July 28, 2025 • 31 mins
What makes an IP popular today? It’s not just the box office or streaming stats—it’s the fans who show up, dress up, and wait five hours for a free experience. At San Diego Comic-Con, Percy Jackson, Alien, and K-pop Demon Hunters proved that passion, not just numbers, powers IP. Philip and Scott break down why pop-ups are becoming the new focus groups, how activations create the data stories that boards and licensors want, and what theme park professionals can learn from the way studios test, validate, and launch IP in the wild. If you're pitching an IP partnership or designing a seasonal overlay, this episode is your blueprint. Listen to weekly BONUS episodes on our Patreon.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Okay, from our studios in Los Angeles and Tampa. This
is Green Tag Theme Park and thirty. I'm Philip. I'm
joined as always from my co host Scott Swinson of
Scott Swinson Cray Development. On Green Tag, we look at
the week's top news and explain why it matters to
business professionals in the theme entertainment space. And this week
was San Diego Comic Con, and so there's lots of
(00:21):
talk of IPS floating around everywhere. So we thought we
would say.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
What what, Let's let's start by making a connection here
because I'm sure there are some listeners going comic Con.
Great is that this is not a that's this is
a theme park show. Where are we talking about comic Con?
Speaker 1 (00:34):
And I think what Scott and I were talking about
before we got on the show was basically theme parks.
This trend of using more and more IPS is a
big trend we've been talking about in theme parks. And
the question is for a lot of the operators, how
do you work with IPS? And what iypiece to work with?
And I think it seems like this very unattainable goal
to a lot of especially smaller operators, And so we're like,
(00:57):
let's link all these together, let's look at what's going
on at San Diego concon and how that relates to
IP selection. And yeah, so comic Con. I mean, I
I have not been to San Diego Comic Con. I've
been to several other comic cons and I've got another
one coming up next week. But the the idea of
going to a San Diego comic con that has become such.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
A massive event that it's not it's not just for
comic nerds anymore, you know, I mean, it's it's so
far surpassed that and you had a chance to experience
it this week. Yes, yes, So what were some of
the what were some of the hot ips and hot
(01:40):
excuse me activations that maybe even looking for somebody to
pick them up as an IP.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
So comic Con is is interesting to give the context
for people that haven't been because it's a little different
than any other comic con. I go to a lot
of conventions anime and comically in that whole fandom area,
and Comic Con is definitely the most unique, And if anything,
I would say it's unique because of the ips exactly
what we're having this conversation, and sometimes sometimes I think
(02:10):
comic Con isn't for the attendees. It's for the film
studios and the press, and which is very different than
a regular convention.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
So many of my friends who are congoers have said
the exact same thing. They're like, we don't even feel
like we belong here anymore.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Yeah, it's very strange. It's I went as credentialed media.
I was reporting on comic Con for a traction's magazine,
and we focused primarily on the activations, so the themed environments,
so it's exactly what we're talking about on the show,
like the theme how do you worlds you're walking through?
We're not. I didn't report on any panels except for
(02:45):
one to two of them, and we really focused on
the things you could do in person. And that's what
makes any o'comiccon so unique is that when you look
at the attendance, it's maybe only one hundred and fifty
thousand people, which is not massive from the Anime Expo
is supposedly four hundred thousand, so this is like not
(03:07):
close to that, except that counts the people that are
going into the convention, like the badges that are going
into the convention center. But with San Diego Comic Con.
Most of the convention is not at the convention, it
is in the like I would say four blocks that
they closed down. So every hotel, every store, every space
(03:28):
you could possibly put something in a studio has come
in with an IP and turned it into a themed environment.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
So in Indianapolis, gen Con did the same thing with
every surrounding hotel, every ballroom, even the indoor.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Stadium, everything everything literally And the thing is you don't
need badges for most of these, right, they're just activations.
Even they build so Disney Entertainment studios. They had four
activations this year and all of theirs were just outside
on the waterfront or in the park nearby, and they
just put up walls and they just build an entire
(04:00):
so basic experience backing.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
I mean, there's ay they've got. They know that there's
going to be a huge influx of their target audience,
and there's a lot of media attention, which I think
is probably more important than the influx of target audience.
And it gives them an opportunity to set up, you know,
to set up their platform, to set up their soapbox,
to pitch their next great concept idea. As long as
(04:22):
it's loosely related. It seems to fit in.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
I guess, well, so, no, that's an excellent thought. So
I was having this discussion with a few people about
kind of what we're all doing here. It was a
little weird meta discussion, right, because some of us were
in line for the fandom party and it's kind of
why are we all here? Like what is the point
of all this? And it's interesting, Like I said, I
think it's for the studios and for the press, but
(04:46):
it's interesting when we look at it in the IP
lens because you know, recently there was that I don't
want to say complaint, but there was some of those
articles about Pixar and Disney of being like, well, if
you want to more original stories, you need to go
support them in the theater. Right, there was a kind
of like the got negative press for that, and then
(05:08):
there was a kind of argument of well how much
marketing do you put behind it? So then it gets
you to think what actually makes an IP popular? Is
it the story itself? Like is it a good story
of telling the story? Or is it the marketing that
is put behind it? And when you're there at Comic Con,
I think you really see all that really starkly represented
(05:30):
because the people that put the money behind the EPs,
that's where you get it. So it's not necessarily i think,
a question of the IP itself or even the fans
of the IP. It's it's like that that's there, but
it's also the shiny object thing like how much money
they're going to put behind the activation, how cool it's
going to be to do the thing itself, that kind
(05:53):
of drives it. So for example, Percy Jackson, so the
ones that Disney did. Disney did Avid Elementary that it
can of the Hill, they did Percy Jackson, and they
did Alien. Okay, Abbot Elementary had the whole area with
the ferris wheel. They made a whole block party where
they gave away lunch boxes where you could go get
your lunch box engraved and then they you'd go pick
(06:14):
it up at Lost and Found right, so they would
call your name, Oh, you lost your lunchbox and here's
your name's on it. Right. They did a custom caricatures,
or they would transform you into a character from Abbot
Elementary and put you onto a poster. They did free
shaved eyes. All these are free, by the way, everything
here is free that's another reason why they get so
many people. Everything all these activations are free and they're
open to everyone without badges or with badges either way.
(06:35):
So that's a lot to do for Abbot, right, But
the popularity of the Abbot experiences was much less than
that for the Alien or for the Percy Jackson one.
