For the first time ever, app icons are turned into a media.
Story
Migration to the digital format hasn't been easy for comics. Or for comic artist, like Ximo Abadía, who wanted to promote his last comic book. So he gave a digital twist to the classic 4-paneled comic strip and turned for the first time app icons into a new media, creating an unprecedented mobile experience.
Philosophy
The AppStrip by Ximo was conceptualized in conjunction with the media team from the beginning. Why was this important? Because the way to revive comics was not about uploading them as jpgs to a website; it was about knowing how to integrate them within the media our target uses constantly: mobile. It's the first comic strip made out of app icons. We developed four apps, available for free in Google Play. People just had to download them on their phone, place them in the right order and enable automatic update to have a new comic strip every day. Delivering a new mobile experience to entertain the target? Check. But in order to facilitate professionals to contact Ximo and allow their fans to buy his work, it was pivotal to link the app to his Tumblr, Twitter and Facebook, as well as incorporate a direct link to the e-commerce website Amazon.
Problem
How do you promote the work of an up and coming illustrator and comic artist in a difficult time for comics? Since the migration from newspapers to digital news, the comic art has been in decline. So in order to get our artist noticed, we had to come up with a twist for the classic comic strip and adapt to pop culture and new media. These days, everyone has a smartphone, but luckily for us, there were no marketers (yet) that had ever used app icons as media vehicles themselves. To promote our artist, we launched a series of his comic strips using four app icons at a time, creating a whole new mobile experience for our target.
Result
This new way of reading comics generated a lot of buzz and most importantly results for Ximo: 400% increase in sales of his graphic novel. So far, the apps have been downloaded in 21 countries and this year Ximo is one of the guests of Pictoplasma Berlin Festival, one of the most important festivals around the world that celebrates contemporary character design and art.