Author Topic: Convention Advertising (Read 14910 times)

LunarEklipze · « **on:** April 27, 2004, 04:36:10 pm »

Hello all...

Well I just joined here and I thought I would ask a question. I was wondering what Kumoricon was doing for advertising their convention; ya know...letting people know that there will be an anime convention in Porltand Oregon on Sep. 4-6th...etc.

Well my question was if you need people to advertise for you...maybe I could be of some help. I could go around stores and pass out fliers, or in schools maybe. Im sure there could be a lot of ways that people can get the word out about the convention.

I went to Sakuracon this year...and thats how I heard about Kumoricon. I dont think it will be as big as Sakuracon...but I'm hoping that it will have some good things to entertain people with. I am definitely planning on going...specially since its just a couple of minutes from my house, so if there is anything that I can help with then by all means please let me know.

staze · « **Reply #1 on:** April 27, 2004, 06:51:59 pm »

Hi there,

Well, we definately won't be as big. We're shooting for about 1,000-1,500 people. We were about 500 people our first year down here in Eugene, so I think anything more than a 2x-3x growth would be too much for our small little bodies and minds to handle.

As for advertising, we're getting up to speed on that now that we have a website and SakuraCon is over. But I would not expect any serious advertisement until late May to early June. We really have too many other things to work out first... like, attractions. We have a few guests that are lined up, but we're unable to talk about who yet, and we have some sponsors in the wings that we need to do some finalization on. I think we really need to get those things taken care of before we go out and say "hey, we're cool, look at this great con in Portland". If we start advertising before that, people might response like someone I met at the table at SakuraCon, who basically asked "what guests are you going to have?" I said, "We're really not sure yet, but we will post on the web when we know". His response was to walk away.

In short... we'll make sure to send a shout out when we are in need of people to beat the street and get the word out.

Thanks for the interest though... give an email to the staff email listing in contact if you would like to commit to being a PR volunteer and we'll get you set up when the time comes.

PrincessFrodo · « **Reply #2 on:** April 27, 2004, 08:54:56 pm »

the Genki Society of BCC will deffinitly be announcing it, as the Con is conveniently during a break between semesters. ^.^

staze · « **Reply #3 on:** April 28, 2004, 12:56:15 am »

that's great... and I'm sure though some with NOVA may be upset that we are putting on Kumoricon in portland and probably dashing their seemingly ever-elusive AniRose dreams, they will be extremely willing to help spread the word through their organization. SakuraCon really was the cheapest and probably most effective advertising we could have. Having watched the table, and spoken with the other staff that were manning the table during the weekend, I would say we easily touched base with 1000 people, that that's not including those congoers that picked up a flier up at the registration desk, or at the Dealer Room desk.

The whole idea that we have people really wanting to come to our con is kind of foreign to us, since last year we had almost no advertising, yet somehow we hit our limit of about 500 people. At our debriefing dinner afterward, the phrase was coined "We had just enough advertising, which was not nearly enough". :-P

Having taken part in another con that died after it's first event, I am continuously amazed at the energy and willingness of our staff to subject ourselves to a level of stress that is seldom seen anywhere else but in ventures like this. Those last weeks/days leading up to the con rival those a day-trader must feel when he is throwing around millions of dollars worth of stock... only, if (s)he screws up, he doesn't get a bunch of otaku running after him with various peace-tied weapons. :-D

PrincessFrodo · « **Reply #4 on:** April 28, 2004, 08:34:49 am »

With the amount of publicity Kumori Con got at Sakura Con, you're going to have a bit more than 500 people show up. ^.^; One of my friends will be getting back from his service in Kkuwait about then, and his gf is hauling him down to the Con because he missed Sakura Con, and most everyone else up here likes to road trip. ^.^

I can already see the nightmare of being on Security again. Oregon doesn't have enough aspirin for this sometimes. >.<

Stiffler · « **Reply #5 on:** April 28, 2004, 08:36:50 am »

I was wondering if anyone has a poster, or somekind of flyer, or pretty much anything that I can print/copy to pass out to my school nerds/anime friends...that would be cool.

Roxalannamerhana · « **Reply #6 on:** April 29, 2004, 09:09:15 pm »

Hola! I saw your table at Sakura Con ^_^ I'm not sure I can come this year though...I'm still reeling from Sakura Con. But hey, you never know, I'll be considering it this summer anyway. I'm so happy that there's a new small con in the Northwest though :mrgreen: ! I'm considering going to college in Oregon too so this con might be extra awesome

.
Anyway, to my point--I was looking at LLNN's site www.usagichan.com. They have a list of a bunch of the anime conventions all over America, but I didn't see Kumoricon yet, so I was going to e-mail them and tell them about you, but I thought I would ask for permission first. Let me know what you think ^.^

I'll also make sure my school's local anime club knows about you (but I'm pretty sure they do as they went to Sakura Con too :wink: ).

