FANCON
Launching a National Pop-culture Event Brand.
Goal: Launch a national, turnkey event brand, increase foot traffic, sales, and fulfill Eric's lifelong dream of turning his favorite mall into a cute anime girl.
Result: 117,000 guests attended FANCON events across Pacific Retail’s portfolio. Sales jumped an average of 119% week over week. FANCON has generated over 300k impressions and nearly $50K in business development revenue. The event won Best of Show in the Out-of-Home Advertising category at the 2024 AAF Silicon Valley American Advertising Awards.
Credits: MAGWest (Production), FizzPop Marketing (Production and Business Awards Submission Writing), Marina (Digital Illustrator), Pupung Oktavian (Digital Illustrator)
Eric led the team that developed the initial structure and concept for FANCON, a hyper-local pop culture brand that could be adapted to the local markets of properties owned by Pacific Retail Capital Partners. He also created the event’s logo, branding materials, and partnered with artists to create the Eastridge Center FANCON mascot.
What’s FANCON?
FANCON contains key elements from large conventions in a bite-sized package. Musical performances, gaming lounges, panels, and artist markets are key attractions at every FANCON event. The brand is designed to target specific audience niches: cosplay, gaming, and art. This gives marketing teams at individual properties the flexibility to cater their events to their unique demographics and leverage their specific mix of retailers. A center with popular Japanese brands, like Daiso or Round 1, would benefit more from a cosplay-centered event vs a center with a gaming cafe and Gamestop, where a gaming-centered event would be more optimal.
Key Objectives
Create a brand that is immediately understood by its targeted demographic.
Create a brand that was visually interesting but simple.
Create a brand system that is adaptable but cohesive.
Meet Elena
An anime convention isn’t complete without a mascot character. Eric began collaborating with two talented Illustrators to develop the Eastridge mascot character that would eventually become Elena.
Key Objectives
Create an enduring and memerable character guests will love.
Engage local cosplayers to embrace the charater and create cosplay inspired by Elena.
Succesfully represent Eastridge and the wider East San Jose community.
FANCON was a massive hit.
Eastridge Center’s inaugural FANCON event hit its cap of 3,000 tickets and saw 1,500+ attendees. Traffic increased at Eastridge Center by 16%, with the overwhelming number of attendees staying through the duration of the event. Sales at numerous retailers saw generous increases, some up to 100% for the day. As predicted, food tenants and retailers popular with this demographic saw the largest increases.
Key Results
Across all three centers that hosted a FANCON event in 2023, 117,000 guests were brought to Pacific Retail’s properties. Sales jumped an average of 119% week over week.
Because FANCON targeted a specific niche, centers were able to generate nearly $50K in additional funds in business development revenue by leveraging this captive audience.
FANCON events generated over 335K digital impressions on a modest ad spend of just under $1K. This data doesn’t include impressions from user-generated content.
+24 retail tenants participated in FANCON events, including Hot Topic, Box Lunch, Gongcha, and Round 1. In 2025, Round 1 signed 3-year advertising/sponsorship deal totaling $40K in business development revenue at Eastridge Center.