New York Comedian Con 2023: 200,000 attendees. Pax West 2023, an occasion for avid gamers: 120,000 attendees. These are large occasions with deeply engaged audiences, proper?
It hasn’t at all times been that straightforward, defined Derrick Weiss, senior model advertising and marketing coordinator at ReedPop, the group behind these mammoth occasions and lots of others all over the world. “We have been looking for a way to engage fans more digitally,” he mentioned. That was spurred partly by the pandemic, not simply due to its influence on stay occasions, however in delicate modifications it provoked like a transfer away from printed applications. “It was a chance to try something new.”
Betting on Komo
“One thing our company does well is plan out really big bets,” mentioned Weiss. “They don’t always work out, but when they do they can have a lot of potential. Komo was one of those big 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 feature,” mentioned Weiss, “and a trivia feature. At Comic Con there are these big panels, like 7,000 people in a room; you get a chance to go up and ask celebrities questions, which is really cool for a lot of people.” Sadly, some followers don’t have their questions correctly ready. “Or they ask for a hug which is not appropriate for that time. One of the reasons we liked Komo was that fans could put their question in [the app]; everyone had a chance to look at the questions and upvote the questions most interesting to them.”
It was a extra democratic course of, Weiss mentioned. “It’s a cool way to give everyone in the room a voice on which questions get asked rather than just the people who manage to run to the front first.”
At New York Comedian Con final yr, DoorDash, the net meals ordering service, sponsored the trivia function, deployed in the course of the standard cosplay championship. “There’s a time when all the cosplay people are off the stage and the judges are deciding who’s going to win. What do you do with a few thousand people just sitting in a room. They’re all looking at their phones anyway. Give them a chance to participate in something on their phone; win some prizes. It’s also a big win for the sponsor because DoorDash’s logo was right at the top of the screen.”
The importance of the transfer away from printed applications 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 just isn’t offering the app, neither is their Komo branding on the options.
Nevertheless it’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 ideal customer profile,” he mentioned, “is very much upper midmarket to enterprise brands. Our pricing model ranges from a $10k entry level option, a 12-month subscription (it’s all subscription-based SaaS), then it goes to $30k, $60k and $100k is the enterprise. Yes, a smaller brand could definitely utilize the platform.”
Metal additionally emphasised that, Comedian Con apart, it’s not only for occasions. “We’re industry agnostic; events is probably only 15 or 20% of our revenue. Sports, media, broadcast, shopping centers, retail, hospitality, CPG brands — any brand that has consumers at the heart of everything they do.” Komo additionally isn’t simply embedded in apps. It may possibly stream stay information, like polling, to a giant display.
We requested Metal to overview some non-event use instances. “We were heavily focused on sports and live events pre-COVID, but COVID made us take a step back,” Metal defined. “Consumers in a shopping center, customers at home on the couch watching a broadcast, they’re all consumers, fans. Brands are trying to drive value for that end consumer so that they engage with that brand. The brands want to collect data in a non-intrusive value-adding way, enrich an understanding of the consumer’s preferences and thus provide a more personalized experience.”
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 have integrations with Canva, Unsplash, Pexels, Giphy so you can very quickly create a new card.” The playing cards can stay anyplace, 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 in the end to driving extra income. It may be described as an entertaining, gamified path to amassing zero-party information. The information 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 apart from Q&A and trivia? “There’s a scratch-and-win card,” mentioned Weiss. “It’s exactly like the scratch-and-win card that you get at the gas station. It gives you the same feeling when you’re scratching and you don’t know what you’re going to win. People have already bought tickets to the show; they’re coming; so the question is, what can we do next to surprise and delight them?” Each day they acquired a brand new scratch-and-win card. “They could win discounts at the merch store, they could win tickets to next year’s show, a free month’s membership to Popverse.”
For MCM Comedian Con this yr, ReedPop tried the character take a look at by which you select what kind of cat you might be. “There’s a detective cat, there were like 10 or 15 different cats with biographies. Hopefully people would go to the merch store and buy 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.
