Products, Tie-In's, and Crossovers, Oh My!

I'm a comic book geek. Yes, I still get laughed at, but isn't being a geek a bit more mainstream now? I can only hope.

One of the things in the comic book world that have either made the community groan or rub their hands in excitement is the crossover or huge saga tie-in. Currently, the two big comic book companies (namely DC Comics and Marvel Comics) are having their huge title tie-ins respectively named "Infinite Crisis" and "House of M".

Essentially what they do is have a plot line that includes their best-selling titles and characters and even a few of the smaller ones. Obviously, the point of this is to increase sales by giving readers an inticing reason to buy not only their main titles but the lesser known or limited series titles as well. The stories and titles are intertwined in such a way that in order to follow the plot properly, you'd have to purchase titles that you perhaps may not regularly buy.

Of course this probably isn't as as easy for regular consumer products, but there are some simple concepts you can get out of this example.

• Give a reason for people to try the other smaller products (either new or underperforming ones).
• Give benefits of buying both the main and spin-off product.
• Get people excited about the tie-in of multiple products together.

Let's just use an example here

Lets say Coca-cola is launching a new Coke product (say Coke Kick - A heavily caffinated cola). They hold an online contest where they register online with code numbers from Coke product labels (such as their iCoke.ca campaign). However, instead of having each code number being able to win, you split them into two types. One for Coke general products and one for Coke Kick. In order to win anything, you must get a registration number from both a Coke product and Coke Kick. It can be a drawback that people are required to make 2 purchases to enter, but at the same time, it forces people to at least try Coke Kick and build an awareness of the product.

Is it feasible? Will it work? Maybe not, but hey, it's an idea.