Why Does DC Suck at Marketing & PR?
Why Does DC Suck at Marketing & PR?
Jul 29I don’t usually try to shit where I eat–that is, I work in PR and marketing for a living (business to business mostly) but I don’t necessarily feel a great urge to dissect the PR and marketing campaigns for the entertainment I shovel into my mouth like so much Laffy Taffy.
Over the SDCC weekend, though, as I watched the events unfolding from afar, I was overwhelmed with a very specific, very unfortunate sensation, and it’s this:
DC Comics is doing a piss-poor job at marketing and promoting their product.
Except for when they slink from their building in New York to attend events, I almost never have the sense that there is anyone at DC interested in communicating about upcoming releases with fans. From a big scary corporate perspective, I realize it’s hard to quantify the hard benefits attached to marketing initiatives, in terms of improved sales and increased revenue.
However, depending on the tools you utilize, smart and savvy marketing these days can be done in such a way that there’s little to no additional cost attached to it, save perhaps the bits of time editors and talent may spend engaging fans through various mediums. There are so many social media applications online right now that it’s almost harder NOT to talk about your work in one of them than it is to actively discuss it.
Marvel totally GETS this. They are using free and dirt-cheap tools to push their product out through a variety of avenues, in addition to actually springing some cash to put forth cool metaprojects like their MySpace-exclusive Secret Invasion storyline.
Here’s another example: I was tracking San Diego panels at work last week and at Marvel.com, one of their PR marketing folks, who goes by the handle Agent_M, was using a new liveblogging technology to cover all Marvel panels. Thanks to this technology and notifications about it through Twitter, I was able to virtually “attend” these panels, hearing news announcements instantaneously, and even seeing artwork as people at the convention were seeing it in the panel. It was pretty remarkable.
Contrast that with DC, who posted podcast recordings of panels, which was cool…but I don’t think I even heard about them till well into the con, if not in the days afterward. An okay strategy, but still lacking immediacy, and definitely not pushed out to the fans in anything like a timely or organized fashion.
As I observe DC’s PR and marketing strategy, I think it’s becoming clear that they have no real PR and marketing strategy. Do fans even know who is the lead person in charge of marketing and PR for the company? Why doesn’t he or she have a MySpace page, a Twitter account, a blog at DCComics.com? Why aren’t there constant e-mail blasts being sent out by DC featuring links to the latest content on the DC site? Why isn’t there any decent content on the DC site, for that matter? Where is the Final Crisis viral marketing tie-in, the blogs from Eddie Bereganza talking about how cool J.G. Jones’ latest pages look, the message board threads at DC’s site where fans can ask Grant Morrison questions about the book?
As their market share shrinks and they are getting beaten about the face and head by Marvel, why isn’t anyone at DC Comics looking into these cost-effective, leading-edge ways to SELL GODDAMNED COMIC BOOKS???
I wish I knew.
It has bugged me ever since I started following Agent M on Twitter that DC has no similar person Twittering about the upcoming stuff at DC. Like you say – it’s free, it’s easy, why aren’t they doing it?
Simple, because Marvel is owned by Marvel, while DC is owned by Warner Brothers. Assuming both companies are pretty much like most corporations, they have to ask their higher ups for a marketing/PR budget, or approval for strategies. When a marvel PR person, like Agent M, needs approval, no matter how high up he goes, he’ll always be dealing with a Marvel employee, who cares about that brand. His DC counterpart may have to do the same thing, but chances are he’ll hit a Warner Brother’s employee, who is probably more concerned with WB as a whole, rather than DC.
Of course, this is is just my opinion
And actually, probably as a result of Agent M’s influence, tons of other Marvel employees are now on Twitter as well. As someone who has been on Twitter for a few months now, I can definitely say that reading some of the other Marvel folks’ tweets (ranging from interns to writers to editors) has made me feel even closer Marvel as a company. That may sound weird in some way, which is fine, but it’s the truth. I have never been a DC fan but I’ve been reading a lot of DC stuff lately just to learn more about characters and storylines, and they could definitely stand to gain a lot from creating more connections to fans and such through Twitter and other resources (as you mention in the post). Being a Marvel fan already though, I’m glad they’re working so hard to form a connection with fans (and potential fans). I’d also like to steal Agent M’s job in a few years. Lucky son of a gun…
One thing that Marvel will always have on DC is that Marvel is proactive in its promotion and fan relations. Love Joe Q or hate Joe Q, Marvel is the one of the Big Two that’s out there trying new things in the online space and connecting with the fans. DC apparently thinks it’s connecting with the fans through niche pandering and call-outs to 40 year old Batman stories.
Lex–That’s a good point, and I’ve definitely heard that exact thing said in the past when I’ve discussed this topic. I know that Warner Home Video is active in a controlled way on Home Theater Forum, which is a form of online marketing, although a step or two back from Twitter. Maybe WB is hardline against social media, for fear their employees will waste hours updating their MySpace blogs with awesome new pics from their weekends at the beach?
Actually, DC is a part of Warner Brothers, which is owned by the Time Warner, Inc. So even by going through Warner, they still have to go all the way through Time Warner abou doing new things as mentioned. DC should really attempt to have more of a connection with their fans. I have been working on a report about DC and their operations and finding this information is difficult. Their webpage offers no help and attempting to speak with a live individual has proved to be a waste of my time. I am however, a huge DC fan, although I will give props to Marvel. They create a more “real” background to their characters and work better with their fans.