But Percy Jackson, they're giving away either a really nice
water bottle, like, you know, very nice, a very nice
water bottle, or a really nice cap that you get
(06:59):
and you get to go the whole experience where you
get to do a personality quiz and be chosen by
a god and interact with the fates and interact, you know,
have a whole interactive experience. And then in the Alien
you get to walk through the entire wreckage of the
ship like from the movie, right, and then walk through
the ship hallway in the dark where creatures may or
may not come out at you. I mean, come on,
(07:20):
so when you kind of when you weigh these and
so just also for some points here, the Alien experience
was about a four hour wait and the Persigestion experience
was five hours. But then they had to shut the
line down, and so you show up in the day
and we were and the press. This is the only
reason I went to tell you about it, because press
(07:41):
got our own time to go in. But I was
talking to some of the regular people in line, which
I like to do to get a sense of and
the person who was front in line to get in
for the first general attendance for regular people on Thursday
said they had driven all night just to come to
get in line for the Percy Jackson experience and they
(08:02):
have been waiting there literally all night and all morning
to be the first regular guests to go in. And so, yes,
Percy Jackson, there is a huge fandom for it. You
can tell you that's what I mean. You can sense that.
But maybe some of the other ones it's just because
you get a bunch of free stuff and it's really cool.
So it's it's kind of I think, figuring out where
the passion line is. And then it gets back to
(08:24):
the IP thing we just talked about, So like, how
much have you really seen for Percy Jackson. How much promotion?
I haven't seen. There's no Percy Jackson theme park.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Well, but I will go. I will go, So putting
on my putting on my corporate hat, it's like, you know,
to answer that question, why do they invest this kind
of stuff? Not just why are we here? But or
why were you there? But why do they invest this
kind of money and time and effort into these kinds
of activations. So it kind of goes back to what
I believe was Malcolm Gladwell who referred to people as sneezers,
(08:53):
the people who are so excited about a brand, so
excited about an IP that if you tap into that,
you'll be able to get them to spread the enthusiasm
organically about your IP significantly faster. So if they get
their their lunchbox from Abbitt Elementary, or they get their
wearing their cap from Percy Jackson, they somebody will say, oh,
(09:15):
where'd you get that cool cap? And they immediately will
gush about the experience. So that's that's exactly what this.
So that's one of the things they will They're targeting
their their core core audience to get organic because if
you can get I mean, and you know this far
better than I do, Philip, if you can get organic
growth that Trump's paid media time and time again, it
(09:37):
just expands exponentially. So you want to get the right
people excited about your brand, excited about your IP and
and you're right, we haven't heard a lot about Percy Jackson.
So is this a way? And I will promise you
that the amount they spent on that activation is significantly
less than had they done a nationwide television spread of advertising. Now,
(09:58):
did it reach a wide and audience, who knows? But
did it reach the people who can organically spread it
like little veins of a tree. Absolutely. The other thing
that is very beneficial in these kinds of activations is
they can get data. Now, we all know that data
can be used in any way you want it to,
but you can say, you know, there is such a
such an impact, such an interest in this brand because
(10:21):
at at C Diego Comicon, we saw x number of
people in our full capacity was this We were at
full capacity, People were weighing five hours in line. This
sounds really impressive to investors, This sounds really impressive to
people who who want that that uh you know, yeah,
well why are we putting money in this or why
should we extend this? So if you've got some of
(10:41):
that data, which you know, granted is a bit a
bit skewed, you know, no one's going to wait four
hours to see any of these things, any of these
products in line, you know, So it's it's no weak,
but it does give them, it does get It gives
them data points, and it targets the people who going
to talk about their brand the most.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
I want to say data points with a story, and
I think tying it back to our listeners, that is
something I think you could tap if you could tap
into that when you're trying to pitch your idea. So
if we think about it, it's the same. These are
gonna be the same questions that our listeners would have
to answer if they were pitching someone to put some
sort of IP partnership at one of your attractions. The
(11:24):
data question, how do we know this is going to work?
How do we know people are going to show up
to it? How do we know the money spent in
investing the IP and then building the thing is people
are going to want to do it? And to Scott's
I think Scott of what Scott was saying, like, I
think my argument, because I'm a peer data maybe not
a pure data person, but my argument has always been
you could just look at the numbers, right, Like my
(11:44):
argument would have been we should know based off of
the amount of numbers that we have for it. But
I think something what Scott is saying, It's like when
you can tell them here are the numbers, but also
here are pictures of fans all over SOT media who
waited the story I just told you about Percy Jackson. Right.
I could see somebody saying that in a boardroom, this
(12:06):
is why we should do a Percy Jackson experience at
our attraction, because look at the fans that came out
to Comic Conlan. And even though in my brain, even
though so my little brain is like, I mean, but
if your theme park is in Tennessee and this is
in San Diego, you're not necessarily gonna get the you know.
But it's about the story, about showing the passion behind it.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
And that's and that's exactly my point saying that the
data can be used to say anything you wanted to.
You know, you can. You can take that data and
say we were sold out one hundred percent, and then
you can flip that data if you don't want to
do it, you flip that data on its head and
says this is really popular in California, but this is
not going to fly here in Iowa.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
You know, exactly.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Yeah, So you know data, data is something. This is
where Philip and I, I won't say disagree. We both
recognize the importance of data. But I'm I'm a lot more.
That's the word I'm looking for, suspicious regarding data, because
I have i'veen data used over the years. I've seen
data used to say things that weren't necessarily accurate or true,
(13:06):
or didn't come to be true because they were able
to take the data frame it in a certain way.
You know, the data only works if you understand the
full perspective, if you understand where it's coming from, in
what world it's living in. So but with something like this,
you can use this data and you can use these stories.
And you're right, Philip, the photographs are essential when it
(13:26):
comes to pitching a new idea. If you could say,
look at the enthusiasm, look at the excitement at comic Con,
and of course I would be the one sitting in
the back. Excuse me, do you have anything like that
at a shopping mall, because comic Con is targeting this
audience one hundred thousand percent.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Yep, exactly, exactly. Well, and you know when you were
talking it was interesting thinking about the data. I think
that the best thing and I think we I had
this conversation with somebody, a reporter from Collider. Parts of
this conversation with reporter from Collider in line for the
fandom part, which was just I guess, like a giant
(14:02):
party to like just be excited about fan things, and
it's yeah, I was like, is fandom well? Also, I
mean the All American Rejects were playing also, so that
was part of it. But you know, I didn't say
that because I'm old, but and I was tired.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
But they don't do a bad show anyway.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Ahead Yeah, yeah, But so it's the idea of the
of testing. And we were talking about how Disney needs
everything to be perfect and that they can't They almost
can't afford to launch a movie or a thing that
is not gonna do well because then they're under a microscope,
(14:39):
and so they're so conservative with what they produce. And
he was talking about how Netflix can make bets much
wider because they're under less of microscope. And basically he
was like, you could have all the data, you could
see all this data, but like you still need to
test it, and the best thing to do is to
do micro tests is what we were talking about. It
how do we do micro tests? And it's like, how
(15:01):
do we do smaller, smaller testing to then get to
you know, solution And he's like, well, Netflix is able
to produce so much faster so they can get to
a hit faster, and Disney has to do so much
and find so there's like there's so much discussion about
it because they can't afford to fail. He's like, and
that's the problem is because there's no guarantee with this
(15:22):
kind of stuff. And I'm like, I agree with that,
and I think even in for our listeners. That's also
another takeaway is what type of testing can you do
to take the data and validate it in your region
in a smaller scale if you can, or then and
then expand it and expand it, expand it from there.
