Developing Complexity

Our Asians & Friends chapter in Chicago is hosting our larger parent organization's annual conference next Labor Day 2016 and we're developing a strategy to identify and secure sponsors of all shapes and forms--swag contributions to straight-up financial backing. In my mind, that means a marriage of a company's core ideals with ours, as well as bringing to bear our marketing value (as a small organization in the greater scheme of things).

Here's how one of our planning team members responded to my request for a list of sci-fi/comi-con companies to approach:

It's an interesting idea, but we'd really have to propose to these potential donors how our attendees are their target audience. I know a few in the club read comics and maybe watch anime or play board games, but unless we were hosting an anime room or board game room, I'm not sure how we'd get donations. I believe with long-standing anime conventions, anime distribution companies may donate some new films to screen during the convention, to be played in rooms that just show anime all day.

Gaming companies might donate a new game to demonstrate as a way of attracting sales, maybe, but that's if we were an established fan convention. Since our itinerary is basically doing tours of the city and not hanging out at the hotel playing games or watching movies, I don't know how we'd pitch a sponsorship idea.

Don't mean to be a Debbie Downer, but not sure how to approach this.

Here's my response:

Very true. I don't think we'd score diamond-sponsored donors today, but I know that companies in general are losing out on traditional means of advertising and having to identify groups like ourselves to gain traction with on a piecemeal basis. So-called "influencer" groups. If we connect with the right one, we could always get T-shirts or other give-aways as a start. I'm thinking how we got all that Memoirs of a Geisha stuff that one year.

It's also a crap shoot, so the more I know of who these companies are, the more I can send out feelers and may hit one that is trying to develop grass-roots strategies.

As another part of the strategy, I'll post a survey of our group that I ran by Brad on Basecamp. Its results could better describe who our group is and potentially pose that kind of appeal. Billy gave me the name of Blizzard Entertainment as a start. Might you suggest one or two others? Anyone local too--Midwest or even Chicago?

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I'm probably naive, but in a world of "cord cutters" and regular consumers finding alternative ways of gaining content, advertisers are looking for unconventional ways to connect with people. It's a bit of a chaotic time, both for advertisers and someone like me who's trying to assess the value of our group and how we could potentially monetize what we have today in an effort to grow for our own purposes.

The end result, in my mind, is an organic, systematic "chipping away" process, where we follow through with each idea, identify companies, inquire, explain who we are and see what develops. If you consider that process, then you think of fractals. They're mentioned in that wonderfully annoying "Let It Go" song from Disney's Frozen. Fractals refer to the chaotic but somewhat organized patterns that form organically, like when water freezes on and creates designs like on glass or with snowflakes. It's not an orderly process, but because there's a repetitive formula embedded in the process, patterns form.

So, see you on the other end of this fractal.

Yours in orderly chaos,

Angel Bright