So, Comic-Con was stuck being a virtual event again because of the pandemic, and most of the bigger media players decided not to participate. However, Hollywood has latched on to these big, splashy webcast announcements for their upcoming projects. Everyone has been putting on their own events to premiere new bits of marketing and make announcements. Many of these are being dubbed "fan events" of some kind, because the companies want fans to tune in and hopefully generate some hype. The DC Fandome, Paramount's Star Trek Day, and Netflix's recent Tudum come to mind. And then there's Disney, which saves many of their big announcements for investor events, but also does their own fan events like Disney+ Day, and special one-offs for some of their bigger franchises, like "Star Wars." Even Apple, home of the Steve Job product launches that greatly influenced this style of event, had their "Unleashed" digital event in October.
I've seen a couple of these now, including parts of Netflix's Tudum, DC Fandome, and the wild 2020 Disney "Investor Day" that was largely devoted to detailing all the content that was coming to Disney+. These are marketing exercises more than anything, meant to deliver sneak peeks, trailers, announcements, and updates on upcoming media. I didn't watch the full events, and I doubt anyone can be expected to, because all of the disparate bits and pieces are meant to be split up and posted separately on Youtube or Twitter once the event is over. Watching the presentations roll out, one after another during the actual events gets pretty tedious in a hurry and these things go on for hours. Disney's investor event devoted time to highlighting every major brand in their content portfolio, including ESPN, National Geographic, FX, and Hulu. The content is usually pretty basic too. You get a parade of different presenters talking up the various shows, movies, games, or apps, and then showing a clip or making an announcement.
Tudum had around forty different segments for various Netflix media, averaging about ten minutes apiece. The segment devoted to next year's "The Sandman" series offered brief appearances by creator Neil Gaiman, stars Tom Sturridge and Kirby Howell-Baptiste, and a "first look" teaser. Sturridge presented the teaser, and all Howell-Baptiste got to do was to announce that the show's social media accounts were going live. The Duffer Brothers, Gaten Matarazzo, and Joe Keery introduced new "Stranger Things" teasers, John Cho showed off the opening credits of "Cowboy Bebop," and Imelda Staunton made an appearance on behalf of "The Crown" to assure us the production was going well, and to offer a projected release date for the next season - November of 2022. As far as I could tell there wasn't any real opportunity for fan interaction, or really any kind of content other than announcements and promos. A Zoom call with Regina King, Noomi Rapace, Zazie Beetz, and Charlize Theron was billed as an "Action Panel," but was really more of a group interview. It was so tightly edited and slickly overproduced that it had none of the energy of a real panel discussion.
Frankly, I miss the Comic-Con crowds. There's something about a hyped up audience reacting to seeing celebrities and oohing and aahing over new footage that is so much fun to see. The virtual conventions that they've tried to put on haven't been too successful - essentially limited to prerecorded panels conducted over Zoom. However, they're still much more interesting to watch than events like Tudum because they offer more content and don't just feel like people reciting marketing copy and bingeing trailers. The DC Fandome event is easily the best of these webcast style events, because it's following the Comic-Con model. It devotes much longer stretches of time to each piece of individual media, and includes a few interviews, discussions, and Q&As with the creators involved. Fandome also manages to combine a few live appearances with prerecorded material and fancy graphics in a way that makes it feel a little more dynamic and exciting.
I don't think Comic-Con is in any danger of being replaced, especially once in-person events start happening again, but the Tudums and the Disney+ Days are probably here to stay, with a few adjustments. The fight for attention online is only intensifying, and with other avenues for advertising shrinking, creating events like this to attract media coverage and curious viewers seems irresistible.
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