For the rest of you, what is your opinion about DC releasing the last two pages of TM:VP #6 yesterday in their Source Blog? I don't think that anything much about the story was actually revealed, but I do think that perhaps DC was hasty in releasing the latest in their non-stop teasers for Flashpoint. What did DC gain by actually showing those two pages that they wouldn't have gained by saying, "teasers for Flashpoint in today's Time Masters: buy it now!" Are sales now taking a back-seat to hype at DC?
Kevin posted on Feb. 3, 2011 at 12:20 PM
It's actually a GOOD marketing strategy, in a way. People now are going to consider picking up Time Masters, as they know that it is, 100%, connected to Flashpoint. Remember, this was a book that had some fans raging about it not having anything to do with the Return of Bruce Wayne...so this was DC proving that it did, infact, connect with Flashpoint.
Boosterrific [Official Comment] posted on Feb. 3, 2011 at 7:23 PM
So your argument is that DC will sell more comics by giving away the parts of the issues that people will want to buy? Why buy something if it is being given away for free?
RussBurlingame posted on Feb. 3, 2011 at 8:51 PM
In fairness, though, unless you read the issue ahead of time you wouldn't know that Zoom is only in five pages, so new readers who saw the promo pages and the blackboard might think it's an all-Flashpoint issue.
Kevin posted on Feb. 3, 2011 at 10:57 PM
Exactly.
And more than that, it is the rule of surprises and advertising: You tell people the ending, you will, on average, get more people who would NOT have bought something reading it, than those that wouldn't.
Boosterrific [Official Comment] posted on Feb. 4, 2011 at 12:32 AM
So now you both suggest that it was an appropriate and successful strategy of DC to use misdirection and the free disclosure of the final 10% of the book? You might be right. I might be crazy.
I can only say that the strategy is a surefire way to ensure that I would not buy a book advertised in such a manner if I wasn't already planning to. Clearly you are both evidence enough that the strategy works on other people.
Kevin posted on Feb. 4, 2011 at 9:00 AM
Not just us, Walter. The Sixth Sense achieved a boost in people going to see it after it was leaked that...well...you know, the ending was leaked. Because they now wanted to see it. People claim they want to know a twist. They don't. Human nature demands they know the secret, that they be in on it. And for many people, that doesn't ruin the experience, it makes them want to become more involved.
Also, you act like this is something new. Marvel did the same thing not a week ago...infact, they were worse and actually revealed the big twist to Fantastic Four the night BEFORE the issue came out. And it still sold through the roof.
52 had the reveal of the Multiverse returning weeks before it happened. Didn't affect sales.
Blackest Night had the reveal of Sinestro becoming the White Lantern leaked. Didn't affect sales.
Heck, the Source waited till late in the day, after a majority of readers had already gotten the book. That's showing restraint. They could have easily posted the day before just the show of the clipboard and said, "Discover the secrets of Flashpoint in Time Masters #6!"
Boosterrific [Official Comment] posted on Feb. 4, 2011 at 2:29 PM
The SIXTH SENSE was the top grossing movie in America for 5 consecutive weeks, but sales declined each week, giving no indication of a mass flood to the theater as the ending was revealed to friends. Discovering the ending may have driven people to the theater, but there is no indication that the specific knowledge of the ending -- rather than simply the widespread knowledge that there was a good trick ending -- drove any actual sales increase.
You say yourself that BLACKEST NIGHT's and 52's leak didn't affect sales: no one who wasn't already buying the books jumped on board following the reveal. That was exactly my point in this case: this strategy won't sell more books. They've already given away the tease to the audience that was interested in it.
Marvel has been teasing FANTASTIC FOUR #387 for months. Comic book shops had ample opportunity to over order based on months of early hype. I've read many comic shop owners saying that they were surprised that it didn't sell more, because the media blitz only affected people who never buy comic books and were fooled into thinking that it is a collectible by the ridiculous media blitz.
But giving away the ending of a story did not used to be the way that the comic book publishers worked. The ending of ARMAGEDDON 2001 was changed because it's ending was leaked early. Hiding the end of a story may now be impossible in the internet age. But jumping out to reveal the ending to your stories before your fans can still, and will always, seem like a bad idea to me.
I already cried "uncle," Kevin, what more do you want me to say? Regardless of how I personally respond to the sales strategy, it will work on some people. But that does not mean that I have to like it.
ejne7 posted on Feb. 5, 2011 at 6:54 AM
The thing is, I doubt their motivation was to sell more issues of TMVP. (All of what follows is conjecture on my part, and I'd love to get a look at some sales data to falsify it, but this is the internet so for now I'll just engage in wild mass prognostication, heh.) That ship has probably sailed, from a marketing point of view: surely few new readers are going to pick up #6/6 if they've not read the foregoing. A $3.99 price point is probably high enough to discourage casual fans who're primarily interested in Flashpoint, even if you do tell them it contains teasers that'll interest them: I wouldn't jump into a miniseries at its final issue. Equally, though, I doubt releasing these pages would seriously *hurt* sales of this issue, again because it's the final issue of a mini: this struck me as a relatively low-selling title that was being bought by completists, who're hardly going to be dissuaded by the leaking of the last two pages if they've already paid up for the preceding 110.
So, if I'm a DC marketing type, I'm thinking: releasing this is unlikely to strongly affect sales of TMVP one way or the other. The people it *may* affect are those who didn't buy (and aren't going to buy) this issue, but who probably *will* buy Flashpoint, might start picking up Booster Gold if they're convinced it ties in closely to Flashpoint, and might, for the same reason, pick up this miniseries in trade when it's handily collected just before Flashpoint.
So as a fan I'm not wild about the strategy - you know, I paid up for every (occasionally boggling) issue of this mini since last summer; I don't want casual readers dropping in to get the big reveal for free after I *worked* for it! [/fangirl entitlement, heh] But I think I see why DC would do it.
