New York Comic-Con is the place where members of all fandoms can come together and meet their heroes. (They can even dress like them!) The 2023 installment attracted 200,000 attendees, making it the largest comic convention in the U.S. — and a prime opportunity for vendors to drive brand awareness and sales.
For Heroes & Villains, a fan-first destination for apparel and accessories, NY Comic Con has become a pillar event for bringing its brand promise to life. That’s why the brand went big on an immersive, X-Men-themed booth for the 2023 con that focused on experience first. The strategy and results were so significant that Heroes & Villains was named a 2024 Brand Experience Award winner.
“Heroes & Villains is and always has been a fan-focused brand. Celebrating the stories we all love is the first priority for us,” explained Doug Johnson, Creative Director and Brand Manager at Bioworld, parent company of Heroes & Villains in an interview with Retail TouchPoints. “The brand was born out of attending conventions and understanding the true fans who invest so much into what they love. That’s why we always want to be in front of the fans; the interactions and the direct feedback are priceless.”
The elaborate pop-up booth display was built to focus on Heroes & Villains’ latest X-Men collection. Although the team already had a concept in mind, plans changed when they saw another vendor with a very similar concept at a different show. “We decided that it was more important to show up with an original and authentic concept than to do something that has already been done. So, we pivoted,” Johnson noted. “With all the hype of the X-Men 97 upcoming, we knew it would be fresh on everyone’s mind.”
Creative School is in Session
With this creative pivot, Heroes & Villains had to “scramble” to get the product launch, which was themed around an athletics concept for Xavier Institute — the education and training institution for young mutants — timed for the convention. “The Xavier Athletics/Collegiate concept was locked in, and we just needed to build the experience from there,” Johnson explained. “We pored over research, looking at the Xavier Institute and how we could execute the vibe on the show floor.”
The space was designed to be a replica of the Institute, using Professor X’s library as the central focal point. Wood paneling and brass fixtures elevated the space, while framed images of beloved Xavier Institute alumni strategically placed throughout the booth added elements of surprise and delight.
The design and aesthetic resonated immediately with fans, but the exhibit’s structure also created a lot of opportunity for Heroes & Villains to showcase a variety of merchandise, such as T-shirts, cardigans, shorts, hoodies, jackets, backpacks and hats. The brand displayed 31 products during the convention and achieved a sell-through rate exceeding 85%.
“Our customer is and always has been the true fan, the collector, the content consumer, the maker…the ones actively living in and broadening the universes of our favorite stories,” Johnson said. “We knew that any true fan of the X-Men would enjoy this concept and embrace the experience with us at Comic-Con.”
A ‘Marvel’-ous Marketing Machine
The reach and impact of the X-Men universe goes far beyond the walls of a comic convention, which is why the exhibition made a big splash through paid, earned and owned media.
Traditional and digital media helped amplify the collection and exhibition concept to new audiences. Heroes & Villains collaborated with its PR agency, 42 West, to highlight the booth’s unique attributes to fans and media partners as well as send product samples.
“Typically, we have a few media partners who look forward to talking with us at the show and enjoy shopping with us year after year,” Johnson said. “We also worked closely with the Marvel team on this event, to allow them to share our marketing assets with their PR and schedule interviews and content creator visits on-site at the con.”
This year, with coverage from outlets like Gizmodo, Pop Insider and Ad Week, Heroes & Villains garnered more than 210 million impressions.
Heroes & Villains also used a rich combination of its owned and paid channels, such as email and text marketing and digital advertising, to bring consumers to a dedicated landing page specific to the collection. The brand even tapped influencers to drum up buzz.
Marketing continued through the convention’s duration, with the branding sending reminders through the website and even on-site at NYC’s Javits Center where the event is held every year. “We informed the fans of our exclusive items and drove traffic back to the booth daily using our digital platforms and at the Con,” Johnson explained.
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A Future Built on Fandom
2023 wasn’t Heroes & Villains’ first year at Comic-Con, and it certainly won’t be the last. From its debut in 2018, the brand has ventured into various fandoms at Comic-Con, from Star Wars to Dungeons & Dragons and Marvel’s Black Panther. And this year, Johson noted that the Heroes & Villains will be back — and the booth is going to be “legit.”
“The convention space is an opportunity for fan experience more so than an opportunity to sell tons of merch,” Johnson said. “We want the brand to be remembered and the customers to look forward to seeing our next presentation. We will continue to press this idea in all our future cons. The stories that we celebrate with our product development are vast and rich in content and afford us endless ideas for fan experience.”
