If You Ran DC

General Discussion Comic Books
41

I really don’t think any of these things will really work. And the “need” for a new reboot is still built in, just kicked on down the road.

I also think that content isn’t really the problem. It’s marketing, distribution, and audience problems. DC is currently stuck with one audience, and while it tries to appeal to a new one, it doesn’t realize that either it needs to completely lose the old one (which could work, but I think is a bad idea, as someone in the old one), or figure out that their problem isn’t actually a content problem, but a TYPE of audience problem. You’re not appealing to “normies” or “men” or “women” or any group like that. You’re appealing to people who find exploring your universe exciting and fun. If you accept that as the primary thing you’re trying to reach, instead of big huge categories that I don’t think are that useful anyway, you’ll be able to figure out how to appeal to people better.

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42

The appeal is people who like superheroes. Put some comics out that are notably different from each other and build up multiple fanbases.

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43

I agree it’s “people who like superheros”, but I still think you’re looking for people who are able/willing to accept wacky continuity changes, enjoy deep dives into history, and hunt down obscure issues for lore enjoyment. You’re never going to have movie audience size, but we could have way more if we focus on marketing and distribution.

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44

Bring back the super mullet for good. I actually think it looks good.
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46

Do something about this marketing. They didnt even have a push for the big even Dark Crisis. Then they launch Dawn if DC out of it when nobody knew it was happening and it didn’t affect anything at all in any other books??!?! Say what you will about Dan Didio but the man was a showman and a salesman. He would have made the stakes high in at least SOME books. Make it feel like an interconnected universe.

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47

Not a series, but as for where I’d start, I would dramatically emphasize and advertise digital.

Digital is a potential market of billions of readers and yet…DC does little to acknowledge they publish books in a way where the vast majority of people in the world can easily get a hold of said books.

Sure, let’s continue to pat the direct market on the tush while doing little to advertise and emphasize a potential market of billions of readers around the world.

That is anything but an absolutely brilliant marketing strategy for your brand and product, DC.

Anybody with a serious background in business and marketing should want to push digital first because while we all love the direct market, facts are facts and the facts of print publishing in 2023 are sadly not on the direct market’s side.

Support the direct market as best as possible?

Absolutely.

Doing so at the expense of the potential revenue and readers digital could bring in?

Foolhardy and out of touch thinking, without question and for a fact.

You can do better DC, so please do. Your future will absolutely benefit from wholly embracing digital (I mean, you do remember you were the first to embrace day and date print and digital releases, back in 2011, right?), which will truly get your product into large audiences’ hands as it was decades and decades ago, back when comics were more than a niche product and were truly mainstream.

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48

I agree completely about digital, and I’m curious how you think DC should both update and advertise their current digital efforts more. They have devoted a fair amount of push to their Webtoons, and they also have pushed this platform. I have my own suggestions for how to make both better, but am curious what your ideas are.

Other, of course, than “Put Stephanie Brown front and center in everything,” which of course is the best plan ever!

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49

Spend some money and advertise on TV, throughout prominent online venues and with in-theater pre-show programming that accompanies DC-based movies.

Granted, that’s far easier said than done but as the saying goes, “You have to spend money to make money.”

If DC truly wants to get their product in front of massive audiences again, they’re (or WB, in the case of in-theater content) going to have to pony up the cash and get the job done advertising-wise, because the current plan of little to no advertising and hoping that new readers will just stumble into your latest and upcoming product is a poor, poor way to run a publishing line and maximize its revenue potential, especially when many of the characters in said line are household names and whom mainstream audiences would LOVE to spend money on…if only they had a convenient way to do so across devices they already own and can easily access comics on.

The solution is literally staring DC’s Marketing department right in its own face. They just need to more fully embrace and advertise it to the general public.

…and yes, DCUI is a step in the right direction. Especially with how its been prominently advertised on (and in, comics-wise) products made by McFarlane Toys, who is one of DC’s biggest licensing partners in the toys and collectibles side of consumer products.

DC Comics can’t let merchandising licensees do their job, however. They are the ones who have to get comics in front of their potential audiences, as they are the ones making the product they’d like to have those audiences purchase.

The easiest way to do that is to embrace the computer/phone/tablet market, as most people own one or more of those devices and I’m confident they’d love to use them as a means to purchase and read comics by, to say nothing of signing-up for and accessing DC Universe Infinite as well.

Again, the solutions to the problems of shrinking audiences and any lackluster sales are right in front of DC. The sooner they embrace those solutions and start to unleash their potential, the sooner things can start to get better, not only in terms of audience size but also in terms of generated revenue.