Lysanna · « **Reply #7 on:** April 29, 2004, 09:19:02 pm »

I could make a flyer if you guys want. :3

staze · « **Reply #8 on:** April 29, 2004, 11:14:09 pm »

Thank you for the offer, but we do have a flyer that we will try to get up as soon as possible for people to print out and post where they want.

The site is moving as far as we can make it... please forgive us for how long it's taking... but this is all a major overhaul from the way we did things last year... and we're still learning. Many thanks to the people at SakuraCon for modivating us and all and all getting us moving again. :-) The response we got from our table was amazing, and it more than anything has really made us realize how important some people feel a con in Oregon is.

Thank you!

Stiffler · « **Reply #9 on:** April 30, 2004, 05:56:48 am »

Thanks buddy...if you need any computer needs, I can help....like mirrors and such

procyon · « **Reply #10 on:** April 30, 2004, 02:34:02 pm »

You bring up some very good points.

Bus passes are a good idea. I'm not sure if we can arrange something, but its something we'll be looking into.

There was some talk about arranging a trip to the Japanese Gardens for interested con-goers. More details as we work stuff out on this end.

And thank you for your offer to help, we can always use volunteers!

skyhawk · « **Reply #11 on:** April 30, 2004, 03:46:33 pm »

You know what you guys could do to help with advertising your con is contact the webmaster of Sakura Con and the next Chair (once elected) and see if they are willing to post a banner for your con and advertise on our site as well.

ANCEA certainly has no problem with it. You guys should also be thinking about a parent org (like ANCEA) where you can move toward non-profit status to help protect you from taxes etc.

I would also recommend you contact Anime Evolution. We're not rivals and if we all work together and support each other, we can make it a great benefit to us all! I'll likely be attending AE as well as your con.

Daniel Harrison
President
ANCEA

SailorNaboo · « **Reply #12 on:** April 30, 2004, 05:54:03 pm »

Quote

As a NOVA member, I don't think AniRose was/is ever going to really happen. I'm very excited to see Kumoricon come to Portland!

A big WELCOME to you and any and all NOVA members! In my opinion, we need to work together. There are so many of us based in the Eugene area so Portland area people are very valuable to us.

We had a lot of fun putting Kuromicon on last year and there just wasn't another location in the local area for it. We weren't trying to take anyone's territory. There really is plenty of room for people that want to be involved.

staze · « **Reply #13 on:** May 01, 2004, 12:08:01 am »

We have a parent Organization... it's called AltoNimbus Entertainment.

:-)

As far as contacting other places, that's well under way. We will have people at AE to do advertising (though it's only a few weeks before Kumoricon) and we'll even have a person or two at PAX. We'll sort of have someone at A-Con, as well as someone at Otakon, etc etc. We're everywhere. :-)

zenix · « **Reply #14 on:** May 04, 2004, 10:28:34 pm »

i dont think buspasses will be a problem cuase they do them for the blazer games and such and he dont have good teams

it will be nice going to a small con after sakura-con to many people for a shutin like me :twisted: :evil:

aww the joy of seeing armed people wondering around the streets looking for food or a place to sleep

Kei-Kei · « **Reply #15 on:** May 05, 2004, 04:49:19 pm »

A trip to the Japanese Garden I think would be fun. It's so pretty and the atmosphere once you go in is amazing. Here's their website: http://www.japanesegarden.com

TomtheFanboy · « **Reply #16 on:** May 05, 2004, 10:32:21 pm »

Am I gonna hafta repost my entire list of links from the other forum?
Heh heh heh.

Anyway, allday-allzone bus passes are good because even though the Japanese Gardens and Uwajimaya are the only real attractions out of the glorious "Fareless Square" Tri-Met set up downtown.

I think that the Chinese Garden is the best place to go since it wouldn't take long for a lot of people to get down there even though downtown and Tri-Met will be packed on Labor Day Weekend. Unless you set up an actualy tour bus shuttle I don't think you could really plan a trip to the Japanese Garden as an event at the Con.

I too am one of the eager flyer hander outers who'd love to help with PR since I can't really get to meetings to do anymore help for the staff.

