A niche audience forces mainstream marketing efforts with its techno-savvy behavior'The Comic-Con has evolved from a narrow comic book fest into this mainstream, opinion-forming, entertainment event," says Dave Howe, general manager of the Sci-Fi Channel. "It is now a huge buzz fest. We go and everyone else goes. Because it is the beating heart of buzz generation.'

"Howe guesstimates that for every consumer a network tout "hits" at Comic-Con, another 30 people become infected with buzz via e-mail, blogosphere, text message, cellphone photo or Internet site -- and actual talking through the traditional mouth-portals of 14-year-olds." -- an excerpt from "Holy Marketing! It's a TV Audience in Disguise" by William Booth

Consumers are always changing. A recent article published on Washington Post.com explored growth in the niche market of Comic-Con International, one of the largest annual conventions of its kind. Comic-Con draws crowds of comic book fans, as many as 100,000 people.

What is fascinating is that this number only represents a fraction of the people that are reached by the event. Apparently, Comic-Con attendees email, blog, text message and post in such large numbers that for every participant attending the event, 30 additional fans feel the impact of the convention's marketing buzz.

Hollywood's movie industry has been tapping into the Comic-Con marketing gold mine for quite a while, but now TV marketers are catching on. This means that TV is producing fantasy programs and TV marketers are pushing those programs with celebrity appearances and buzz campaigns at Comic-Con.

The take-away from this phenomenon is the stretching power of technological communication. It has always dictated marketing strategies, but is now making special interest groups have significant clout. Essentially this niche market of consumers are spreading their message so far with newly available communication technologies that the major players of the entertainment industry must cater to them, both with new programming and marketing efforts.

To read more the complete article on the growing TV consumer market of Comic-Con, check out www.washingtonpost.com