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50

Well, this gets into some nitty gritty that I just don’t know - how does DCUI actually do at generating revenue, how do they track which elements are “customer gain” elements and which are “customer retention”, etc. And how do writers and artists get paid for their stuff on DCUI (my guess is that other than Vertigo/Black Label, they are paid nothing at all) (also, I think anyone hired by DC to write a comic should be given a DCUI membership for a year and then maybe a bit of research required, though I have no idea how enforceable that is).

So basically, I think more data is needed on what kind of money further marketing would bring in vs how much you’d have to spend to get that money, and whether you could retain those people or not. It’s very tricky! I also think that there really needs to be a much more direct link between the forums and the comics - maybe even a direct comments section on each comics page. This would help do marketing, as well as help new members ask questions of the community that would help mitigate the problems of “where do I start? Where do I go next? What is this?” Maybe even a partnership with the fandom/wikia community to help do cross indexing (or League of Comic Geeks, which has a similar functionality).

All in all, there’s a lot of stuff to do, but I want to learn more about the money side to see what’s feasible/potentially profitable.

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51

IDK that stuff either, but I do know marketing (and marketing efficacy) and I do know that DC’s lack of marketing outside of their own comics isn’t going to do them any sales favors anytime soon, especially during an important publishing initiative like Dawn of DC.

I will say, its nice they’ve had a Dawn of DC ad on TV during AEW (so I hear, as I don’t watch AEW) and other highly-watched TV broadcasts. That’s a good start.

A better start is to put that ad in relevant Internet venues and emphasize that the books are available at digital retailers like Kindle and Google Books and, 30 days after release, DCUI Ultra.

When they do nothing to prominently advertise, all DC can claim is what Ned Flanders’ dad did: “We’ve tried nothing and we’re all out of ideas.”

Well, when you do nothing, you get nothing as an end result.

I absolutely believe in you DC and I know you can properly leverage digital into a sizable revenue generator.

You just need to stop kowtowing to the direct market and do what’s best for you, not them as its your name on your offices and the product you produce, not theirs.

If nothing else, look at it this way:

A potential audience of billions, via digital (including DCUI)?

Or a well under 100,000 copies sold audience (on average), via the direct market?

You tell me what the more intelligent business decision and avenue to go down and primarily focus on is. I know the correct answer and it isn’t the market that is continually shrinking, year after year.

I’d like to believe the Marketing team at DC, as well as overall DC management, does too as I have faith that they’re a smart bunch of talented folks.

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52

I agree completely that you advertise nothing, you get nothing. I do wonder, though. For the past 18 years, since I started reading comics seriously, I’ve heard that digital sales on Comixology (and the other, smaller options) were 10% of physical sales at best. Do you think the digital market for comics is really there? I’m not convinced that panel by panel view is really that fun, though to be fair, I’ve not tried it on my TV, which is something people say is more likely than everyone buying a big enough tablet to make it worthwhile.

I personally think webtoons is a much better avenue for DC to try to think about expanding, and I’m super happy that instead of trying to copy Webtoons on DCUI where no new people can find it, they’re actually out there on the Webtoons app, and are putting the strips in books at Walmart.

I am perhaps more cynical about marketing, as my understanding from talking to old and new employees at DC is that no one knows how to market comics on any platform - but I think something would be better than nothing for sure.

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53

Properly-advertised, I do.

I mean, it has to be better than current revenues of the last decade-plus would indicate.

In the DC Universe days, I read comics a-plenty on my TV and holy Joe, it was amazing.

If DCUI could restore availability on Roku and elsewhere, then emphasize how cool it is to read comics on your TV, yeah, I think it’d pull in some financial cheddar and then some.

I’d sooner see DC expand its digital footprint with DCUI, as its an in-house platform for them, via Warner Brothers Digital Networks.

Sure, Webtoons is a big deal right now and having it be a part of DC’s digital strategy is a good idea.

I would sooner prefer the in-house platform(s) see priority while also attending to other platforms that DC/WB does not have ownership over.

I’d also like to see DC reintroduce the DC app. Rao knows it’d be a better alternative to Kindle and how they’re set up right now and…the DC app is something that could be advertised on various platforms/media as the new reader’s #1 go-to for new books as they debut at retail.

That’s a very sad admittance of failure and if true, shows that DC’s marketing team needs people who understand marketing and comics, not just people with fancy degrees.

Marketing digital isn’t that hard and for professionals (be they current or former) to say nobody knows how to do it reveals a shocking lack of competent marketing talent in the company.

Of course, that’s if what you’ve heard is true.

Being an optimist, I would like to believe DC has people on its Marketing team who know how to market digital product effectively.

