Unmasking the Next Superhero of B2B Marketing: Comic Books!
Total Compliance Tracking (TCT) helps organizations take the chaos out of their compliance management efforts. Their software, TCT Portal, is a revolutionary product that alleviates the most painful aspects of achieving and maintaining compliance certification — whether it’s ISO, HIPAA, PCI DSS, or virtually any other standard.
The problem was, TCT was virtually unheard of, and they needed to start growing, fast.
A major annual compliance conference was approaching, and TCT was determined to make some waves on the tradeshow floor. About 500 organizations were expected to attend, and most of them were assessment firms for the PCI-DSS security standard — TCT’s ideal customers. If my client could capture 20 signups for a demo call, the conference appearance would be a grand-slam success.
We needed to find a way to draw attention. Compliance is a notoriously boring industry (no, really), and tradeshow booths live down to expectations. Displays tend to feature company logos, and maybe some pie charts — other than that, there’s not much else to pique interest.
TCT may be in a boring industry, but they aren’t a boring company. We went into the event with a bold plan to draw eyes and capture demo requests.
The solution? Comic books.
Wait, What? Why Comics?
We wanted to tell a visually interesting story that would capture people’s imaginations and also be memorable. Video is a great medium for visual storytelling, but it has several drawbacks:
- Video production is costly and requires an entire team of specialists.
- You aren’t in control of the medium — it’s not easy to slow down, back up, skip forward, or bookmark your place for later.
- Video typically needs audio, but many contexts aren’t conducive to using audio — they’re either too loud or require you to mute.
- It’s easy to tune out when playing a video
- You need a digital device to watch a video
Comic books, on the other hand, aren’t hindered by any of those drawbacks, and they can be delivered digitally or in print.
So here’s what we did.
Creating a Comic Book for Marketing
We developed a short comic that placed our target audience as the hero of the story. I wrote the script, and illustrator Phil Lowe worked his magic on it.
In the story, PCI auditor Alex leads a group of clients through a maelstrom of compliance to become certified. As a veteran trail guide, she understands the storm that awaits her clients along the way. She needs to prep them, outfit them with the right tools, and watch out for pitfalls along the path. At last, she delivers her clients safely to their destination: PCI compliance. Of course, she uses TCT Portal as her trusty trail gear!
We ordered hundreds of copies to hand out at the tradeshow, and we carried the comic theme onto t-shirts and totes. Large banners displayed the comic book cover and the TCT logo.
It was a gorgeous display, and it stood out among the sea of bland booths.
Comic Book Marketing Makes a Splash
The results were better than we had hoped for. The booth continually drew a crowd and people loved the comic book story. But most impressive was the demo request sign-up list. As I mentioned, we hoped for 20 signatures. Out of an estimated 500 organizations, we had 40 demo sign-ups — double our goal and an impressive eight percent conversion rate.
TCT came home with a major win, thanks to our comic book approach to marketing.
Using comics in marketing is innovative, but it isn’t unheard of. Major brands have used comics in their marketing campaigns, as well.
- Porsche has a running spy series in its monthly magazine, Panorama.
- Google used a comic book to explain the inner workings of their open source browser when Chrome launched in 2008.
- Intel created the Statman comic book, featuring a superhero who wrangles big data.
Your industry may be boring. YOU should never be. Using comic books in your marketing can be a bold way to stand out from the crowd and tell a memorable story that connects with your audience.
If you’re ready to stand out in your industry, let’s start exploring some possibilities for your business.