This week JR wrote to us asking about the price of digital codes and ponders the idea of marketing digital comic redemption codes on a much wider scale.
Stephen Schleicher
Stephen Schleicher began his career writing for the Digital Media Online community of sites, including Digital Producer and Creative Mac covering all aspects of the digital content creation industry. He then moved on to consumer technology, and began the Coolness Roundup podcast. A writing fool, Stephen has freelanced for Sci-Fi Channel's Technology Blog, and Gizmodo. Still longing for the good ol' days, Stephen launched Major Spoilers in July 2006, because he is a glutton for punishment. You can follow him on Twitter @MajorSpoilers and tell him your darkest secrets...
18 Comments
Why not? One of the things Stephen often has said is why aren’t comic book stores lining up outside of theaters with their goods for purchase before and after these movies. Encouraging people to look at the comics that these movies are based on can’t be a bad thing.
Absolutely! With the prevalence of smart phones, why wouldn’t you? People could be reading your comics while waiting for the movie to start. If they played it smart, they would do it for a comic book that is a solo title to a team movie, or a team title at a solo movie to broaden the readership.
That is a very good idea JR and should be an industry standard. Synergy?
Warner and/or Disney can afford to provide a free digital download any one comic related to the movie being released. It doesn’t have to be a full edition, as we see a lot of free previews of about 8 – 12 pages. Also both companies will eventually give away (digitally) the “Free Comic Book Day” editions, so what’s the difference.
If your vote is no, can you explain why it would be a bad idea?
Why not? It seems like a great idea to me. I suppose maybe someone in the studios could have some concern about throwing attention toward another medium, or maybe someone out there still feels like comic books have a stigma but that would seem silly to me.
And digital – no physical product to store, run out of, or get stuck with! We have the technology; why not do it?
It’s an excellent idea, it’ll never happen because the studios are still weirdly embarrassed about adapting comic books.
I vote no.
This could be an excuse to jack up the cost of a movie ticket by another dollar.
Comic producers are already reaping a premium by adding a the digital code to some of their titles.
Good point, but an increase with something tangible (albeit digital) attached, is better than nothing.
Sure, why not? If it doesnt affect the cost of the ticket, its an excellent idea. Almost everyone has smartphone or tablet with them, so it would be easy to check it out on the spot.
This seems like a very low cost way to get more people exposed to the source material. However, it would have to be implemented to see how effective it is. What is the actually number of people that A. aren’t already buying comics and B. Will actually redeem the code. People are lazy, they don’t like doing things. Also, I am not sure if it would be difficult in practice to get those comic codes on the tickets for every movie theatre. Could be challenging, I have no idea. Still, I think given the relatively low cost of doing this versus the potential to get a few more readers makes it worthwhile. With many books sitting at less than 50k a month distribution it does not have to be incredibly effective to still make a difference in those numbers.
“Also, I am not sure if it would be difficult in practice to get those comic codes on the tickets for every movie theatre.”
Alternatively, they could offer a physical item for theaters to give away, like a card with the website or service information as well as the code. It has been done in the past for other promotions, so this really wouldn’t be that different.
The code does not have to be a separate and distinct code. Either a limited time download with universal code or just free on all digital platforms used by DC and/or Warner.
I can see Dark Horse Comics implementing this feature, as they have less bureaucracy and their own digital comic platform. They just need a hot movie property like Hellboy. (is Dark Horse still making movies?)
I voted yes, but it is more of a “It would be a nice bonus” rather than “I demand compensation for seeing their movies”, like how some movies have special giveaways (such as the theatrical released Pokemon movies had exclusive cards or the first X-Men film had special lead-in/prequel comics that were given away when you bought a ticket).
It would be something that would be nice to see done because it might hook in a few more people to read comics. However I doubt that there would be any long term implementation.
I like the idea of a digital comic, but I don’t like the idea of giving my personal information to a company, who then can sell my email address.
Where I live, a LCS gave out free Hellboy comics for the movie.
Absolutely. It’s a win-win. Disney and Warner increase future sales of comics, promote their comics apps and also connect directly to fans (by way of collecting their contact information for other promotions etc). Comics book publishers make more money, which means more comics for fans.
Free is always good!
Uh… I’m kind of indifferent on this decision, to be honest.
What do they have to lose? Make it a free digital version like Marvel does with some of their 3.99 books. Digital has pushed a lot of new readers into comics because they were afraid to go into a comic book store. Now you put that into the hands of millions of untapped customers.
You could download and read a comic before the trailers!