Megagame marketing 101
Rob Grayston helps to run East Midlands Megagames and brings his thoughts about marketing megagames to the wider community.
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Marketing can be intimidating and frustrating. How do you do it? What should you be doing? Why am I looking up a Photoshop tutorial at 3am?
It’s not all scary though.
I’ve put together a presentation to help you with the basics for beginners, and to act as a common frame of reference for those who are more advanced at marketing*.
If you want in-depth discussion and more advanced concepts, there are Facebook Groups and Discords to join, or you can get in touch with me directly on the contact details in the slides, or email Megagame Assembly. Maybe you disagree with me, or think the presentation could be improved? Maybe you want me to deliver the presentation so you can throw rotten vegetables. Get in touch!
For specific resources for making megagames easier to run and market, try checking out this Megagame Assembly article – it’s a good place to find useful tools to help make your megagames run smoothly from design and promotion, to player feedback.
Enjoy the slides below. The PowerPoint and PDF versions of the slides are also available.
*This presentation was originally delivered to a small group of like-minded megagamers who want to improve the hobby’s marketing efforts
Slide 1: Introduction
Welcome to this presentation and thank you for attending – we’re going to cover some simple ideas that should help you get started as someone new to marketing megagames, but it should also be useful for established marketers in building a common language on this subject, so we know what we mean when we talk “marketing megagames”.
Slide 2: What is marketing?
At its simplest, marketing is about getting your product in front of people in such a way that they want to engage with it. I’ve shared a selection of megagame “posters” here (including a video still), which have all tried to capture a feel about the game they’re promoting in order to excite potential players.
Slide 3: Social media
Social media is becoming an increasingly fragmented realm, with people on different platforms that may or may not be more useful to you when marketing a megagame. Facebook is still the biggest and likely to yield a lot of attention, so I would advise a presence here – after which, you will know your own capacity, but I would advise no more than one other platform to start off with, if you think it would be useful, and not just another social media account for the sake of it.
In order to get peoples’ attention, a steady stream of material will keep you in front of potential players. It does not have to be amazing and ground breaking, but it should be semi-regular.
“Done is better than perfect” when it comes to engaging content, so do not waste time on crafting the best poster, video, or post when you may have other commitments. This does not mean there should be no quality control, but do bear this simple mantra in mind.
Slide 4: Website
A digital location to point potential players at is very useful – a place with some details on your own game or group, and contact details. Websites are the best option here, but will need maintenance and updating.
You can use your website as a location for your signup forms, whether to a specific game or a general newsletter.
A website is also somewhere to host engaging material such as past megagame reports, introductions to new games, and pictures from past games that show what they were like. Smiling players and “action shots” are ideal!
Slide 5: email list
As mentioned in the previous slide, you should consider running an email list. It will give you direct access to their inbox, and not rely on people seeing your social media posts “in the wild.”
Nobody likes email spam, so do not abuse running an email list. You should also be mindful of data governance such as GDPR, so make sure you are aware of the relevant laws.
The email content should be to the point; the longer an email, the less people will read – and this includes the fewer links they will click s the email goes on. Key links should be prominent and near the top of an email.
Hopefully you can see the advantage of having an email list, as it can be used to keep potential players informed for your future games.
Slide 6: Existing groups
Megagames are not big enough to be their own independent subset of gaming (yet), and so we need to attract players from other places. Some of these are adjacent to the hobby, like boardgamers, wargamers, LARPers and roleplayers, so start by looking for clubs and groups online and in your area.
If you are fortunate enough to have a boardgame café or other similar space, you should absolutely consider approaching them to take fliers or host a playtest. A playtest can be a lot of work, but it can give you visibility with potential players, build a relationship with the café that can be mutually beneficial, and you can post about it/take pictures too!
Other places to find potential players may be fan groups of a specific intellectual property, historical re-enactors, Model United Nations clubs, and university societies. Go wild on Google looking at who is out there!
Slide 7: Miscellaneous
Traditional media can seem daunting, but many local news outlets such as radio stations and newspapers may be open to hearing about your game. Community media at a low level (church newsletters, parish magazines, neighbourhood Facebook groups) can also be a potential source to get a few players. Leave no stone unturned!
As mentioned previously, playtests can take some effort to arrange but are good places to run short taster sessions and engage with your most enthusiastic players (or “cheerleaders”), who in turn will tell their friends and share your content.
But the main thing to remember, above all, even moreso than “Done is better than perfect,” is that there is no single megagame marketing Silver Bullet to make everything you do work flawlessly. Perhaps physical posters at some locations might be good for you, whilst a Discord with active posting might work for someone else? Also bear in mind that no matter how big the hype is around the game, marketing cannot hide anything that goes wrong!
Finally, don’t be afraid to ask for help. There are friendly megagamers out there who have done what you want to do, and who will be happy to give advice and perhaps provide some time and skills.
Slide 8: Questions
Thanks for sitting through this basic run-through of marketing for megagames! Marketing is more of an art than a science, and you will find what works best for you – ultimately, this introductory presentation may not have given you any help beyond thinking you will ignore it, and find new and effective ways to get the megagaming message out to potential players. I’m still counting that as a win.
Any questions?
Rob Grayston is a game designer and emergency planning officer, or as his partner says, “he’s 50% doomsday-prepper and 50% doomsday-writer.” He lives in Nottinghamshire UK, where he is part of East Midlands Megagames. You can contact him on Twitter.