Comic-Con 2013 kicks off Wednesday, July 17, and every TV fan worth his weight in Tribbles – to coin an aging but still relevant sci-fi reference, thanks to J.J. Abrams – is descending upon San Diego this week.

As a result, TV marketers also have embraced “The Con,” as it has become affectionately known, with equal enthusiasm.

“Comic-Con is the one true gathering of TV fans,” said George Schweitzer, president of CBS Marketing Group. “We go to lots of trade shows – CES, NATPE, NAB, The Cable Conference – they are all business to business. This is business to fan. This is to the consumer. The first time I went there I was just blown away by the passion and enthusiasm that people have. It’s the only place where we get to talk to our fans face to face. It really bonds us in a two-way relationship with the entertainment fan base who is passionately committed to entertainment of all sorts.”

“Think about the enthusiasm of the fans that stay all night and sleep outside in tents just for the chance to see their favorite actors, producers and directors,” said Lisa Gregorian, CMO of Warner Bros. Television Group and co-chair of PromaxBDA’s board of directors. “This is why the talent loves going to Comic-Con. All of those sessions are just a two-way love-fest.”

Basically, Comic-Con is a TV marketer’s fantasy sprung to life. It provides them with a chance to engage people to whom pop culture is a priority, and then turn those people into brand ambassadors for the shows and stars they love.

“The people at the show are influencers,” said Schweitzer. “They are people who tweet and write and call and talk. In political parlance, these are the hard committed. The lasting halo effect from a Comic-Con appearance goes far beyond the 5,000 people in the room. These people are multipliers once they go online or on social media. Entertainment is built on word of mouth – especially these days – in digital or in person.”

For example, Fox is promoting its new show, “Sleepy Hollow,” by having a dozen “very authentic-looking headless horsemen roaming the convention center,” says Shannon Ryan, Fox’s executive VP of marketing and communications. Fans who survive that scare can then take photos of them and share them on Instagram with the hastag #DONTLOSEYOURHEAD “for a chance to get reblogged and possibly receive a little something extra,” says Ryan. Fox also is partnering with Tumblr on a Sleepy Hollow meet-up slated for Saturday, which will feature a meet-up with the show’s executive producers and cast as well as free food, drinks, photo ops, surprise guests and of course, swag.

“Comic-Con wouldn’t be what it is without social media,” says Rick Haskins, executive VP of marketing and digital programs for The CW. “The Comic-Con audience is a smaller audience than an average TV audience, but it’s an incredibly active social audience. I think that’s really where the buzz begins. Social media allows that buzz to be amplified beyond the closed world of Comic-Con to a very open world.”

The CW is going all out for Comic-Con, bringing the majority its primetime line up, including vets “Vampire Diaries,” “Arrow,” “Supernatural” and “Nikita” as well as newcomers “The Originals,” “The 100,” “Reign,” and “The Tomorrow People.”

“You obviously want to grow your brand in a direction that has been successful in the past,” Haskins says.

And while it may seem hard to measure the results that marketers get from Comic-Con, they have their ways.

“It takes months beforehand,” said Gregorian. “We have a lot of monitoring and sentiment systems that we use. We preplan everything that we are going to be tracking, and then after Comic-Con is over we look at the return on investment across all of the amplification that we’ve received due to being in San Diego.

“Everything we do at Comic-Con – from distributing custom Comic-Con bags to the four custom Comic-Con ‘TV Guide’ covers – creates really interesting [brand] amplification for us. Those bags end up in peer-to-peer locations, such as eBay, for example. Everything goes in so many different directions, none of it necessarily based on traditional media, but in places where you wouldn’t expect to get value.”

To up the value of those bags, by the way, Gregorian this year finally convinced her staff to put detachable capes on each of them, allowing Comic-Con fans to wear their collectible backpacks either with or without a cape, and to “assist the superhero in all of us race to the panels,” according to Warner Bros. PR.

Capes may seem silly to the less superhero-inclined, but it’s that kind of swag that keeps people braving the ultra-crowded halls of the San Diego Convention Center year after year. Over at its booth, CBS Interactive will be letting fans check out Google Glass.

Besides handing out backpacks and capes, TV companies such as Fox, Syfy, AMC, Starz, MTV and so on, work hard to come up with the most relevant and appealing panels and events for the Comic-Con crowd. While Comic-Con panels are packed with TV shows – far too many to list here (although check out this guide to TV-related fare from ”The Wrap”), in fact – there is a method to the madness.

“We spend a lot of time debating what shows we will bring down to San Diego,” said Gregorian. “What’s happened is that as Comic-Con has grown in popularity, there is a lot of creative talent behind the scenes and in front of the camera who all want to go to Comic-Con and participate. But in our minds, not every show is made for Comic-Con.”

Warner Bros. also has to make deliberate choices. Once it commits to bringing a show to Comic-Con, the studio brings it for the life of the series, said Gregorian, which is why fans can count on seeing shows such as “The Big Bang Theory,” “Revolution,” and “The Following” throughout the course of their broadcast

“The folks who run Comic-Con are very particular about what they permit on their premises regarding the panel and the booths. They don’t want to be exploitative, so there’s no commercialization of Comic-Con by third parties. It’s all very pure because that’s what the fans demand,” says CBS’ Schweitzer.

Premium cable network Starz is focusing all of its Comic-Con efforts on “Black Sails,” which it is premiering in January. During Comic-Con, Starz is screening the entire first episode, throwing a party and sponsoring a booth that includes a pirate ship for people to explore. Concurrent with Comic-Con, Starz is launching its Pirates Wanted Digital Initiative.

“We’ve shifted our thinking at Comic-Con from trying to secure big ad placements in San Diego and the Comic-Con venues in lieu of investing money in cooler hands-on experiences. That social media phenomenon allows us to extend our investments,” says Nancy McGee, Starz’ executive VP of marketing.

McGee also agrees with Gregorian that much of marketers’ efforts at Comic-Con is trackable. “You not only get a quantifiable assessment but also a qualifiable assessment. Just learning how and what people are responding to is valuable for us. It very well may influence the rest of our campaign for ‘Black Sails.’”

All that said, while Comic-Con creates lots of early-season engagement among fans, once it’s all over, marketers must continue to work year-round to keep that connection alive.

Says Gregorian: “It’s a great jumping-off point in July for us to start the conversations, activate the communities, and give them fresh material. But we can’t look at Comic-Con as a single experience and then not feel that we have to continue that dialogue through the entire season.”

Brief Take: For TV marketers, Comic-Con is far more than just a giant nerd convention. It’s the one place where super-fans congregate to see their favorite stars and shows. Those superfans also are super-connectors, tweeting, blogging and texting about the pop culture they are passionate about, making each one of them a valuable marketing commodity.

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