cosplace: a mobile app for sharing cosplay

“The Community For Your Costumed Life.” - Seamus Condron, Founder

A mobile app for one of the most passionateand underserved groups on the Internet, Cosplayers.

Cosplay is the practice of making and wearing costumesfrom a character in comics, gaming, anime, movies, etc.

What is Cosplace?

Conventional GrowthCosplay’s rapid acceleration in popularity is due in large part to the equally rapid growth of fan conventions, or “cons.” There are now thousands of cons of all sizes held globally, celebrating comics, gaming, sci-fi, anime, and other pop culture genres.

New York Comic-Con projects 2014 attendance to reach 150,000 attendees, surpassing the 130,000 mark set by Comic-Con in San Diego.

Dragon Con is one of the most Cosplay-heavy conventions in the world. In addition to drawing close to 100,000 attendees, the event also features a Cosplay parade through the city of Atlanta.

Chicago-based Wizard Media launched their first Wizard World convention in 1997, drawing 5,000 attendees. In the next 12 months, they will host 15 conventions across the U.S., with an attendance of over one million, with several thousand attending in costume.

Bottom line: Cosplay’s incredible growth within the convention scene means thousands of potential app users under one convention roof, 52 weekends a year.

Current State of Cosplay Online• Antiquated Platforms. Most legacy Cosplay communities still live on

bulletin boards, with no community intimacy, or categorization, search, tagging functionality for photo content. It’s a space ripe for disruption.

• De-centralized content and community. Cosplay community has no universally preferred platform for sharing content and discussing their craft. With no clear leader, Cosplace has the opportunity to become the standard.

• Frustration with mainstream social platforms. Networks such as Facebook feel overwhelming and non-specific to Cosplay. Most struggle to build a community and personal brand.

• Bottom Line: Cosplay desires a home of its own. We’re addressing a major need for the community.

• Poor visual design and user experience.

• Content focus limited to Japanese-based Cosplay and anime, no mainstream genres.

• No experiences focused on the maker process or convention scene.

“Cosplay” in the App Store Right Now

Our Unfair Advantage• We know how to reach the community and have already

started.• Validation: On a recent market research trip to Portland, OR,

an impromptu meet up was held with over 100 Cosplayers in-costume.

• Cosplay’s lack of a matured PR landscape allows us to connect with industry influencers quickly.

• We’re building a first class, searchable database of Cosplay.

First-ever Cosplace Meetup in Portland, May 2014

Our Unfair Advantage (cont.)• By bringing technical expertise and innovation to an art-

based culture, we’ll create new opportunities never before imagined.

• Cosplay is inherently a real-world experience. We’re building an app, but our plans are to consistently engage the community with real-world products and initiatives.

• Most importantly, because of our historical experience, we know how to deliver a product the Cosplay community needs and wants.

What we’ve delivered so far…

Cosplace 1.0• Launched January 2015 for iOS• Initially intended private beta, but

launched publicly to avoid user confusion with TestFlight.

• Nearly 700 registered users to date

A place for friends.

Why Hasn’t This Been Done Already?• Tech industry not traditionally focused on niche communities.

Cosplay is not on their radar.• Cosplay space is similarly insular, with reliance on online tools

and platforms not tailored to their community.• Subcultures have traditionally been shunned, even ridiculed by

mainstream audiences. However, Cosplay is rapidly crossing over into mainstream media, being embraced by a large and diverse geek culture. Being first is paramount.

• Bottom Line: We believe niche communities is where you win hearts, minds, and wallets.

Product Roadmap 2014-15• May: Conceive and design initial app mockups (completed)• October: Launch crowdfunding campaign in conjunction with

New York Comic Con, which will attract 130,000 attendees.• October/November: Begin development of first iOS minimum

viable product.• December: Begin beta testing first MVP with select user groups.• January: Begin development on MVP 2• March: Begin development on MVP 3

App Business Model• Free download. • In-app purchases for additional features, including stickers,

premium photo tools, and storage.• Sponsored content channels (example use case: A

sponsored channel for Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy film release, with original and UGC from that series)

• Costume and prop maker guides authored by user, with revenue share.

Additional Revenue Opportunities• In-house editorial, photography, and multimedia content,

including native advertising opportunities. We want to eventually become our own Cosplay content studio.

• Freemium membership web portal, dedicated to more detailed costume and prop guides and tutorials (The instructables.com of Cosplay)

• Pop-up and eventual permanent physical maker spaces for community to work on costume creations. Such spaces are sorely lacking.

• Events: Regular meet ups and maker workshops across cities, larger convention-type events in major hubs with high volume of cosplayers.

Target Users

Primary User:

• Females and males, 50 percent split, ages 16-34• Cosplayers, costume & prop makers, photographers, non-

cosplaying pop culture fans.

Customer Acquisition• Communicate with creative and executive leaders from

cosplay and connected industries including comics, gaming, movies and television.

• Cross-marketing with established cosplay groups and fan conventions through email marketing, social media, and other outlets.

• Content marketing: Establishing organic community growth on popular social platforms through engaging, visual content.

THANK YOU