Twitter, Facebook and Instagram Drive 2013 Comic-Con - Ed Martin

The annual San Diego Comic-Con is known for its larger than life promotions and marketing opportunities; Throughout the four days of the convention information overload is a given throughout the city, especially in the Gaslamp District adjacent to the massive convention center. Images from movies and television series drape the area's largest buildings. (The biggest this year was an image for the upcoming Syfy series "Helix" covering the Marriott Hotel and visible from virtually anywhere in the city.)Dozens of trains, buses and trucks are transformed into moving advertisements. Studios, networks and video game makers take over restaurants, bars, clubs and park areas and create entertainment-themed environments in which to generate interest in their products. (NBC erected a crypt to promote its upcoming thriller series "Dracula" in a choice location that almost all Con-goers, at last count approximately 130,000, had to pass by on their way into and out of the San Diego Convention Center.)

As big and broad as all of this traditional promotional activity was, and as stimulating as it was to take in, collectively it seemed to pale this year to what was happening on the digital level. More than ever before the Con was all about Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. It was only a few years ago when Con-goers were taking it upon themselves to tweet, text, e-mail and post hundreds of thousands of pictures, videos and comments about their experiences during their time here without any particular prodding from the giant entertainment corporations that were still caught up in the old way of doing things. Now, almost every campaign implemented by these companies is seemingly focused more on encouraging attendees to get engaged online and help further advertise everything at the Con than to actually enjoy the physical Con experience.

In one of the more inventive digitally driven campaigns, for the upcoming feature film "Kick-Ass 2," street teams handed out thousands of bingo cards featuring pictures of 25 costumes and props from the movie. Fans were instructed to search for the items as they explored the Con, take photos of them and share them on Twitter, Facebook and/or Instagram. Once they completed a row of five images they could either tweet the word "bingo" to @KickAssTheMovie or bring the card to an outdoor "fan zone" andbe rewarded with movie swag.

Street teams promoting Syfy's summer social media spectacle "Sharknado" were everywhere, too, carrying eye-catching surfboards damaged by large shark bites and handing out cards for the inevitable "Sharknado 2." Information on the backs of the cards instructed fans to tweet their suggestions for a "killer title" for the sequel (which will be set in Manhattan) to @SyfyMovies. (It was unclear what the winning fan would receive for his or her efforts, but one can only assume that a mention in the movie's closing credits will be part of the prize.) There was also a major street promotion for the Syfy series "Defiance," again propelled by information cards. These instructed fans to watch for the Defiance Charger (a car from the show) and tweet a picture of it to #DodgeDefiance for a chance to win a Dodge Charger.

Warner Bros. continued to maintain the most massive presence on the actual convention floor with its two-story display and constant autograph signings featuring everyone from Tom Cruise and Sandra Bullock to the casts of "The Big Bang Theory" and "The Following." (The signings are visible from all over the floor on giant high-definition screens.) And its annual Friday night party remained one of the most coveted tickets of the weekend. But the company outdid itself this year with a Web site dedicated to the Con (comiccon.thewb.com) that brought the full hour-by-hour Warner Bros. Con experience to millions of genre fans around the world who were unable to attend.

Of course, Warner Bros. isn't the only entertainment company that has maximized its Con content. Hundreds of videos and images from dozens of Con events are all over the Internet this week, including recordings of panels and sessions that many Con-goers had to wait in lines for several hours (and sometimes overnight) to attend. Looking at all that content can't compare to being there, but it is certainly an easier and more affordable way to experience much of what the Con has to offer.

Tomorrow: TV Guide Goes Overboard at Comic-Con

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