S.U.M. Thoughts

Three events, two states, multiple early morning news interviews and nearly 7,000 (yeah, you heard me correctly) custom trading cards later, the whirlwind summer of 2010 with Konami Digital Entertainment and Yu-Gi-Oh! has come to a successful end with the close of the World Championships in Long Beach, CA.

At our first stop at Comic-Con International, fans of all ages (and costume types) lined up all day to have their very own Token card created. With an event as crazy as Comic-Con, with attractions and eye candy at every turn, it’s always great to see people take the time to stop by and get their photo taken. There were a few other photo booth attractions at the Con, but we’d like to think that we had the most unique one on the show floor.

Next up was the surprisingly cosmopolitan city of Indianapolis for GenCon, one of the premiere gaming events anywhere. The event itself proved to be just as successful as Comic-Con, with fans routinely saying that the custom cards were the coolest thing at the entire show. And considering Yu-Gi-Oh! was there with some of their biggest rivals in the industry, it’s always nice to hear they appreciate what Konami and SUM Booth was doing.

One week later, the trading card triple-header ended in Long Beach, CA at the Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championships, where duelists from all across the land converged to take on the best. SUM Booth was there to provide additional entertainment to all the visitors, and we did just that, with a steady crowd every moment we were in operation.

Overall, we feel that Konami did a great job of leveraging the power of the photograph — and more specifically in their market, the trading card — to create lasting, positive memories for thousands of visitors. Numerous times we heard people say, “I don’t even follow Yu-Gi-Oh!, but I’ve got to get my own card,” and it’s experiences like that that help to connect brands to new consumers.

Konami and Yu-Gi-Oh! made it happen, and there’s no reason your company can’t either!