And yeah, and we were talking about and what I
(15:46):
guess my point was YouTube can do that even better
because on YouTube, that's what you see. You see all
these individual people who are putting out content, and then
you figure out YouTube itself figures out what content you
know is the best because they have so many different sources.
And an example I was saying is like look like
to me, the runaway hit of this whole month is
(16:10):
K Pop Demon Hunters and they're nowhere at Sandigo Comic Con.
But Capop Demon Hunters they went. Saying they went viral
is an understatement. I mean, every human that's under it
in a certain age range is talking about this show
and it's absolutely like it is. It's bonkers, Like the
(16:31):
fandom for this show is bonkers. And again, it's just
one of those things that Netflix put out and it
just completely came out from less field, and you know,
it should have been at comic Art. It should be,
it should be somewhere it should be, doesn't or.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
It doesn't need to be at comic Con because they've
already they've already been a tested it and it's already flying.
It's the things that they it's the things they need
to test. It's the you know, I replace I guess
my point is replaced focus groups with pop up experiences.
You know, Oh that's a good idea because because focus
groups are outdated and take too much time, you get
real you get real time, real time feedback. And you know,
(17:07):
you talked about how long it takes to produce and
how Netflix can produce. Netflix can produce things so much quicker.
I mean, a perfect example of that is and I'm
not gonna I am not gonna get political on the show,
but South Park they you know, they can produce. They
say they can produce shows in five to seven days,
so they can be very topical. They can be bleeding
edge when it comes to the topics that they're that
(17:30):
they're talking about, and that means that they're going to
go very quickly with with uh K Pop Demon Hunters
that you just mentioned, I am clearly not in that
age demo, but it's even it even pops up as
like number four on my list of what I should
be watching when I turn on Netflix. Uh and and
apparently it's it's again the algorithm, which I couldn't possibly understand,
(17:53):
but it's everything from sci fi to you know, the
Korean films that I really liked, the animation. I love animation,
so I watch a lot of animation, not necessarily that style,
but it's it's feeding in all those little little tendrils
of information. And so I guess my point is, you're
(18:14):
absolutely right. If it's if I know in my you know,
my septagenarian age bracket, if I'm familiar with with Capeop
Demon Hunters, it's got to be big and it's got
to be blowing up in the in the right demographic.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Yep. And I think I like the idea that you
just that you said too about testing it, So like,
can somebody do a test experience with something like Keepop
Demon Hunter look at this trend, do a test pop
up or do some sort of pop up test of
a thing? Figured it out? And even back to the examples,
if somebody is waiting four hours, if you have people
that are willing to wait four hours to walk through
(18:51):
an alien wreckage thing, that could be a good haunted house.
I mean maybe people would pay for it, and you know,
so then the question becomes would someone have paid to
skip that line? And then you would know that you
have a like a business mind.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
And the next question is you have to look at
would some of paid to skip that line? Number one?
Number two? How much would we have to pay to
get that IP? Because you have to have that IP
in order to get people to want to wait four hours,
you know, And and I think it's a I think
Percy Jackson is a really good example, especially comparing it
to K pop demon Hunters. The reason Percy Jackson is there.
(19:27):
It needs sneezer, it needs people ausiastic about the brand. Again,
it's it's a It's one of those brands that, in
my opinion, from my perspective, never really popped through as
a major player, but was always there. You know, it's
been it's it's been been around for a while. It's
been around for a while. It's been films, it's been
there's a musical on Broadway, or was a musical on Broadway.
(19:48):
There's a lot, it's it's taken many forms, but it's
like they haven't quite hit their niche yet. So again,
a pop up like at San Diego Comic Con is
a perfect opportunity to kind of refine tests, see what works,
see what people like. Are they there just for the
free stuff or is that just the way to get
them in the door. You know, there's a lot of
(20:09):
there's a lot of opportunity there, I see, and a
lot of organic opportunity. You know, I would if I
were there and I were part of that project, I'd
be watching every moment. I'd be talking to people as
they came out, I'd be watching, I'd be I'd have
cameras throughout the whole thing, figuring out where people are happy,
where they're lingering, where they're moving forward, you know, all
of that, all that would be so part of it.
(20:31):
It's it's fascinating to me, and I'm I'm excited because,
like I said, I'm speaking at Tampa Bay Comic On
or Tampa Bay Comic Convention August. I'll be there August third,
And I'm curious because it's not nearly the hugeness of
San Diego Comic Con. But what's interesting to me is
(20:54):
the celebrities that are on the list. They're having everything
from pretty much any there's I can't think of a
single animation studio that isn't represented by voiceover artists, so
they have all of the animation voice artists and then
they're having a Happy Days reunion. Henny Henry Winkler, Don
(21:17):
most Anson, Williams are all going to be there. So
it's it's kind of what we're talking about, I think
is that they're kind of sort of dipping their toe
into gosh, is this going to be of interest to
this group or maybe we need maybe maybe they're looking
at it going we need a we need an older crowd,
they're more likely to spend money on vintage and nostalgia
(21:38):
than a younger crowd. Is I don't know, but we'll
we'll talk about that after I go. But it's I
think these conventions I guess My point is these conventions
are a great opportunity to do some really good market
research with a target audience.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Yeah, I think if you're doing it correctly, I think
what you're saying is right. I think again, it's all
about the data, caption the data, paying attention to what
going on, and for our listeners, also paying attention again
to see what people are again, what experiences they're excited about.
I think is is that's why I always like to
go with the experiences to figure out and like what
you're saying so really quickly, just to list the other
(22:14):
things for our listeners so they're aware and maybe they
could go look search up some of these videos. I
didn't experience all these personally, but some of the ones
that were very popular. The Predator bar. They had a
bar experience with predator and they had like a little
stage area where the predator would come out and kind
of do predator things and whatever. So yeah, I don't know, but.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
You're to do predator things.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
I don't know. I saw some videos of like, okay,
there was some alien language talking. I don't know what's
going on. Maybe it was like last Call guys kind
of thing. But but so they got obviously the alien
thing was was huge, and they did a day version
of night version. The King of the Hill was more
(22:59):
popular than I expect did Ashley, which again it's showing
the research here because they're rebooting King of the Hill,
and so they had it was all set up for
the next generation of King of the Hill, and they
had you could go and you could get Alamo Waters,
you know, so instead of the beards of water can.
