The Parallel World of ComicCon 09

I finally have had the time to write about my eye-opening experience last week at the world famous COMIC-CON in San Diego.

Knowing people that know people, I managed to get a ticket to this "sold-out" 4 days event. Being the Internet geek that I am, I followed updates before the event from the top 3 independent Comic-Con fans on Twitter; ComicCon (3,949 followers), ComicConLive (2,811 followers) and ComicCon09 (1,330 followers).

For those of you who missed the opportunity of mingling with 300lbs Supermen, 62-year-old Wolverines, Trekkies wearing pointy ears and Star Wars aficionados of all ages and sizes, I suggest viewing one of the 10,600 plus related videos tagged "ComicCon 2009" on Youtube.



After taking more than 2 hours to circle the 1st floor of this massive event, I came to the conclusion that the Web is increasingly empowering people to escape their daily lives and meet other suburban super heroes, monsters, and fairies in parallel worlds that mimic the 20th Century popularity of comic books.

Examples of this phenomenon are World of War Craft, with 11.5M+ subscribers and Facebook's Vampire Wars, which has 2.7M+ active users.

So, are we going to end up paying mortgage on a house inside Second Life? Will my wizard avatar end up with more friends than myself? Regardless, brands, content developers and publishers have the potential to make real money from these "make-believe" parallel worlds where a computer meets a comic book!

Red Bull's Bull Market

I have to admit that I am a little biased in favor of the twin fighting bulls. Nevertheless, Red Bull is an impressive brand that deserves to be followed by all "wanna-be" marketing gurus.

In 2008, Red Bull GmbH earned more than US$4.6 billion worldwide, experiencing 7.9% growth and eating, or shall I say drinking, 40.8% of the US energy drink market.

With its US$900 million worldwide marketing budget, Red Bull continues to push its core brand identity by sponsoring outdoor, extreme, adventure and motor sports. But the fighting bulls never rest and are now expanding not only into the mainstream NFL, NBA, MLS and NASCAR leagues, but also into new beverage categories such as colas and energy shots.

On the web, Red Bull has never been so popular. Its Facebook page has 1,122,830 fans and features several extreme sport videos, all in line with the brands image and identity. Check this one...

In comparison, Monster Energy drink, which is the runner up in the US market, has a 276,526 Facebook fan base and a page that needs improvement. Rockstar, the bronze medalist, has a comparatively slim 33,185 fan base.

So, should we include social network fan base in Wall Street's next company valuation manual? Should we ask Facebook and Myspace where to invest our next paycheck? One thing is for sure; if you plan to build an 360 degree online presence for your brand ...benchmark RED BULL!