Sonal Varma
Event Director
Comic Con India
Sonal Varma comes with an experience of over 13 years in the events & media industries and is known as a seasoned event and activation marketing professional. She has been managing events, activations, media, brand alliances, content, and global celebrity talent with excellence over the years. She has been associated with Comic Con India for 13 years and has played multiple key roles there. She has had a foothold in things like driving F&B, to venue management, and brand partnerships with high-impact and minimal cost approach, generating 30% YoY cost savings and 20% increase in impact and impressions (social, digital, media and footfalls).
She has secured and aided Comic Con India establish and maintain key sponsorships and brand alliances with some renowned brands like Marvel, Warner Bros., Amazon Prime Video, Crunchyroll Maruti Suzuki, Meta, Cadbury’s, Adidas, Disney+, Sony Pictures to name a few.
She has successfully executed several campaigns for Comic Con India and its partners, including Disney’s Avengers launch event (with Joe Russo), Spiderman: Far From Home & Homecoming social campaigns with Sony Pictures, and recently multiple activations for Crunchyroll. Taking charge of the company’s public relations efforts, she has successfully delivered year on year growth in media space and brand visibility in Tier 1 publications.
She has done her schooling from Delhi Public School – Mathura Road. On the personal front, she is a pop culture enthusiast and enjoys the title of a champion karaoke singer!
Creative Initiatives for season 23-24 (about Newer markets)
Executing a full season of events after our initial comeback from the pandemic
Successful launch of a brand new Comic Con after 4 years in Chennai. The response from the city was overwhelming, establishing Chennai as part of our event calendar permanently.
Taking brand integration with sponsors to the next level with Crunchyroll beyond just our events – with multiple standalone fan activations across India, including the their brand ambassador launch with Rashmika Mandanna and Tiger Shroff as well as the premiere of Demon Slayer with Japanese voice cast and crew.
Bringing back India’s premiere cosplay championship – The Indian Championship of Cosplay.
Challenges faced
Building a brand new Comic Con India team from scratch, this was an on-going process from our initial come back from the pandemic. It took us close to 2 years to fully build the team back.
Successfully launching and executing a brand new Comic Con in Chennai. With no previous presence or base in the city, it took us over a year of planning to finally bring this to fruition and all the hard work paid off.
On-boarding and maintaining sponsors and partners in a tightening market – with the pre-pandemic buzz dying down and the market cooling down a bit, key brand relationships were kept intact and in some cases expanded.
Vision for upcoming seasons
With Comic Con India now part of the Nodwin family of events, my goal is to expand the number of events and lead the transition between the two companies, bringing both teams together.
New Comic Con Events on the horizon.
Integrating our team within the Nodwin family and taking advantage of the new synergies.