I mean, it's really they had some of fun moments
that you could recreate. And then obviously Bobby's all grown
(23:22):
up now, yeah yeah, yeah. Uh. My favorite line that
they kept playing over and over was like I don't
know if I can kick your ass through Zoom, but
I'm gonna try. It was it was good. Uh. Then
they had the Lodge paramount set up like a Dexter
(23:45):
walk through a little walk through his Vault type of experience,
and they had a few other things that seemed not
to have not as much trash. But I think some
of the random runaway hits people weren't expecting. The pac
Band Cafe. There was a pac Band cafe. All oh
my god. That but again we talked about this too.
But like the idea of pac Man food and themed noodles,
(24:07):
I mean all these I mean people just went cars.
People love food, and then it's pac Man. You love
pac Man and food and you get to eat it.
It all fits together. They had a meeting greet with
a little pac Man character that was went wild.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
It's like it's like the butter Beer bar, you know
the butter beer caps in the various Harry Potter stores.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Because there's so many. There was a Magic the Gathering
experience where they recreate they're doing the Magic Gathering is
partnering with Spider Man for their new set, and so
they recreated some of the town from the new from
the comp book from New York, and you could go
and you could go the Daily Bugle and pick up
a paper, and you could go into the desk and
take pictures and all this so that there was those
fun experiences. And then the Twisted Metal brought bumper cars
(24:52):
that were kind of like looked like the cars so
you could play do bumper car experiences. And then you know,
there are some smaller horror ips where they just had
horror characters that the strangers, you know, or things like
that where the characters just kind of roamed around areas.
Those got popular. So there are so many. I mean,
it's every corner you look through, but those are the
(25:13):
ones I thought really broke through the noise that we
kept seeing people kept saying the wait times were just
insane on for those.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Well, so basically I think for our listeners, one of
the key takeaways here is you may think that the
comic cons or the pop culture conventions are something that
really doesn't directly tie to what you do, but they
really are. You should go and check them, see what
people are excited about, and also learn how to handle crowds,
because that's another thing that they have to do, and
(25:43):
you'll in some of them, I won't mention any names,
and some that I've been to they have no idea
how to handle crowds and it's a cluster. And in
others they're excellent handling crowds and it makes for a
very exciting and connected experience. So go out and check
them out.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
That's that.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
That's the most important thing, I.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Think, and the last example I'm gonna have that's gonna
probably tile this together. So I went to a panel
for The Dragon Prints and The Dragon Prince was written
by the same people that did Avatar the Last Airbender,
and so it's kind of like it's very similar in
every like in theming, you know, it's like coming of
age of animation. It's all in terms of the same demographic,
(26:25):
the same themes, it hits all those same things. Okay,
so the dragon Prints ended, it got picked up by
Netflix and ended, I don't know a while ago, and
the panel was basically they were just talking about a
new announcement, and so I went to the panel to
see what it was all about, and they put them
They put it in Ballroom twenty and so that's about
(26:46):
five thousand people, and it was it was packed, I mean,
it filled up for that and they basically announced that
they were they had written and developed the next series,
which would be The Dragon King, which is a continuation
of the Dragon in Prints, and it was going to
be involving some of the voice actors from Avatar Last Airbender.
So Zuko is going to be in there playing the Dragon.
(27:07):
I mean, there's so they had the voice actors on stage,
did some fun stuff. But here's the whole thing, the
whole point. And I didn't even realize this how I
was in it. The whole point of this panel was
to get people signed up for the Kickstarter to get
the funding to produce the series. And You're just like,
this is insane that it's this popular of a fandom
and they need to get people in the Kickstarter. And
(27:29):
he did even mention on the panel. They're like, we
just we need to be able to prove to the
executives that there is there's enough interest to invest in
this and this is what it's about, and this is
why we need your help on the Kickstarter. And I'm like,
this is crazy to me. You're just like, this is
crazy because Netflix has the numbers, and they could just
look at the numbers. What is Avatar? What is the Dragon? Prince? Like,
(27:50):
they have the numbers, but they still need to.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
But they've got the room somebody sitting on their board
going yeah, well these number are four years old or
three years Yeah, I don't know what they are still good, right, right, right,
right right?
Speaker 1 (28:03):
So and so yeah, they're there and they did a
whole and but again it was smart because they did
a whole cosplay incentive where they were like, they invited
cosplayers and they're like, if you have a good cosplay,
we're going to give you these like cool buttons, you know,
when you show up to the panel. And so they
packed the panel not only was super fans but also
with super super fans who were dressed as the characters.
(28:25):
And then they had camera people there getting videos of
all the cosplayers of everybody showing their fan their love
of Avatar and the dragon prints and I mean it
was like it was a whole thing. But to your point,
it's all to tell the story behind the data.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Yep, it's it's a dog and pony show for the executives.
Ends up being let me rephrase that, it provides the
material for the dog and pony show for the executives.
Because if the executives, and again I'm so jaded about
this because I've been through it so many times, but
if the executives were to show up at the actual panel,
which they probably wouldn't, but they would go, well, look,
(29:02):
none of these people would ever spend any money on
this stuff. They're not the ones making the decisions. However,
if you show video of people dressed as their characters
and acting out their characters and using lines from you know,
the brand and the IP itself, the boring executives who
are sitting there with their arms crossed can't fight that
too much. You know, you've got you have just proof.
(29:25):
And then you see the numbers that are signed up
for the kickstarter and it's just like, oh, okay, so
I guess there is actually sometimes you know, it's funny.
Sometimes studio executives their job is to shoot things down.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Their job is to say, here's why this won't work,
and this is a great opportunity to get material that
will counteract that thought.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Yeah, and great, great, I think takeaways also for the
audience to think about, Like that's similar to what we're
doing at the park level as well, is to be
pitching and showing that there is passion behind it and
that people would invest and that guests would spend the
money and go and participate in the activity.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
Yeah. Every time I do a new project, I have
to show I have to show pictures. Here's the kind
here's the kind of thing we're going to do. Here's
the people who are going to it. Here's how popular
it is, and and then we have to go from there. So, uh, anyway,
utilize these conventions because you don't all have to go
to the biggest in the world, go to the smaller ones.
If you're in the Tampa Bay area, come by say
hello at the Tampa Bay Comic con Comic Convention, it's
(30:34):
August first through the third. I'll be there on the
third and I'm doing a whole session on interactive entertainment
and how it's growing and evolving, so which you'd think
has nothing to do with the comic convention, but again,
it's expanding, and it's it's embracing what we think of
as live entertainment, what we think of as theme park,
(30:55):
what we think of his immersive experience. So it's, uh,
it's a whole show, and this has been a whole
show about this because we're out of time on behalf
of Philip. This is Scott Swinson. This is Green Tag
Theme Parking thirty and we will see all of you
next week.
