batman chris wareVia Diamond’s Previews website (which duplicates content from other Diamond websites) comes news of an interesting new sales incentive:

paper sculpture!

Have your customers build their own Deadpool with these fun promo items from Marvel. Each of the releases (parts 1 – 6) are a specific part/piece of Deadpool. When finished, the approximate size of the entire completed Deadpool will be near one foot tall! Look below to see how you can qualify for free bundles or to order extras for your shop!

Note: New details on the specific body part included in each bundle will be added in the near future.

There are six parts, and the bundles of 25 are offered free as order incentives for six different Marvel titles. Each part actually offers two ways to hit the target, for example:

BUILD YOUR OWN DEADPOOL PROMO ITEM #5 (of 6) (Bundle of 25) – (NOV150761)

Exceed 175% of your total orders of CAPTAIN MARVEL & THE CAROL CORPS #2 (MAY150744, shipped 7/15/15)  with your orders for CAPTAIN MARVEL #1 (NOV150738) placed by the current FOC of Monday, 12/21/15 and you will receive 2 FREE bundles of BUILD YOUR OWN DEADPOOL PROMO ITEM SET #5 (of 6) (NOV150761).

OR

Exceed 150% of your total orders of CAPTAIN MARVEL & THE CAROL CORPS #2 (MAY150744, shipped 7/15/15)  with your orders for CAPTAIN MARVEL #1 (NOV150738) placed by the current FOC of Monday, 12/21/15 and you will receive 1 FREE bundle of BUILD YOUR OWN DEADPOOL PROMO ITEM SET #5 (of 6) (NOV150761).

Searching the Internet, I discover that Marvel offered a similar “Build Your Own Iron Man” promotion in October.

build your own iron man As with the Iron Man incentive, all six Deadpool bundles are linked to new #1 issues:

  • SPIDER-MAN/DEADPOOL #1
  • ROCKET RACCOON & GROOT #1
  • AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. #1
  • SILVER SURFER #1
  • CAPTAIN MARVEL #1
  • OLD MAN LOGAN #1

Extra bundles are available for $3 each, but must be placed by the Final Order Cutoff (FOC). I’m guessing that retailers have to hit the order incentive first before they can buy additional bundles? In which case, were I a retailer, I’d hit whatever incentives I’d normally meet, then partner with another retailer and have him/her order the extra bundles for my store.

Smart retailers will order the extra bundles in anticipation of the movie release on February 12. The bundles ship throughout January, and a full set (at a cost of $0.72) makes a nice incentive or giveaway for future promotions.

The most interesting aspect of this?

It harkens to the European model of adding supplements to children’s magazines, such as the posters, collectible cards, and toys found in the weekly Micky Maus Magazin of Germany. (Marvel and other American comics publishers have rarely placed inserts inside comics, the most well-known being the tattoos inside copies of Amazing Spider-Man #238, which actually affect the mint-condition value of the issue.)

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This week’s issue has TWO extras! (In addition to 16 more pages!) There’s the ultraviolet ink spy pen (with a battery!) and tattoos from The Good Dinosaur, the upcoming Pixar feature film. All for €3,50 in Germany ($3.77)!

The German publisher, Ehapa, will even work with advertisers to create the “supplements”, even going so far to work an advertisement into a comics panel! (Even if you don’t read German, scroll through the PDF link. It’s an encyclopedia of print promotion!)Micky Maus ad insert

Eaglemoss is an example of the subscription variation, generally found in the British Commonwealth. A publisher will offer a series via subscription, where the attached item is the main attraction, and the magazine is just there to give some background. Generally you build a model of something, such as the human body or the Millennium Falcon.

Might we see “supplement variants”, where a store (and collector) can get editions with extras inserted? Us comics oldsters can recall that just about every cover gimmick was used back in the 1990s or earlier:

So why not include an interior gimmick? A final scratch-off/peel-off panel which reveals the villain?

A mini-comic inside the book? A flexi-disc? Poster? Stickers? Tattoos? Oh, wait… MAD Magazine did most of those back in the 70s. Maybe that’s why it’s the best-selling comics periodical in the U.S.?

 

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1 COMMENT

  1. I think this is a pretty great promotional gimmick. I was impressed with the quality of the free Iron Man paper doll components–especially given the questionable quality of Marvel’s overpriced print comics. The Iron Man doll parts seemed well designed and printed and were a lot of fun to put together.

    Unfortunately my retailer must not have ordered enough of all the right titles, so my Iron Man only has a head/torso and a right arm.

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