FCBD 2024 Wrap Up
What we learned at this year's comic shop Super Bowl
It’s hard to overestimate the importance of Free Comic Book Day at our comic shop.
We launched on a Free Comic Book Day. Every year since we’ve opened it has been our biggest single day in both sales and traffic. This year, FCBD sales were up 50% over last year. That’s solid and exciting. But that’s not why we do it.
This is a Marketing Event
You’ve probably heard me say that FCBD books aren’t actually free. The stores pay for them, and it can be a large outlay, even at reduced prices. For Neighborhood Comics, FCBD is considered an advertising and marketing expense. We add those numbers into our marketing budget and not into inventory. In 2024, all of our “free” books were exhausted in 3 1/2 hours, excluding a small number of Spidey books set aside for kids that came later in the afternoon. We had approximately 500 people enter through our doors - a huge number for us. This event is the best marketing we can buy - especially in this age of soft reporting numbers from physical and digital advertising efforts. I would rather have 500 people come into our store than 100,000 “view” an ad on Instagram.
Advertising
I was very surprised that we had so many people attend this year. Although we received some great advance press from the newspaper and a television station or two, there didn’t seem to be the “buzz” surrounding previous events. The digital ads we did place seemed to cost more and deliver less than ever. Our organic posts faired better than the paid placements. Unless things change (it’s the algorithm, man), we’ll eliminate social media spending altogether from next year.
The Setup
Our set up was slightly modified from 2023. Guests still entered into the rear courtyard from Duffy St. But the free comic and special guest tables were rotated a bit to make perusing easier. We increased our volunteers from 3-7 which lightened the load and made for happier staff members. No food truck this year, but Bowtie Barbecue catered a lunch for our guests, staff and volunteers.
The Guests
As for those guests, last year we focused solely on local creators. We’re extremely lucky to have so many esteemed comic artists and writers in the field that live in Savannah. We still highlighted many local pros including our initial artist-in-residence cohort and Edwin Galmon, whose star continues to rise at Marvel, DC and Dynamite. We brought down store favorites Josh Hood (Star Trek, Avatar) and Shadia Amin (Spider-Ham, Shiny Misfits) from Atlanta. Both of them had guested at individual signing events in the past. This was our first time bringing in artists from further away, and outside of our normal sphere, including Tony Harris (Starman, Ex-Machina) and Rico Renzi (Spider-Gwen, She-Hulk).
The Poster
One of my favorite traditions is our event poster. Josh Hood created a brilliant X-Men homage for us starring our mascot Gary and (of course) our partners and team members.
The Wrap Up
After a week of rest and reflection, the team gathered yesterday to discuss what worked and what didn’t. We also sent a survey to guests to collate their feedback. For next year, we plan to:
Throttle the number of guests allowed into the courtyard at once.
Move the outdoor checkout to be directly in front of the rear-entry door.
Provide “paid” stickers to any guests that self-vend.
Change the free comic layout to be a straight line (not a loop), under a separate 20x10 tent.
Add a second volunteer or staff member behind the counter in-store.
Get more signage in and around SCAD buildings.
Create smaller flyers for distribution around town.
Create tent backdrops so you can’t see the industrial fixtures in the courtyard.
Order more free books. While we were happy to reward our early risers with free comics, it’s a bummer to come late and not have the best selection.
In all, it was a huge success and we’re already looking forward to next year. Special thanks to Joe Lee for serving as event photographer.
My shop also said they had a great year and that all they would change was to add one check out.