Okay, from our studios in Los Angeles and Tampa. This
is Green Tag Theme Park and thirty. I'm Philip. I'm
joined as always from my co host Scott Swinson of
Scott Swinson Cray Development. On Green Tag, we look at
the week's top news and explain why it matters to
business professionals in the theme entertainment space. And this week
was San Diego Comic Con, and so there's lots of
(00:21):
talk of IPS floating around everywhere. So we thought we
would say.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
What what, Let's let's start by making a connection here
because I'm sure there are some listeners going comic Con.
Great is that this is not a that's this is
a theme park show. Where are we talking about comic Con?
Speaker 1 (00:34):
And I think what Scott and I were talking about
before we got on the show was basically theme parks.
This trend of using more and more IPS is a
big trend we've been talking about in theme parks. And
the question is for a lot of the operators, how
do you work with IPS? And what iypiece to work with?
And I think it seems like this very unattainable goal
to a lot of especially smaller operators, And so we're like,
(00:57):
let's link all these together, let's look at what's going
on at San Diego concon and how that relates to
IP selection. And yeah, so comic Con. I mean, I
I have not been to San Diego Comic Con. I've
been to several other comic cons and I've got another
one coming up next week. But the the idea of
going to a San Diego comic con that has become such.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
A massive event that it's not it's not just for
comic nerds anymore, you know, I mean, it's it's so
far surpassed that and you had a chance to experience
it this week. Yes, yes, So what were some of
the what were some of the hot ips and hot
(01:40):
excuse me activations that maybe even looking for somebody to
pick them up as an IP.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
So comic Con is is interesting to give the context
for people that haven't been because it's a little different
than any other comic con. I go to a lot
of conventions anime and comically in that whole fandom area,
and Comic Con is definitely the most unique, And if anything,
I would say it's unique because of the ips exactly
what we're having this conversation, and sometimes sometimes I think
(02:10):
comic Con isn't for the attendees. It's for the film
studios and the press, and which is very different than
a regular convention.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
So many of my friends who are congoers have said
the exact same thing. They're like, we don't even feel
like we belong here anymore.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Yeah, it's very strange. It's I went as credentialed media.
I was reporting on comic Con for a traction's magazine,
and we focused primarily on the activations, so the themed environments,
so it's exactly what we're talking about on the show,
like the theme how do you worlds you're walking through?
We're not. I didn't report on any panels except for
(02:45):
one to two of them, and we really focused on
the things you could do in person. And that's what
makes any o'comiccon so unique is that when you look
at the attendance, it's maybe only one hundred and fifty
thousand people, which is not massive from the Anime Expo
is supposedly four hundred thousand, so this is like not
(03:07):
close to that, except that counts the people that are
going into the convention, like the badges that are going
into the convention center. But with San Diego Comic Con.
Most of the convention is not at the convention, it
is in the like I would say four blocks that
they closed down. So every hotel, every store, every space
(03:28):
you could possibly put something in a studio has come
in with an IP and turned it into a themed environment.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
So in Indianapolis, gen Con did the same thing with
every surrounding hotel, every ballroom, even the indoor.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Stadium, everything everything literally And the thing is you don't
need badges for most of these, right, they're just activations.
Even they build so Disney Entertainment studios. They had four
activations this year and all of theirs were just outside
on the waterfront or in the park nearby, and they
just put up walls and they just build an entire
(04:00):
so basic experience backing.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
I mean, there's ay they've got. They know that there's
going to be a huge influx of their target audience,
and there's a lot of media attention, which I think
is probably more important than the influx of target audience.
And it gives them an opportunity to set up, you know,
to set up their platform, to set up their soapbox,
to pitch their next great concept idea. As long as
(04:22):
it's loosely related. It seems to fit in.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
I guess, well, so, no, that's an excellent thought. So
I was having this discussion with a few people about
kind of what we're all doing here. It was a
little weird meta discussion, right, because some of us were
in line for the fandom party and it's kind of
why are we all here? Like what is the point
of all this? And it's interesting, Like I said, I
think it's for the studios and for the press, but
(04:46):
it's interesting when we look at it in the IP
lens because you know, recently there was that I don't
want to say complaint, but there was some of those
articles about Pixar and Disney of being like, well, if
you want to more original stories, you need to go
support them in the theater. Right, there was a kind
of like the got negative press for that, and then
(05:08):
there was a kind of argument of well how much
marketing do you put behind it? So then it gets
you to think what actually makes an IP popular? Is
it the story itself? Like is it a good story
of telling the story? Or is it the marketing that
is put behind it? And when you're there at Comic Con,
I think you really see all that really starkly represented
(05:30):
because the people that put the money behind the EPs,
that's where you get it. So it's not necessarily i think,
a question of the IP itself or even the fans
of the IP. It's it's like that that's there, but
it's also the shiny object thing like how much money
they're going to put behind the activation, how cool it's
going to be to do the thing itself, that kind
(05:53):
of drives it. So for example, Percy Jackson, so the
ones that Disney did. Disney did Avid Elementary that it
can of the Hill, they did Percy Jackson, and they
did Alien. Okay, Abbot Elementary had the whole area with
the ferris wheel. They made a whole block party where
they gave away lunch boxes where you could go get
your lunch box engraved and then they you'd go pick
(06:14):
it up at Lost and Found right, so they would
call your name, Oh, you lost your lunchbox and here's
your name's on it. Right. They did a custom caricatures,
or they would transform you into a character from Abbot
Elementary and put you onto a poster. They did free
shaved eyes. All these are free, by the way, everything
here is free that's another reason why they get so
many people. Everything all these activations are free and they're
open to everyone without badges or with badges either way.
(06:35):
So that's a lot to do for Abbot, right, But
the popularity of the Abbot experiences was much less than
that for the Alien or for the Percy Jackson one.
But Percy Jackson, they're giving away either a really nice
water bottle, like, you know, very nice, a very nice
water bottle, or a really nice cap that you get
(06:59):
and you get to go the whole experience where you
get to do a personality quiz and be chosen by
a god and interact with the fates and interact, you know,
have a whole interactive experience. And then in the Alien
you get to walk through the entire wreckage of the
ship like from the movie, right, and then walk through
the ship hallway in the dark where creatures may or
may not come out at you. I mean, come on,
(07:20):
so when you kind of when you weigh these and
so just also for some points here, the Alien experience
was about a four hour wait and the Persigestion experience
was five hours. But then they had to shut the
line down, and so you show up in the day
and we were and the press. This is the only
reason I went to tell you about it, because press
(07:41):
got our own time to go in. But I was
talking to some of the regular people in line, which
I like to do to get a sense of and
the person who was front in line to get in
for the first general attendance for regular people on Thursday
said they had driven all night just to come to
get in line for the Percy Jackson experience and they
(08:02):
have been waiting there literally all night and all morning
to be the first regular guests to go in. And so, yes,
Percy Jackson, there is a huge fandom for it. You
can tell you that's what I mean. You can sense that.
