$POWN in Forbes Stan Lee's Comikaze Expo Hits L.A. In

$POWN in Forbes

Stan Lee's Comikaze Expo Hits L.A. In November

Comic book, sci-fi, horror, and gaming fans take note: Comic book pop culture convention Stan Lee’s Comikaze Expo will take over the LA Convention Center the weekend of November 1st through November 3rd, commandeering almost three-quarters of the Center’s space for this third entry in the annual expo event. Meaning tens of thousands of fans of comics, film, TV, and all things related — and some unrelated — are going to descend on downtown LA in elaborate costumes for a weekend of geek-culture revelry.

I have some early details for you, dear readers, plus a look at how the numbers stack up from a business angle for the convention and what it means economically for LA., so read on!

Comikaze’s newly relaunched Web site starts selling tickets today and already announced several guests who will be in attendance this year, including comic artist and publisher Marc Silvestri, model and television star Adrianne Curry, actress and video game reviewer Lisa Foiles, as well as other stars and lots of comic book artists. For now, I can also confirm that actor LeVar Burton of Star Trek fame (he played Lieutenant Commander La Forge in the series Star Trek: The Next Generation and the subsequent film series) will be on hand, as well as actor Kirby Morrow (of Dragon Ball Z fame). I’ll be able to reveal a lot more names soon, as they are confirmed, so check back for updates.

course, Stan “The Man” Lee himself will be in attendance, along with Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. [I sat down with Stan to talk about Comikaze and his future plans, and that interview will be running here soon, so watch for it!] During the convention, Stan will be doing interviews (on a giant stage in the middle of the convention, while being projected onto a large overhead screen so everyone can see), and this year he’s also put together a collection of movie props from the Marvel superhero films that will be on display at the convention (with some props from Stan’s own personal collection). Elvira hosts a horror-themed gallery of artwork and collectables, along with a signing area. Like Stan Lee, Elvira — or Cassandra Peterson, as she’s known when not in her ghoulish garb — is a partner in Comikaze.

One of the things I’m particularly interested in seeing this year is the large display of movie props brought by Stan Winston Legacy Effects — the visual effects studio founded in honor of Stan Winston’s memory and legacy — and Stan Winston School, co-founded by actor Matt Winston (Sam Winston’s son). Legacy Effects’ resume includes films like Avatar, Iron Man 2 and Iron Man 3, Thor, The Avengers, Terminator: Salvation, Pacific Rim, Twilight: Breaking Dawn, The Hunger Games, Life of Pi, Alice in Wonderland, and The Amazing Spider-Man. Just think about the combined gross of some of those films for a moment — we’re talking about close to $10 billion dollars of box office clout from the last decade.

There were a crazy number of vendors last year, but that number will be dwarfed this year with a growing cast of artists and vendors — including lifestyle brand Tokidoki, who will offer one-of-a-kind exclusive collectibles at the convention. And of course, every convention has to have a costume contest, but this year Comikaze is offering $5,000 in prizes, a hefty sum compared to most cosplay sport.

When it started in 2011, Comikaze brought in 35,000 attendees, which surprised everybody since the whole thing was dreamed up and organized by Regina Carpinelli and her brothers, fans who just decided that LA ought to have its own comics/pop-culture convention and who set out to make it happen. Theirs is a pretty perfect tale of the entrepreneur spirit being alive and well: 20-somethings having a dream, pooling their money, then printing up fliers and making calls to make their idea come to life.

Oddly enough, one of the things originally working against them was the fact that LA is such a pop culture town, since the assumption (by everyone except Regina and her family) was that folks in LA see celebrities and pop culture so often they wouldn’t want to attend an expo of celebrities and entertainment. But since that kind of thinking often dictates decisions in this town, it actually created a vacuum into which Comikaze stepped to great effect.

Last year the number of attendees climbed to nearly 50,000 (and I was there to provide some coverage, so if you didn’t read it then, follow that link to go read it now!). This year, attendance is expected to exceed 70,000 people. Since the convention is free for anyone under 12 years of age, that makes it a big draw for families with younger fans in their midst, and that’s a really smart marketing move since free entry almost guarantees the kids and their parents will be spending that extra money among the vendors of the expo, and the more customers there are with more money in their hands, the more valuable that booth space becomes. And the gate fee is far less important than the deals with vendors.

Watching the social media angle, it’s surprising that a convention this young is already challenging and in some respects outpacing the heavy-hitting San Diego Comic-Con, in terms of the number of people Comikaze reaches and interacts with via social Web sites (more than one million per week, at present). The expo is actually doing a large number of give-aways through social media to promote the show, which is uncommon and is helping drive more traffic to them. With Comic-Con pulling in more than 130,000 attendees, the impressive social media footprint of Comikaze bodes well for Los Angeles — the San Diego region benefits to the tune of $150+ million each year from Comic-Con, so the addition of a high-profile expo in LA with such visibility and growth is an enormous benefit to this region.

Branding is a key ingredient in Comikaze’s success, and after the first year Stan Lee bought into the expo as a partner and his name was affixed to the title in order to help with that branding effort. It’s worked, and now I can tell you that the company soon plans to take the convention on the road and international — they are looking to establish franchises, so to speak, with Comikaze conventions not just in other cities around the U.S. but in other countries as well. Latin American and Asian audiences abroad provide a particularly enormous potential for growth as a pop culture brand, if Comikaze expands into those regions. That overseas business can translate into some additional business being brought back home to LA when it inspires more tourism among foreign fans. Meanwhile, creating smaller franchise expos in other cities will help give new audiences a taste of what the brand has to offer, and could help lure additional attendees to the big show in LA. as well.

By pulling in fans and establishing brand loyalty via offering the big convention experience far cheaper than other comic conventions can match (three-day “super-fan” passes can be had for as little as $45, and day passes are going for $20), the expo is leaving fans freer to open their wallets for the things they really come to the convention for — exclusives, toys, movies, comics, you name it. It also make it more feasible for out-of-towners to afford the costs of staying in LA to attend the event, since that extra money isn’t going to door fees.

Comics, zombies, and geek culture have gone mainstream in the last several years and are now very big business. The film industry is dominated by the geek genres, and TV is staring to line up the same way. As the culture has expanded and modernized, however, most conventions merely continue to do the same things while just renting larger space. There is a lot of money being left out on the table by other conventions right now, by not taking enough advantage of social media and establishing a better relationship with the fan community, nor reaching out to become an actual brand name with which fans identify even in their own hometowns.

And I think Comikaze sees that money left on the table, and they’re making a strong bid for it by developing a personal relationship with fans, creating a personality and identity for the expo, and embracing the mainstreaming of geek culture by branching out to take itself “on the road” as a popular brand people will associate not just with one event but with a lot of other pop culture experiences, products, and events.

Coming soon, I’ll have some interviews with Stan Lee, Regina Carpinelli, and Elvira, discussing the ins and outs of establishing their brand and where they plan to take it in the future, so stay tuned!

http://www.forbes.com/sites/markhughes/2013/0...-november/