In an effort to help promote SCAM on Kickstarter, Joe Mulvey and the folks at ComixTribe have taken another interesting and bold step in terms of marketing the book: they’re putting it on the radio.
You may remember a while back when ComixTribe bought a billboard in Las Vegas to advertise the book, which is about a super-powered heist in Vegas. It was a decidedly different move, as normally the advertising for comics is very muted (to put it lightly), contained within comics and comic book websites like this one. And now, continuously determined to not be pigeonholed by tradition, we have a 30-second spot advertising a comic book on the radio. I mean, can you believe the gall? How dare they?
I find the idea rather exciting, though. Comics don’t really get advertising at all, do they? Besides pages in books, I mean. And I guess that The Walking Dead and The Avengers are all “advertisements” for their respective books, things like that, but there’s hardly a large push done for fans of the show and films to come to comics, is there? I don’t watch Walking Dead, but I don’t think there’s any ads that follow the episodes saying “You’ve seen the bloodbath on TV, now read it!” or anything like that; your interest is either piqued or it isn’t.
But I digress. I just think it’s a cool idea to try and advertise comic books to people who may not traditionally follow anything related to the comic book world. It’s easy for you and me to catch advertising for comics (this post being, in and of itself, a technical advertisement for the Kickstarter for “SCAM”), but I’d be interesting to see how many people will back the book after hearing about it on the radio. It’s certainly worth following up on.
Take a listen of the radio spot right here:
[audio: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5041898/SCAM%20by%20Joe%20Mulvey_30Radio_Kickstarter%20PreOrder_VerA.mp3]We also recently talked with Mulvey about the book, if you’d like to know more.
For the full press release from ComixTribe, please see below.
ComixTribe Press Release
Joe Mulvey and ComixTribe are at it again. Today, the writer/artist of SCAM, announced that he is working with TargetSpot to advertise the SCAM Ultimate Collection, currently in the middle of a big Kickstarter campaign, across a world-wide network of thousands of radio stations. A 30-second radio ad promoting SCAM is in rotation on WFAN, the #1 sports station in New York City, KROQ in LA, WAAF & WKAF in Boston, and thousands more stations around the country.
>>>Listen to the SCAM Radio Spot Here!<<<
“I heard a radio ad for paper towels the other day. Paper towels!” said Mulvey. “If paper towels, mustard, and athlete’s foot spray advertise, why don’t more comics?” Mulvey is no stranger to outside of the box promotions. To support the direct market release of SCAM #1 back in 2012, he took out a billboard…in Vegas!
“I talk to non-comic book readers every week. Some are surprised to hear comic books still exist, while most don’t realize there’s more to the medium than Spider-man and Batman,” explains Mulvey. “And how are they supposed to know? How is the market going to grow, if we don’t do whatever we can to expose comics to a broader audience?”
The radio ad campaign is a part of an all-out media blitz to support the collection of the SCAM mini-series into a deluxe over-sized hardcover volume that also features the never-before-released SCAMthology – fifteen brand new SCAM stories written and drawn by a handpicked crew of outstanding comic creators.
The SCAM Ultimate Collection will be an 256-page over-sized hardcover that includes SCAM, Mulvey’s recently completed super-powered conman mini-series, as well as the SCAMthology, which features more than 100-pages of unpublished stories by creators including Joe Eisma (Morning Glories), Nick Pitarra (The Manhattan Projects), CP “Talent” Wilson III (The Stuff of Legend, Wraith), Paul Allor (GI Joe, Strange Nation), and many more.
View the SCAM ULTIMATE COLLECTION On Kickstarter
“I’ll admit, it takes a set of brass ones to name a crowd-funding project SCAM,” said ComixTribe publisher Tyler James, who is helping Mulvey run the campaign. “But despite the name, Joe’s excitement and passion for comics is 100% genuine. So whenever he has a crazy idea to welcome more people into the comic book tent, I’m all for it. I did have to nix his Superbowl ad idea, however.”
The SCAM Ultimate Collection Kickstarter campaign and the radio campaign will end February 28. 2014 at 11:59 pm. Backers have until then to get in on the SCAM.