But maybe some of the other ones it's just because
you get a bunch of free stuff and it's really cool.
So it's it's kind of I think, figuring out where
the passion line is. And then it gets back to
(08:24):
the IP thing we just talked about, So like, how
much have you really seen for Percy Jackson. How much promotion?
I haven't seen. There's no Percy Jackson theme park.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Well, but I will go. I will go, So putting
on my putting on my corporate hat, it's like, you know,
to answer that question, why do they invest this kind
of stuff? Not just why are we here? But or
why were you there? But why do they invest this
kind of money and time and effort into these kinds
of activations. So it kind of goes back to what
I believe was Malcolm Gladwell who referred to people as sneezers,
(08:53):
the people who are so excited about a brand, so
excited about an IP that if you tap into that,
you'll be able to get them to spread the enthusiasm
organically about your IP significantly faster. So if they get
their their lunchbox from Abbitt Elementary, or they get their
wearing their cap from Percy Jackson, they somebody will say, oh,
(09:15):
where'd you get that cool cap? And they immediately will
gush about the experience. So that's that's exactly what this.
So that's one of the things they will They're targeting
their their core core audience to get organic because if
you can get I mean, and you know this far
better than I do, Philip, if you can get organic
growth that Trump's paid media time and time again, it
(09:37):
just expands exponentially. So you want to get the right
people excited about your brand, excited about your IP and
and you're right, we haven't heard a lot about Percy Jackson.
So is this a way? And I will promise you
that the amount they spent on that activation is significantly
less than had they done a nationwide television spread of advertising. Now,
(09:58):
did it reach a wide and audience, who knows? But
did it reach the people who can organically spread it
like little veins of a tree. Absolutely. The other thing
that is very beneficial in these kinds of activations is
they can get data. Now, we all know that data
can be used in any way you want it to,
but you can say, you know, there is such a
such an impact, such an interest in this brand because
(10:21):
at at C Diego Comicon, we saw x number of
people in our full capacity was this We were at
full capacity, People were weighing five hours in line. This
sounds really impressive to investors, This sounds really impressive to
people who who want that that uh you know, yeah,
well why are we putting money in this or why
should we extend this? So if you've got some of
(10:41):
that data, which you know, granted is a bit a
bit skewed, you know, no one's going to wait four
hours to see any of these things, any of these
products in line, you know, So it's it's no weak,
but it does give them, it does get It gives
them data points, and it targets the people who going
to talk about their brand the most.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
I want to say data points with a story, and
I think tying it back to our listeners, that is
something I think you could tap if you could tap
into that when you're trying to pitch your idea. So
if we think about it, it's the same. These are
gonna be the same questions that our listeners would have
to answer if they were pitching someone to put some
sort of IP partnership at one of your attractions. The
(11:24):
data question, how do we know this is going to work?
How do we know people are going to show up
to it? How do we know the money spent in
investing the IP and then building the thing is people
are going to want to do it? And to Scott's
I think Scott of what Scott was saying, like, I
think my argument, because I'm a peer data maybe not
a pure data person, but my argument has always been
you could just look at the numbers, right, Like my
(11:44):
argument would have been we should know based off of
the amount of numbers that we have for it. But
I think something what Scott is saying, It's like when
you can tell them here are the numbers, but also
here are pictures of fans all over SOT media who
waited the story I just told you about Percy Jackson. Right.
I could see somebody saying that in a boardroom, this
(12:06):
is why we should do a Percy Jackson experience at
our attraction, because look at the fans that came out
to Comic Conlan. And even though in my brain, even
though so my little brain is like, I mean, but
if your theme park is in Tennessee and this is
in San Diego, you're not necessarily gonna get the you know.
But it's about the story, about showing the passion behind it.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
And that's and that's exactly my point saying that the
data can be used to say anything you wanted to.
You know, you can. You can take that data and
say we were sold out one hundred percent, and then
you can flip that data if you don't want to
do it, you flip that data on its head and
says this is really popular in California, but this is
not going to fly here in Iowa.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
You know, exactly.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Yeah, So you know data, data is something. This is
where Philip and I, I won't say disagree. We both
recognize the importance of data. But I'm I'm a lot more.
That's the word I'm looking for, suspicious regarding data, because
I have i'veen data used over the years. I've seen
data used to say things that weren't necessarily accurate or true,
(13:06):
or didn't come to be true because they were able
to take the data frame it in a certain way.
You know, the data only works if you understand the
full perspective, if you understand where it's coming from, in
what world it's living in. So but with something like this,
you can use this data and you can use these stories.
And you're right, Philip, the photographs are essential when it
(13:26):
comes to pitching a new idea. If you could say,
look at the enthusiasm, look at the excitement at comic Con,
and of course I would be the one sitting in
the back. Excuse me, do you have anything like that
at a shopping mall, because comic Con is targeting this
audience one hundred thousand percent.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Yep, exactly, exactly. Well, and you know when you were
talking it was interesting thinking about the data. I think
that the best thing and I think we I had
this conversation with somebody, a reporter from Collider. Parts of
this conversation with reporter from Collider in line for the
fandom part, which was just I guess, like a giant
(14:02):
party to like just be excited about fan things, and
it's yeah, I was like, is fandom well? Also, I
mean the All American Rejects were playing also, so that
was part of it. But you know, I didn't say
that because I'm old, but and I was tired.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
But they don't do a bad show anyway.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Ahead Yeah, yeah, But so it's the idea of the
of testing. And we were talking about how Disney needs
everything to be perfect and that they can't They almost
can't afford to launch a movie or a thing that
is not gonna do well because then they're under a microscope,
(14:39):
and so they're so conservative with what they produce. And
he was talking about how Netflix can make bets much
wider because they're under less of microscope. And basically he
was like, you could have all the data, you could
see all this data, but like you still need to
test it, and the best thing to do is to
do micro tests is what we were talking about. It
how do we do micro tests? And it's like, how
(15:01):
do we do smaller, smaller testing to then get to
you know, solution And he's like, well, Netflix is able
to produce so much faster so they can get to
a hit faster, and Disney has to do so much
and find so there's like there's so much discussion about
it because they can't afford to fail. He's like, and
that's the problem is because there's no guarantee with this
(15:22):
kind of stuff. And I'm like, I agree with that,
and I think even in for our listeners. That's also
another takeaway is what type of testing can you do
to take the data and validate it in your region
in a smaller scale if you can, or then and
then expand it and expand it, expand it from there.
