Author Topic: Amazing West World offsite at SXSW, any hope for it at comic-con?  (Read 2522 times)

Offline debster

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Re: Amazing West World offsite at SXSW, any hope for it at comic-con?
« Reply #15 on: March 16, 2018, 03:47:21 PM »
Thanks for the info, [member=364]Angology[/member] ! Sorry that you weren't able to get two slots...

Offline LB42

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Re: Amazing West World offsite at SXSW, any hope for it at comic-con?
« Reply #16 on: March 25, 2018, 06:40:39 AM »
I was able to get into the WW activation at SDCC 2017 and WW activation at SXSW this year. They were both amazing and I will be watching for anything that Giant Spoon (the company that did the activations) does at SDCC this year. HBO and Giant Spoon recently did a podcast with Adlandia talking about how these immersive activations are the future of brand marketing. The specific focus was the WW event.  Lets just say it took months to build etc:  440+ pages of actor dialogue, 4 months to build/rebrand the town on top of an existing ghost town, and over 50 vendors. There were a few takeaways from their talk with Adlandia that I think can relate to SDCC2018:

1) They described SDCC 2017 WW as an appetizer and SXSW as the main course.
2) They learned didn't need to be close in proximity to the event to be successful. (Translate: if they do something at SDCC it might not be near the convention center).
3)  They wanted people to come and stay and be immersed.  We stayed 6 hours and saw the loop 3 times. You really had to do this to see all the stories.  For example: if you sat in the bank during the gunfight you saw it being robbed etc.  We spent a good long time in the Mariposa playing poker where you could watch a card shark at work on the table and try to figure out his tricks. There were layers on layers. If they come to SDCC it might take up a lot of your day.
4). The event was designed to get you to tell your story.  If you wanted extra drinks you could tell a personal story to the banker etc. In other words - they wanted you to participate. This is right up the alley of any SDCC crowd.
5). When asked if they were bringing this brand to any other upcoming events (hint SDCC) Giant Spoon acknowledged they were being cheeky.  The impression was that they will bring something - but if they do - they probably won't repeat themselves.  An activation might be tied to season two- forecasting season three.  This could even mean that Giant Spoon is doing an activation for the final season of Game of Thrones or another HBO property.  Remember with a company like HBO - their goal is to simply get you to "tune in".

Finally I have one other observations about the  SXSW event v SDCC 2017:  Reservations were a huge player and did streamline the personalization of the experience for each guest. I got a reservation but my husband did not.  So, we got there about an hour early and he waited in standby.  After about 2 hours total he got in when they loaded an entire bus of standby. People who got there later in the day didn't have as much luck in the standby line.  Still, they are getting better about line management and crowd control which is a huge improvement on SDCC. But, like SDCC, the standby experience was different than the reservation experience.  Standby didn't get a hat and got fewer drink coins. The standby line was a long way from SXSW's center - this kept the long lines down.

Here is a link to the Adlandia postcast if you want to listen to Giant Spoon's take on the future of immersive marketing. You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login. FYI - if you write for FOCC, SDCCblog etc. I would love to see a pre SDCC interview.

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Offline Angology

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Re: Amazing West World offsite at SXSW, any hope for it at comic-con?
« Reply #17 on: March 26, 2018, 03:43:09 PM »
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I got a reservation but my husband did not.  So, we got there about an hour early and he waited in standby.  After about 2 hours total he got in when they loaded an entire bus of standby. People who got there later in the day didn't have as much luck in the standby line.
He was super lucky to get in that quickly. When I was there Sunday night, one guy had waited in the standby line for over 7 hours. I am not sure why they didn't give them a hat. If they were taking the place of a no show, it seems they could have given them one. Maybe standby was based on attendance numbers at the activation and not just on replacing no-shows.
Maybe that's why we only got one coin-maybe they thought we were a standby bus. Everyone else I talked to (with a reservation) got 2 coins. I am so happy I got to do it, so that is only a minor bummer. And the hat more than makes up for it!
Ang

Offline LB42

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Re: Amazing West World offsite at SXSW, any hope for it at comic-con?
« Reply #18 on: March 27, 2018, 06:50:34 AM »
I agree, standby appeared to be based more on crowd size than replacing no shows. Hence, a busload of standbys early in the day helped fill the park, but made it harder to give everyone hats since you couldn't predict with specificity the number of people entering the park.  And really - I think there were probably less than 10 people no-showing per day. They were pretty accommodating on time etc and they were NOT checking badges.

Offline Angology

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Re: Amazing West World offsite at SXSW, any hope for it at comic-con?
« Reply #19 on: March 27, 2018, 08:03:02 AM »
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I agree, standby appeared to be based more on crowd size than replacing no shows. Hence, a busload of standbys early in the day helped fill the park, but made it harder to give everyone hats since you couldn't predict with specificity the number of people entering the park.  And really - I think there were probably less than 10 people no-showing per day. They were pretty accommodating on time etc and they were NOT checking badges.
Were they checking IDs with the tickets when you went for your time? They were when I went, and a girl in front of me couldn't get in because her name wasn't on the ticket. I talked to her friend that went ahead and went. He had clicked on 2 when making his reservation, and in the heat of the moment, put in a co-worker's name that he thought would want to go. That co-worker ended up not wanting to go. He checked and read reports that they weren't being super strict on the names on the ticket, so they took a shot. He wasn't mad or anything-he understood, but they had checked around ahead of time to see what others were observing. I am guessing that by Sunday afternoon, things were pretty tight, so they were being stricter.
Ang

Offline debster

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Re: Amazing West World offsite at SXSW, any hope for it at comic-con?
« Reply #20 on: March 27, 2018, 09:52:40 AM »
At NYCC, there were only 6 slots per half hour and if you were in standby, you had to sign up for a standby time and show up at the venue at that time. The standby times were given out in line after all the actual slots were full - you could pick your standby time from the standby time slots that were left when you got to the front of the line. If someone didn't show up for the slot, the standby people got in. There wasn't a standby line. If you had a reservation and showed up late for your time slot, you didn't get in. For my time, I think 2 people didn't show up so 2 standby people got in.

Offline LB42

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Re: Amazing West World offsite at SXSW, any hope for it at comic-con?
« Reply #21 on: March 27, 2018, 11:21:53 AM »
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Were they checking IDs with the tickets when you went for your time?

They did check ID's at both SDCC 2017 and SXSW 2018-Saturday - ostensibly for over 21 - but also possibly for name. That's too bad about your friend.


Offline angi

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Re: Amazing West World offsite at SXSW, any hope for it at comic-con?
« Reply #22 on: March 30, 2018, 09:45:51 PM »
I hope they do something for Westworld this year. Last year was awesome.

Offline SDCCgal2015

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Re: Amazing West World offsite at SXSW, any hope for it at comic-con?
« Reply #23 on: April 07, 2018, 07:25:41 PM »
I legit missed out at SDCC because one the first day of the activation they didn’t have the whole wrist band part and of course 10 mins before 5 people showed up and got in line with people they knew and I missed out because of litterally 5 people . Blah