Manga Comic Con Vietnam Overcomes Challenges, “Catches the Wave” of Diverse Audiences, Becoming Vietnam’s Premier Pop Culture Festival
The Manga Comic Con Vietnam 2023 (MCCV 2023) event, held at the Sky Expo Exhibition Center (District 12) on July 29-30, 2023, was a resounding success. The event attracted over 40,000 attendees and received a “rain of praises” from cosplay, superhero, manga, comics, and anime communities, who hailed it as the most worthwhile pop culture festival ever in Vietnam.
CHALLENGING CONTEXT
The impressive number of over 40,000 attendees made Manga Comic Con Vietnam 2023 a noteworthy case study, especially considering the communication process faced significant competition and challenges.
In Vietnam, entertainment events for cosplay, manga, anime communities are increasingly common, especially in major cities like Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. These communities have a wide range of choices, necessitating a distinctive brand positioning and pricing strategy to attract these diverse groups.
Moreover, while other events like music, food, and cosplay festivals cater to specific interests, a large-scale international pop culture festival like MCCV targets various communities. MCCV needed to capture the insights of diverse target groups, including superhero, cosplay, manga, anime, comics, and figure enthusiasts.
Notably, MCCV 2023 coincided with Black Pink’s Born Pink concert in Vietnam on July 29-30 and the buzz around Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour 2024. Although the target audiences did not overlap significantly, MCCV could not avoid the media waves generated by these events.
From a ticket sales perspective, MCCV had to cater to diverse target groups with different income levels, presenting a challenge for a flexible pricing strategy:
- Middle and high school students, as well as university students, who have limited budgets and still depend on their families.
- Superhero movie fans attending Fan Meetings for Gao Red and Kamen Rider Decade, primarily aged in their 30s and 40s, with stable incomes.
BRINGING A POP CULTURE FESTIVAL MODEL TO DIVERSE TARGET AUDIENCES
MCCV analyzed the insights of various target groups to understand why each would attend a pop culture festival:
- For the cosplay community: Transforming into favorite characters without judgment.
- For superhero enthusiasts: Seizing rare opportunities to meet favorite stars.
- For figure collectors: Viewing and hunting rare and unique large-scale figures.
- For manga, anime, and comics fans: Receiving limited-edition gifts related to favorite series and seeing characters come to life.
- For movie fans: Attending captivating themed shows and meeting trusted experts.
MCCV 2023 identified that these communities all shared an appreciation for spaces filled with like-minded individuals and beloved characters.
POSITIONING THE EVENT AS AN INTERNATIONAL MODEL
The goal for MCCV was to communicate that Manga Comic Con Vietnam is a top-tier large-scale international event, making it an unmissable highlight for superhero, cosplay, comics, and film communities in Vietnam in 2023.
DEMOGRAPHICS
- Male: 60%
- Age: 15-35+
- Residence: Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi
COMMUNICATION STRATEGY
To achieve its communication goals, MCCV focused its content direction on:
- An international model, combining world-renowned Comic Con and Anime Con elements for both Eastern and Western pop culture communities.
- A lineup of prominent domestic and international guests.
- Diverse exhibitions and activities on a large scale.
- The event attracting the largest number of cosplayers nationwide.
On Manga Comic Con Vietnam’s fan page:
- Instead of announcing all top guests at once, Manga Comic Con introduced star guests like Noboru Kaneko (Gao Red), Masahiro Inoue (Kamen Rider Decade), and Johnny Trí Nguyễn periodically, creating surprise and excitement.
- Guest announcements were strategically spaced from teasing to official introductions, stimulating excitement and ticket purchase behavior.
- Information about attractive models and booths at the event was frequently posted, creating eagerness to follow the fan page and showcasing the festival’s vibrant spirit with numerous activities for attendees.
- Rather than viewing the coinciding date with Black Pink’s event as a hindrance, Manga Comic Con embraced it, creating humorous memes that entertained fans.
Important content like ticket sales and cosplay discounts required attendees to like and share, enhancing viral spread.
TICKET SALES STRATEGY
Manga Comic Con Vietnam implemented a flexible ticket pricing strategy for diverse target groups.
RESULTS ACHIEVED
The event achieved remarkable success in both organization and communication aspects.
From an organizational perspective, the event recorded impressive numbers, asserting its largest scale to date.
With professional event management in ticket sales, program organization, booth activities, and issue resolution, Manga Comic Con Vietnam 2023 received thousands of positive feedback from attendees, with many considering it the best pop culture festival they had ever attended.
Post-event, Manga Comic Con Vietnam garnered a large fan base. The Manga Comic Con Vietnam Facebook group, established after the event, attracted nearly 3,000 members within 10 days.
The Manga Comic Con Vietnam Facebook fan page also achieved positive metrics:
- Several posts on the fan page achieved high organic interaction.
- Press coverage had a widespread effect, with event information featured in almost all media outlets.
- On TikTok, views for event-related keywords reached impressive numbers.
- On seeding groups, interaction figures brought the event closer to various communities.
Concluding the two-day event, Manga Comic Con Vietnam 2023 successfully attracted over 40,000 attendees to experience the festival firsthand. This large turnout filled the event’s three main halls, creating a grand and explosive pop culture festival atmosphere. Post-event, these attendees continued to “advertise” the event, generating a strong “Manga Comic Con Vietnam 2023 wave” across social media platforms like Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube.
Manga Comic Con Vietnam 2023 thus established itself as Vietnam’s premier pop culture festival in the hearts of fans, beginning to realize the organizers’ goal of making Ho Chi Minh City an unmissable destination on the Southeast Asian pop culture festival map.
ORGANIZERS
Manga Comic Con Vietnam 2023 was a collaboration between three organizers, each with strengths in the industry:
- VietFest, a member of Time Group
- FM Studio, specializing in superhero events like Tokusatsu, Kamen Rider, and Super Sentai, with deep knowledge of the figure and cosplay communities.
- DTS Digital Transformation Alliance, founded by Mr. Trương Gia Bảo (Leon Trương), with expertise in the technology market.