And yeah, and we were talking about and what I
(15:46):
guess my point was YouTube can do that even better
because on YouTube, that's what you see. You see all
these individual people who are putting out content, and then
you figure out YouTube itself figures out what content you
know is the best because they have so many different sources.
And an example I was saying is like look like
to me, the runaway hit of this whole month is
(16:10):
K Pop Demon Hunters and they're nowhere at Sandigo Comic Con.
But Capop Demon Hunters they went. Saying they went viral
is an understatement. I mean, every human that's under it
in a certain age range is talking about this show
and it's absolutely like it is. It's bonkers, Like the
(16:31):
fandom for this show is bonkers. And again, it's just
one of those things that Netflix put out and it
just completely came out from less field, and you know,
it should have been at comic Art. It should be,
it should be somewhere it should be, doesn't or.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
It doesn't need to be at comic Con because they've
already they've already been a tested it and it's already flying.
It's the things that they it's the things they need
to test. It's the you know, I replace I guess
my point is replaced focus groups with pop up experiences.
You know, Oh that's a good idea because because focus
groups are outdated and take too much time, you get
real you get real time, real time feedback. And you know,
(17:07):
you talked about how long it takes to produce and
how Netflix can produce. Netflix can produce things so much quicker.
I mean, a perfect example of that is and I'm
not gonna I am not gonna get political on the show,
but South Park they you know, they can produce. They
say they can produce shows in five to seven days,
so they can be very topical. They can be bleeding
edge when it comes to the topics that they're that
(17:30):
they're talking about, and that means that they're going to
go very quickly with with uh K Pop Demon Hunters
that you just mentioned, I am clearly not in that
age demo, but it's even it even pops up as
like number four on my list of what I should
be watching when I turn on Netflix. Uh and and
apparently it's it's again the algorithm, which I couldn't possibly understand,
(17:53):
but it's everything from sci fi to you know, the
Korean films that I really liked, the animation. I love animation,
so I watch a lot of animation, not necessarily that style,
but it's it's feeding in all those little little tendrils
of information. And so I guess my point is, you're
(18:14):
absolutely right. If it's if I know in my you know,
my septagenarian age bracket, if I'm familiar with with Capeop
Demon Hunters, it's got to be big and it's got
to be blowing up in the in the right demographic.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Yep. And I think I like the idea that you
just that you said too about testing it, So like,
can somebody do a test experience with something like Keepop
Demon Hunter look at this trend, do a test pop
up or do some sort of pop up test of
a thing? Figured it out? And even back to the examples,
if somebody is waiting four hours, if you have people
that are willing to wait four hours to walk through
(18:51):
an alien wreckage thing, that could be a good haunted house.
I mean maybe people would pay for it, and you know,
so then the question becomes would someone have paid to
skip that line? And then you would know that you
have a like a business mind.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
And the next question is you have to look at
would some of paid to skip that line? Number one?
Number two? How much would we have to pay to
get that IP? Because you have to have that IP
in order to get people to want to wait four hours,
you know, And and I think it's a I think
Percy Jackson is a really good example, especially comparing it
to K pop demon Hunters. The reason Percy Jackson is there.
(19:27):
It needs sneezer, it needs people ausiastic about the brand. Again,
it's it's a It's one of those brands that, in
my opinion, from my perspective, never really popped through as
a major player, but was always there. You know, it's
been it's it's been been around for a while. It's
been around for a while. It's been films, it's been
there's a musical on Broadway, or was a musical on Broadway.
(19:48):
There's a lot, it's it's taken many forms, but it's
like they haven't quite hit their niche yet. So again,
a pop up like at San Diego Comic Con is
a perfect opportunity to kind of refine tests, see what works,
see what people like. Are they there just for the
free stuff or is that just the way to get
them in the door. You know, there's a lot of
(20:09):
there's a lot of opportunity there, I see, and a
lot of organic opportunity. You know, I would if I
were there and I were part of that project, I'd
be watching every moment. I'd be talking to people as
they came out, I'd be watching, I'd be I'd have
cameras throughout the whole thing, figuring out where people are happy,
where they're lingering, where they're moving forward, you know, all
of that, all that would be so part of it.
(20:31):
It's it's fascinating to me, and I'm I'm excited because,
like I said, I'm speaking at Tampa Bay Comic On
or Tampa Bay Comic Convention August. I'll be there August third,
And I'm curious because it's not nearly the hugeness of
San Diego Comic Con. But what's interesting to me is
(20:54):
the celebrities that are on the list. They're having everything
from pretty much any there's I can't think of a
single animation studio that isn't represented by voiceover artists, so
they have all of the animation voice artists and then
they're having a Happy Days reunion. Henny Henry Winkler, Don
(21:17):
most Anson, Williams are all going to be there. So
it's it's kind of what we're talking about, I think
is that they're kind of sort of dipping their toe
into gosh, is this going to be of interest to
this group or maybe we need maybe maybe they're looking
at it going we need a we need an older crowd,
they're more likely to spend money on vintage and nostalgia
(21:38):
than a younger crowd. Is I don't know, but we'll
we'll talk about that after I go. But it's I
think these conventions I guess My point is these conventions
are a great opportunity to do some really good market
research with a target audience.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
Yeah, I think if you're doing it correctly, I think
what you're saying is right. I think again, it's all
about the data, caption the data, paying attention to what
going on, and for our listeners, also paying attention again
to see what people are again, what experiences they're excited about.
I think is is that's why I always like to
go with the experiences to figure out and like what
you're saying so really quickly, just to list the other
(22:14):
things for our listeners so they're aware and maybe they
could go look search up some of these videos. I
didn't experience all these personally, but some of the ones
that were very popular. The Predator bar. They had a
bar experience with predator and they had like a little
stage area where the predator would come out and kind
of do predator things and whatever. So yeah, I don't know, but.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
You're to do predator things.
Speaker 1 (22:38):
I don't know. I saw some videos of like, okay,
there was some alien language talking. I don't know what's
going on. Maybe it was like last Call guys kind
of thing. But but so they got obviously the alien
thing was was huge, and they did a day version
of night version. The King of the Hill was more
(22:59):
popular than I expect did Ashley, which again it's showing
the research here because they're rebooting King of the Hill,
and so they had it was all set up for
the next generation of King of the Hill, and they
had you could go and you could get Alamo Waters,
you know, so instead of the beards of water can.