A ton of other companies have effective digital marketing and revenues, so its not like DC can’t do it. They just need the right talents, plans and methods of advertising (to say nothing of money needed to draw in talent and to fund plans and advertising) to get it done.

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54

Why does it have to be, though? Though I guess I should ask - what’s the digital market for a well advertised comics genre - manga - like?

I really am kinda peeved at how much we lost in terms of platforms when it shifted from DCU to DCUI

If there could be some conscious connection from Webtoons to DCUI, I think that would be a really good idea. Like editor’s notes on, say, Stephanie Brown showing up as Robin, saying “You can read this story on DCUI in Robin #127-129” or something… :wink:

My problem with the in-house platforms is that I don’t know how much growth you can have with them if you don’t do serious marketing (which I could count Webtoons as, since it’s a free webcomic on a free app) on platforms with already established eyeball counts.

What’s the DC app? Why not do what Marvel is trying to do and make DCUI the platform for previously bought comics, or a place you can buy individual issues or runs?

I try to break free from my cynicism. After all, my favorite character’s best line is “There’s room in our line of work for hope, too”. But it’s pretty hard when I keep hearing the same thing from DC people that “we just don’t know how to market.” (Also, given that it’s my belief that the two Round Robin programs were marketing for the DCUI platform primarily, that only enhances my belief that they don’t know what they’re doing. And I say this as someone who enjoyed Robins a ton, thought the idea was fun, and am enjoying/looking forward to Superboy a ton as well.)

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55

I have seen webtoons from many countries and dc should probably try concentrating on webtoons which seems to be the future, or dc is already falling far behind in the webtoons business.

56

They’re doing quite a bit. But I think they could do more - at least a Superman and Wonder Woman Family Adventures (or something similar)!

They’re definitely doing way more than Marvel, and it seems to be successful!

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57

The DC app was a port of the old Comixology app that only did DC comics. On iOS you couldn’t buy directly from the app; you had to buy from the Comixology site, and your purchases would show up on the app (just like the main Comixology app worked on iOS. On Android, direct in-app purchases were available, I believe). The reading, search, and browsing experience was better than current offerings.

I got into DC by stumbling on an online ad for New 52. Clicked the link, took me to Comixology, purchased a Superman comic, and I’ve been buying digital DC books ever since.

I agree with pushing digital and advertising more, on TV, in cinemas, and in other non-DC books (novels & such). Advertise this service, and while doing so highlight stories both classic and new. If a movie or show is inspired by certain comics, say it in the credits in the beginning of the movie, instead of burying a bunch of thank you’s at the end.

Webtoons, and the DC offerings on it, aren’t really my cup of tea. I hear they’re popular, especially by folks a lot younger than me. Great, advertise DCUI there.

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58

What was better about it? Did it have the terrible blackouts between pages I keep complaining about? :slight_smile:

That is super cool! From 2000-2005, I read a few comics at my local library (back when they actually had little baskets full of recent floppies), but in 2005, when I saw Spider-Man 2 on DVD and Batman Begins (and The Incredibles, which didn’t have many comics, but inspired more excitement), I started borrowing trades from the library and reading at my local bookstore.

I would love to know how much money it would cost to do a 1 minute trailer of the comics that are part of the movie source material for a movie and playing it in front of the movie in theaters, and what they think the projected customer gain might be!

Webtoons have a lot of variety, though! There are dark dramas, funny slice of life jokes, and many things between! I totally agree that they should buy ads for DCUI and put editor’s notes in them to advertise the service and source comics. Though that might make Webtoons mad, as it is a competing service. I should ask, as the website I write for is doing some interviews with the writing teams.

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59

Familiar with those blackouts. If you download the comics instead of streaming, you won’t get ‘em on DCUI. Yeah the old Comixology app didn’t have that. It also dealt with double page spreads better. In the current Comixology app (a Kindle port, I think), when you’re in full page mode on a double page spread, you have to go back into portrait mode to swipe to the next page, otherwise you just get the top of the next page… it’s weird and hard to describe. On the old site you could search for books and get coherent results that were divided into single issues and collected editions. The other day I was searching for “Transformers” on Amazon’s Comixology page, and the results I got included 12V ac/dc transformers to purchase. The current experience has improved since they introduced it, but is still way behind the previous one.

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60

I almost exclusively read in the browser on my computer, so I don’t know how to download (nor do I want to start reading on my phone).

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61

Yeah I was basing my opinion on the Wayne Family comic. Perhaps I didn’t give it enough of a chance, but it certainly didn’t capture me enough to go back for more.

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