I would really like to give a bunch of flyers to the fannish shops in the area. Particularly Things From Another World. They are a chain of comic shops up here and they have three shops in town, two in Universal City california and a really big online shop. They sell comics and toys and other kewl stuff (yes, manga too) and they were interested when I told them about Kumoricon. I think that if guys and gals near the other locations in town dropped flyers there you'd get the word out really quick.
More importantly people would REMEMBER. I have so many friends saying "Oh yeah, when is that convention again?"

EvilMonkey · « **Reply #17 on:** May 05, 2004, 11:28:26 pm »

We'll be bringing a big stack of the flyers up to Portland for the General Meeting May 23rd (I should probably post the information on that.) Basically, there's the SakuraCon staff awards/elections on the 22nd in Seattle area, and then the Kumoricon General Meeting the 23rd in Portland, location TBA.

zenix · « **Reply #18 on:** May 06, 2004, 12:42:27 am »

portland closes at 9 unless ur 21

Lysanna · « **Reply #19 on:** May 06, 2004, 03:56:45 am »

Only if you don't bother to find suitable places. 24-hour Starbucks, arcades (Wunderland, in many cases, is open till 10 or 11), restaurants (some open late, some, like Shari's, open 24 hours and group-friendly). If you look, there are plenty of places to go.

The busses running, however, are a different story.

EvilMonkey · « **Reply #20 on:** May 07, 2004, 09:25:29 am »

Portland, while mainly a pub-city, meaning that most of it's nightlife is directed to the 21+ crowd, does still have it's 18+ and all ages spots. There's not as noticable, but as we work more on the location information we should be able to come up with a posting of fun evening things for people to do.

staze · « **Reply #21 on:** May 07, 2004, 10:35:59 am »

the waterfront, based on the information gathered by druihd and myself, doesn't close until 10-11... most of the eateries are open that late.

zenix · « **Reply #22 on:** May 07, 2004, 03:44:22 pm »

i was joking mostly towards the number of bars in portland

« **Reply #23 on:** May 08, 2004, 12:02:27 am »

Those of us who are not 21 will probably be able to find something to do if and when we leave the convention. I'd put a warning though to minors, anyone under 18, I'd make good and sure that you're not caught out after curfew. It's midnight during the week and 1am... I believe on the weekends.

EvilMonkey · « **Reply #24 on:** May 08, 2004, 01:12:25 am »

Actually, if you're downtown after curfew, as long as you can point to the venue that you're at, then the police don't really give you that much of a hassle (I've witnessed this a couple times). Also, if there are random otaku playing frisbee in the park after curfew, I wouldn't think the police would bother them, they're usually dealing with the crowds around all the clubs around NW.

staze · « **Reply #25 on:** May 08, 2004, 01:18:52 am »

hai. though, they are going to have a problem if someone goes out in the park and starts waving around a sword. ;-P especially if they are a minor.

EvilMonkey · « **Reply #26 on:** May 08, 2004, 03:36:48 am »

I can see the horrible headlines already. Check, inform otaku that brandishing weapons at night on the waterfront may be hazardous to their health, and if the cops report them for reckless behavior, we should probably revoke their badges, assuming they aren't in jail.

staze · « **Reply #27 on:** May 08, 2004, 12:11:56 pm »

hai. as I said in the staff forums, while we can't tell them not to do it outside, if we feel that their behavior is noncondustive to the con image, we reserve the right to refuse them (re)entrance. The Portland waterfront is a much more populated area than the area around the SeaTac Hilton and Marriott. There are a lot of "normal" people that are going to be along the waterfront... and therefore a lot of people that could possibly call the authorities if someone is running around with a sword out.

zenix · « **Reply #28 on:** May 08, 2004, 12:20:32 pm »

i think people that dont know that an anime con is in town will be worryed anyway i mean some cosplays look almost like hookers then u got the people walking around with fake/real weapons even if there in the shealth o i can hear the phone calling the cops alrdy lol

o god i love it

Katy · « **Reply #29 on:** May 09, 2004, 04:15:25 pm »

you see that kind of thing down there all the time, no one really seems to care. as long as all the weapons are like, neon orange lmfao
though, if no one runs around and keeps the swords and stuff hidden then things would be ok.. but that means you all have to hide the alcahol. especially down town.. XD ive had a huge sword thing i bought for someone in china town out for more than 5 hours, it shouldnt be that much of a problem, just dont act like an idiot and swing it around, because, THERES trouble XD

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Author Topic: Convention Advertising (Read 14910 times)

PrincessFrodo

PrincessFrodo

TomtheFanboy