I mean, it's really they had some of fun moments
that you could recreate. And then obviously Bobby's all grown
(23:22):
up now, yeah yeah, yeah. Uh. My favorite line that
they kept playing over and over was like I don't
know if I can kick your ass through Zoom, but
I'm gonna try. It was it was good. Uh. Then
they had the Lodge paramount set up like a Dexter
(23:45):
walk through a little walk through his Vault type of experience,
and they had a few other things that seemed not
to have not as much trash. But I think some
of the random runaway hits people weren't expecting. The pac
Band Cafe. There was a pac Band cafe. All oh
my god. That but again we talked about this too.
But like the idea of pac Man food and themed noodles,
(24:07):
I mean all these I mean people just went cars.
People love food, and then it's pac Man. You love
pac Man and food and you get to eat it.
It all fits together. They had a meeting greet with
a little pac Man character that was went wild.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
It's like it's like the butter Beer bar, you know
the butter beer caps in the various Harry Potter stores.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Because there's so many. There was a Magic the Gathering
experience where they recreate they're doing the Magic Gathering is
partnering with Spider Man for their new set, and so
they recreated some of the town from the new from
the comp book from New York, and you could go
and you could go the Daily Bugle and pick up
a paper, and you could go into the desk and
take pictures and all this so that there was those
fun experiences. And then the Twisted Metal brought bumper cars
(24:52):
that were kind of like looked like the cars so
you could play do bumper car experiences. And then you know,
there are some smaller horror ips where they just had
horror characters that the strangers, you know, or things like
that where the characters just kind of roamed around areas.
Those got popular. So there are so many. I mean,
it's every corner you look through, but those are the
(25:13):
ones I thought really broke through the noise that we
kept seeing people kept saying the wait times were just
insane on for those.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Well, so basically I think for our listeners, one of
the key takeaways here is you may think that the
comic cons or the pop culture conventions are something that
really doesn't directly tie to what you do, but they
really are. You should go and check them, see what
people are excited about, and also learn how to handle crowds,
because that's another thing that they have to do, and
(25:43):
you'll in some of them, I won't mention any names,
and some that I've been to they have no idea
how to handle crowds and it's a cluster. And in
others they're excellent handling crowds and it makes for a
very exciting and connected experience. So go out and check
them out.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
That's that.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
That's the most important thing, I.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Think, and the last example I'm gonna have that's gonna
probably tile this together. So I went to a panel
for The Dragon Prints and The Dragon Prince was written
by the same people that did Avatar the Last Airbender,
and so it's kind of like it's very similar in
every like in theming, you know, it's like coming of
age of animation. It's all in terms of the same demographic,
(26:25):
the same themes, it hits all those same things. Okay,
so the dragon Prints ended, it got picked up by
Netflix and ended, I don't know a while ago, and
the panel was basically they were just talking about a
new announcement, and so I went to the panel to
see what it was all about, and they put them
They put it in Ballroom twenty and so that's about
(26:46):
five thousand people, and it was it was packed, I mean,
it filled up for that and they basically announced that
they were they had written and developed the next series,
which would be The Dragon King, which is a continuation
of the Dragon in Prints, and it was going to
be involving some of the voice actors from Avatar Last Airbender.
So Zuko is going to be in there playing the Dragon.
(27:07):
I mean, there's so they had the voice actors on stage,
did some fun stuff. But here's the whole thing, the
whole point. And I didn't even realize this how I
was in it. The whole point of this panel was
to get people signed up for the Kickstarter to get
the funding to produce the series. And You're just like,
this is insane that it's this popular of a fandom
and they need to get people in the Kickstarter. And
(27:29):
he did even mention on the panel. They're like, we
just we need to be able to prove to the
executives that there is there's enough interest to invest in
this and this is what it's about, and this is
why we need your help on the Kickstarter. And I'm like,
this is crazy to me. You're just like, this is
crazy because Netflix has the numbers, and they could just
look at the numbers. What is Avatar? What is the Dragon? Prince? Like,
(27:50):
they have the numbers, but they still need to.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
But they've got the room somebody sitting on their board
going yeah, well these number are four years old or
three years Yeah, I don't know what they are still good, right, right, right,
right right?
Speaker 1 (28:03):
So and so yeah, they're there and they did a
whole and but again it was smart because they did
a whole cosplay incentive where they were like, they invited
cosplayers and they're like, if you have a good cosplay,
we're going to give you these like cool buttons, you know,
when you show up to the panel. And so they
packed the panel not only was super fans but also
with super super fans who were dressed as the characters.
(28:25):
And then they had camera people there getting videos of
all the cosplayers of everybody showing their fan their love
of Avatar and the dragon prints and I mean it
was like it was a whole thing. But to your point,
it's all to tell the story behind the data.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Yep, it's it's a dog and pony show for the executives.
Ends up being let me rephrase that, it provides the
material for the dog and pony show for the executives.
Because if the executives, and again I'm so jaded about
this because I've been through it so many times, but
if the executives were to show up at the actual panel,
which they probably wouldn't, but they would go, well, look,
(29:02):
none of these people would ever spend any money on
this stuff. They're not the ones making the decisions. However,
if you show video of people dressed as their characters
and acting out their characters and using lines from you know,
the brand and the IP itself, the boring executives who
are sitting there with their arms crossed can't fight that
too much. You know, you've got you have just proof.
(29:25):
And then you see the numbers that are signed up
for the kickstarter and it's just like, oh, okay, so
I guess there is actually sometimes you know, it's funny.
Sometimes studio executives their job is to shoot things down.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Their job is to say, here's why this won't work,
and this is a great opportunity to get material that
will counteract that thought.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Yeah, and great, great, I think takeaways also for the
audience to think about, Like that's similar to what we're
doing at the park level as well, is to be
pitching and showing that there is passion behind it and
that people would invest and that guests would spend the
money and go and participate in the activity.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
Yeah. Every time I do a new project, I have
to show I have to show pictures. Here's the kind
here's the kind of thing we're going to do. Here's
the people who are going to it. Here's how popular
it is, and and then we have to go from there. So, uh, anyway,
utilize these conventions because you don't all have to go
to the biggest in the world, go to the smaller ones.
If you're in the Tampa Bay area, come by say
hello at the Tampa Bay Comic con Comic Convention, it's
(30:34):
August first through the third. I'll be there on the
third and I'm doing a whole session on interactive entertainment
and how it's growing and evolving, so which you'd think
has nothing to do with the comic convention, but again,
it's expanding, and it's it's embracing what we think of
as live entertainment, what we think of as theme park,
(30:55):
what we think of his immersive experience. So it's, uh,
it's a whole show, and this has been a whole
show about this because we're out of time on behalf
of Philip. This is Scott Swinson. This is Green Tag
Theme Parking thirty and we will see all of you
next week.
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