Comic-Con begins next week in San Diego and ‘Entertainment Weekly’ will provide readers and fans with unparalleled access.
Through ‘EW Hideout,’ the media brand will host top TV and film talent swinging by to promote their latest projects. ‘Entertainment Tonight’ will serve as the magazine’s broadcast TV partner, while EW Radio (on SiriusXM, channel 105) will air live interviews and coverage with morning show hosts Dalton Ross and Jessica Shaw, and ‘News & Notes’ hosts Julia Cunningham and Mario Correa.
‘EW’ is also preparing widespread print, TV, radio, online and social media coverage. “Our focus is on the real-time conversation, Chris Rackliffe, Senior Social Media Editor for ‘Entertainment Weekly,’ told Lost Remote when asked about the magazine’s social strategy for Comic-Con. “For us, that’s on Twitter and Instagram. Those networks will help our followers hear and see content as it’s happening.”
‘EW’s social strategy also includes a partnership with Related Noise and PHHHOTO, an animated social photo booth created to capture highly-sharable animated pictures. Related Noise is integrated with PHHHOTO to bring real-time animated gifs to users across social. “I’ve vetted and seen a lot of vendors, but Related Noise not only enables us to house the content on our site, but also help us identify influencers talking about our content,” Rackliffe said. “Their mechanisms allow us to do this in real-time and directly reply to someone who has already been discussing a particular show or particular actor.” ‘EW’ will be the first brand ever to use this new version of the Related Noise platform.
Along with coverage of the weekend’s festivities, ‘EW’ will host two panels at the festival. Comic culture has materialized mainly through comic books and film, but shows such as ‘Smallville’ and ‘Heroes’ paved the way for the genre in the TV space. One of EW’s panels, ‘Brave New Warriors,’ will focus on TV heroes: “[a] new generation of heroes has revitalized television. These daring, dauntless young actors have fans swooning and critics raving.”
‘EW’s multiplatform coverage, access to celebrities, and its famous closing night party, makes it the go-to source for Comic-Con 2014.