New York Comedian Con 2023: 200,000 attendees. Pax West 2023, an occasion for players: 120,000 attendees. These are big occasions with deeply engaged audiences, proper?
It hasn’t at all times been that easy, defined Derrick Weiss, senior model advertising and marketing coordinator at ReedPop, the group behind these mammoth occasions and plenty of others world wide. “We’ve got been in search of a option to have interaction followers extra digitally,” he mentioned. That was spurred partly by the pandemic, not simply due to its affect on reside occasions, however in delicate adjustments it provoked like a transfer away from printed packages. “It was an opportunity to strive one thing new.”
Betting on Komo
“One factor our firm does properly is plan out actually huge bets,” mentioned Weiss. “They don’t at all times work out, however after they do they will have loads of potential. Komo was a type of huge bets.” That’s Komo Applied sciences, an Australian activations platform geared to buyer or fan engagement.
Which Komo options radiated potential? “There’s a Q&A characteristic,” mentioned Weiss, “and a trivia characteristic. At Comedian Con there are these huge panels, like 7,000 individuals in a room; you get an opportunity to go up and ask celebrities questions, which is admittedly cool for lots of people.” Sadly, some followers don’t have their questions correctly ready. “Or they ask for a hug which isn’t applicable for that point. One of many causes we favored Komo was that followers may put their query in [the app]; everybody had an opportunity to have a look at the questions and upvote the questions most fascinating to them.”
It was a extra democratic course of, Weiss mentioned. “It’s a cool option to give everybody within the room a voice on which questions get requested moderately than simply the individuals who handle to run to the entrance first.”
At New York Comedian Con final 12 months, DoorDash, the net meals ordering service, sponsored the trivia characteristic, deployed through the common cosplay championship. “There’s a time when all of the cosplay persons are off the stage and the judges are deciding who’s going to win. What do you do with a number of thousand individuals simply sitting in a room. They’re all taking a look at their telephones anyway. Give them an opportunity to take part in one thing on their telephone; win some prizes. It’s additionally a giant win for the sponsor as a result of DoorDash’s brand was proper on the high of the display.”
The importance of the transfer away from printed packages and the ubiquity of occasion apps ought to now be obvious. Komo’s options might be chosen from a library of content material choices and embedded within the branded occasion app — in different phrases, Komo isn’t offering the app, neither is their Komo branding on the options.
But it surely’s not only for occasions
Komo has been round for 10 years and boasts a formidable roster of purchasers together with Disney, Toyota and KFC. We requested co-founder Joel Metal whether or not it’s an providing aimed on the enterprise and at actually huge occasions. The very first thing he emphasised is that it’s not only for occasions.
“Our supreme buyer profile,” he mentioned, “could be very a lot higher midmarket to enterprise manufacturers. Our pricing mannequin ranges from a $10k entry stage possibility, a 12-month subscription (it’s all subscription-based SaaS), then it goes to $30k, $60k and $100k is the enterprise. Sure, a smaller model may positively make the most of the platform.”
Metal additionally emphasised that, Comedian Con apart, it’s not only for occasions. “We’re business agnostic; occasions might be solely 15 or 20% of our income. Sports activities, media, broadcast, procuring facilities, retail, hospitality, CPG manufacturers — any model that has shoppers on the coronary heart of all the things they do.” Komo additionally isn’t simply embedded in apps. It might stream reside knowledge, like polling, to a giant display.
We requested Metal to assessment some non-event use instances. “We have been closely targeted on sports activities and reside occasions pre-COVID, however COVID made us take a step again,” Metal defined. “Shoppers in a shopping mall, clients at residence on the sofa watching a broadcast, they’re all shoppers, followers. Manufacturers try to drive worth for that finish shopper in order that they have interaction with that model. The manufacturers wish to gather knowledge in a non-intrusive value-adding approach, enrich an understanding of the buyer’s preferences and thus present a extra personalised expertise.”
One other factor it does is encourage user-generated content material, for instance, by inviting individuals to take branded selfies.
The content material playing cards are extremely customizable. “We’ve got integrations with Canva, Unsplash, Pexels, Giphy so you possibly can in a short time create a brand new card.” The playing cards can reside wherever, not simply in apps. Embed codes can be found to drop them into internet content material too.
It’s a path to creating model advocates and finally to driving extra income. It is also described as an entertaining, gamified path to gathering zero-party knowledge. The info might be directed again to CRM techniques, or purchasers can use Komo’s personal CRM which is constructed into the platform.
What sort of cat are you?
Has ReedPop checked out Komo options aside from Q&A and trivia? “There’s a scratch-and-win card,” mentioned Weiss. “It’s precisely just like the scratch-and-win card that you just get on the gasoline station. It offers you a similar feeling once you’re scratching and also you don’t know what you’re going to win. Folks have already purchased tickets to the present; they’re coming; so the query is, what can we do subsequent to shock and delight them?” Day-after-day they received a brand new scratch-and-win card. “They may win reductions on the merch retailer, they may win tickets to subsequent 12 months’s present, a free month’s membership to Popverse.”
For MCM Comedian Con this 12 months, ReedPop tried the character check wherein you select what kind of cat you’re. “There’s a detective cat, there have been like 10 or 15 totally different cats with biographies. Hopefully individuals would go to the merch retailer and purchase some matching cat merch.” The suggestions on these numerous options, delivered on the common fan suggestions panels ReedPop hosts after the present, has been more and more constructive.
