• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, April 9, 2015

Wizard World, Inc., producer of Comic Con and other pop culture conventions has selected marketing agency United Entertainment Group (UEG) for brand activation duties for the client’s Comic Con conventions and to create digital entertainment for the audience that attends them. It’s the first new client win for UEG since the  formation of the joint venture agency last year by Edelman and United Talent Agency.  

As part of this agreement, UEG will develop experiential programs for Wizard World Comic, which has 27 events currently scheduled in 25 U.S. cities in 2015. The programs will be designed to enable fans to touch brand products, experience them live, see them on television, hear about them on radio, engage them on social media and associate brands with an experience they love, the companies said. 

According to the firms, The Wizard World Comic Con brand has the potential to represent billions of fan impressions, through its events as well as CONtv, a new over-the-top, on demand digital video network for pop-culture fans. Launched on March 3 with over 1,600 hours of programming, spanning cult television, sci-fi, horror and fantasy films, so-called “grindhouse classics” and martial arts adventures, CONtv is rolling out across a spectrum of devices, including Roku, Apple iOS, Android, Xbox, Samsung, Smart TV, mobile and tablets.

“The Wizard World Comic Con audience is a unique community of passionate fans and pop culture millennials -- and the biggest entertainment consumers on the planet,” said UEG CEO Jarrod Moses. “This global platform targeting millennials did not exist two years ago, and UEG sees the combination of on-the-ground Comic Con events with on-the-go entertainment via CONtv as the perfect vehicle to reach this important yet hard to reach consumer.” 

Patrick Bradley, Wizard World Comic Con’s EVP. “Jarrod and his team are well positioned to take advantage of the press fanfare surrounding each event, the integration of celebrities into brand initiatives, intense and engaged social media presence of our fans with both the Tour and the Video Network.”