Marvel has announced its new marketing initiative will make use of GeoTargeting technologies to guide fans, new and old, to the LCS in their area.
“Comic book shops have been and always will be the lifeblood of our industry,” said Marvel Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso. “It’s Marvel’s mission to not only keep those retailers stocked with exciting comics, but to keep fans coming through their doors week after week to engage with those communities. We have a lot of exciting ideas for how to reach new and lapsed fans in 2017, and this is just the start.”
While Marvel wasn’t specific on the technologies that will be used – my guess is via IP addresses for emails, social media networks and other advertising partners that use your IP address and shared location information from your phone. The concept is really cool, and though the technology has been around for a long time, I haven’t seen a lot of businesses use it effectively.
Also, while this is a Marvel initiative aimed at getting new readers to pick up the latest and greatest Marvel has to offer, the potential for it to spill over to other publishers is high as well.
I think we should keep a close eye on this as the launch of X-Men Gold and Secret Empire near. If you start getting more information about your LCS in social media and other places, please let me know, as we no longer have a local comic shop in our area, and I want to see how this system plays out across the industry.
