business idea: marketing experiment

Sydney says:
We should photocopy our work, staple it all together and sell them at the snail for 50 cents a pop
Rhody Belo says:
I think it would sell actually
Sydney says:
Actually we should do these mock up comic book covers, blow them up like posters and post them up all over the place, get people really interested. We can even set up aweb page to take subscriptions but in the end the comic doesn't exist. We create all this hype over a non-existant comic that only exists as a few nice cover posters
Sydney says:
yes fraud. The covers would look so damn cool
that everyone will be passing money over on the website
Rhody Belo says:
hahaha...good gimmic
actually you maybe on to something
Sydney says:
maybe even publish a few juicy pages. We would take the time to really embellish it. How much do you think we could take in with subscriptions alone?
Sydney says:
Just a couple of guys and some printing costs
Rhody Belo says:
maybe then we can release a comic if the hype demand gets really overwhelming
Sydney says:
true, if there is real interest we could actually make a comic
Sydney says:
if we really want to scam them, we could do a half assed job on the comic and walk away with all this money for little effort
Rhody Belo says:
yah you maybe on to something even if it doesn't take off there would be some nice art without pressure
Sydney says:
We could advertise and post on the internet to increase the hype. Hahaha, I'm sure we'd get sued if we didn't produce anything, lol
Sydney says:
but just the really nice cover posters would create the hype without having to go to a main stream publisher like Marvel
Rhody Belo says:
I like doing pip work anyways better then thinking of a story
Sydney says:
Rhody, I you don't mind my asking, why do you think Dave's comic is not doing so well? What is missing? story? art? marketing?
Rhody Belo says:
fan base and marketing
Sydney says:
maybe a bit of everything?
Rhody Belo says:
exposure too
Sydney says:
What about this? Rather than go to a publisher with an idea, create the comic first, then go to a publisher. That way, you can really embellish it without worry of a deadline
Rhody Belo says:
actually your right
Sydney says:
Really make the story and art really stand out with Craig mullins quality designs and rendered art and a really well thought out story and layouts, then go to a publisher
Rhody Belo says:
hmmm...are you good with writing?
Sydney says:
Nah, not really but I do think about it from time to time, mostly as background stories to my characters and tech designs
Rhody Belo says:
hmmm....me too
Sydney says:
I think if the focus is on quality then, you have an edge over everyone else who is publishing out there. It would have to be a labor of love tho
Rhody Belo says:
yeah...for sure
Sydney says:
If it takes an average of a day for a comic book artist to pump out a page maybe instead embellish it for a week or two per page. It would take awhile, but pay dividends in the end. It would be a true graphic novel. It would be not be considered throw away art but a true collectors art book
Rhody Belo says:
money in the beginning stages a rare...but after a while chances are fan base will pick up
Sydney says:
I think it would require hundreds/thousands of hours of working for free at least initially, consider it is a hobby or fun pastime.
Rhody Belo says:
yeah
Sydney says:
ok maybe not. Maybe when we were young and stupid, lol.
Rhody Belo says:
fun and at times work, free work, lol
Sydney says:
I just see too many comics out there that were just too rushed, it's obvious from looking at the art, what a shame. I'm sure there are fans out there that would mind waiting for better quality
Rhody Belo says:
lets do the pin up, and cover hype thing
Sydney says:
yah, that sounds like fun, We don't even need to do the subscription thing. We just paste up really hot images around town and on the web. People will wonder if it's a comic and if it is, where can I buy it? That's all we need, interest
Rhody Belo says:
create a web buzz
Sydney says:
exactly
Sydney says:
It just means getting exposure, even tho there is no product
Rhody Belo says:
even if the hype is fake at first...fake it till we make it
Sydney says:
It's better than selling posters at the comicon
Rhody Belo says:
we can do that too, Yoyo makes money at those events
Sydney says:
if we post them outside publicly and at comic book shops then we get the greater public looking at it
Sydney says:
lets face it, not every comic book fan goes to these comicons but they all go down to Queen street, they all walk on the streets.
Rhody Belo says:
your right'
Sydney says:
And not only fanboys, but everyone else who might like to read in general (non fanboys). What greater kind of local exposure is there than to have these posters posted on every street corner
Sydney says:
