits and 11,235 mentions.
  • The PCKC Instagram presence grew from 9,406 followers to 17.064 followers, an 81.4% increase.
  • Paid social media advertising on Facebook and Instagram generated a reach of 1.3 million people, 4.9 million impressions, and 2,953 purchases with an average cost per conversion of $18.23, resulting in an overall ROI of 9.4x compared to the original media investment.
Recognition

Best of Show - 2020 Social Media Club of Kansas City AMPS Awards


VISIT