Last weekend’s DC FanDome turned out to be a massive success. According to The Wrap, the online event notched 22 million global views. The 24-hour, DC-centric digital showcase also added 150 million trailer views for content that was launched during the event.
By any definition, that is a major success and likely means we will be seeing more DC FanDome events in the future.
“The concept originated because we knew Comic-Con was going to get canceled and we really had been working on some other stuff together and said, ‘Wouldn’t it be amazing if we created a fan-centric event that was a global and worked together across our divisions and other divisions to make this happen?’” said Lisa Gregorian, Warner Bros. Television Group Chief Marketing Officer. “Productions were shut down and literally, like many parts of the world, we were shut down at the company as well. Blair and I were having these conversations and along with hundreds of employees, who were working from home, who were meeting for the first time virtually and collectively working with one another during the entire summer on putting this project together.”
“We had a couple of mission things in mind as we built it that were our North Stars that we never wavered from,” said Blair Rich, President of worldwide marketing at Warner Bros.. “Number one, it had to be for the fans, by the fans, about the fans, and be completely fan-centric, and anything that wavered from that was not allowed. We wanted it to be accessible. That’s why it was free. It was a global event translated into nine languages and we wanted it to feel like a major moment.”
“One of the things we had observed in a lot of the virtual experiences that Lisa and I have had thus far is that they felt kind of very flat and not immersive,” Rich said. “So we wanted it to feel like a fully-realized space and that’s where you see the depth and dimension and the volume. We wanted it to feel like people were together. We didn’t want it to feel just like a bunch of Zoom calls put together, that was really important to us.”
By contrast, this year’s Comic-Con@Home, which took place in July, had abysmal viewership. Tweets were down 95 percent compared to San Diego Comic-Con 2019, with the panels averaging just 15,000 views each. DC unquestionably managed to generate more interest. One has to wonder if Marvel won’t follow in those same footsteps.
A second DC FanDome event is scheduled for Saturday, September 12.
So what do you think? Do you want to see DC keep doing these? Or would you prefer they mostly bring content to other conventions in the future? Join in the conversation over on Facebook or Twitter!