Only problem is printing costs, that's really expensive. We could spend a lazy summer afternoon walking all over town stapling/gluing these thing on every wall and lamp post
Rhody Belo says:
have you heard of ash can comics?
Sydney says:
ashcans are photocopy jobs no?
Rhody Belo says:
yeah, we can do a low cost version too
Sydney says:
I see rave posters all over the place, that's how they advertise, it's all by word of mouth
Rhody Belo says:
thats right
Sydney says:
Heck that might lead to T-shirts. We could create a brand without a product, a style, a look, based on the posters and everyone will be scratching their heads, where's the product? But who cares, the brand looks so cool, I want a t-shirt
Rhody Belo says:
oh that too
Sydney says:
This way we have full control, no messing around with a publisher or 3rd party shit. We could then launch a website selling these t-shirts and vinyl toys, lol. It seems more of a cash cow than the traditional way of spending ungodly hours drawing a comic book and then trying to sell half a million copies. Less work, greater potential for profit doing it my proposed way
Rhody Belo says:
yes
Sydney says:
more fun too. We could create several lines of brands, one manga, one marvel like, etc. Wow, so many comic titles but no comic in the end, just an aesthetic, that is based on comic books
Sydney says:
We have a marketing plan and a product all in the last 5 minutes, lol, haha, can't believe I thought of that just off the top of my head
Sydney says:
My only worry is the printing, cuz the posters have to look very appealing, that's the grab. They gotta be large and glossy. People have to notice it from across the street, this a form of local viral marketing
Rhody Belo says:
how they get so many of those rave flyers on the street, the quality looks pretty good for something throw away
Sydney says:
so we need to post tons of em on every street corner in the downtown core
Rhody Belo says:
see if we can put them on the store windows too
Sydney says:
yes, exactly store windows, cool clothing stores, books stores and even restaurants. The cool thing is, we can take our time producing this material in the first place. If it really picks up, we can turn it into a legit business. It's like we're generating our fanbase first, our client list
Sydney says:
Even better, we can then use this fanbase to create the comic. They can generate ideas for us. We can do polls etc. I can see this going in so many different directions, so many forms of cash milking. Then we can form our own Udon. We can call it Tofu
Rhody Belo says:
hahaha lets try it out yeah...sounds like fun
Sydney says:
Basically we're creating our own franchise. Actually for a first idea I'm thinking of creating a comic book cover using hi end 3d rendering. Instead of the traditional photoshop job. Have you seen anything like that before?
Rhody Belo says:
not really
Sydney says:
Our comic brand will have to be really funky cool, like hip hop kewl, the art will have to be really attractive but very different. I'm thinking we need to stay away from the tradition styles. If it's traditional, then people won't really think much of it. It'll just be another comic. But since we're creating a brand vision, we can go in a totally different direction. eg. totally 3D hi end renders.
Rhody Belo says:
i agree, tend to the urbanitez
Sydney says:
hahaha, this is funny
Sydney says:
You ever heard of flat eric?
Rhody Belo says:
nope
Sydney says:
Flat eric is this stuffed animal that was used in a music video, check it out on youtube. Point is, the doll became very popular despite having no product, just the image of the doll and the associated music. It became bigger than the music itself. It was used in a line of levis commercials and the dolls sold very well. It became the product.


NOTES

-Urban gallery, a form of art, 24 hour exposure
-We decide content instead of others
-Various artistic styles
-You've been punked sort of feel
-stickers, post cards
-Traditional comic business model sux because there are so many middle men and so much work for such little exposure and no profit.
-Similar to how movie posters generate hype, but this time, no product, sort of like a marketing experiment.

-marketing company that posts funky stickers around town for client businesses

-A business model that has potential to generate revenue from various venues instead of a single income source that could dry up.

-Good way of leveraging existing portfolios.

-Lots of high end art out there that never sees the light of day. Mostly found on industry and user specific websites.

-Problem, it is too local? Not enough of a market to support such an idea?

-With a few artists, each producing a new piece every other month, we'd have one poster per month.

-poster could encourage people to send a text message over their cellular phones or an email addy. Or a web page url. Tear off tabs under each poster?

-Web page could sell larger better quality versions of the poster. paypal setup.