Marketing Mistakes at a Local Con

[KeithBVaughn]

In the interest of sharing information and passing on some experience to other members, I want to relate what happened to me at a local convention and some mistakes I made in marketing (selling copies) of my game: "Saga of the Dead Earth."

I noticed at this con, Chaoticon in Green Bay, Wisconsin; that most people tended to play in RPGA sponsered events and would not commit to a four hour block of time to try out newer games. At other local cons I found out that even 2 hours was too much until the very end of the con. That didn't leave me with very much time to sell many games. My solution was to try to get people to try a short scenario for the game at the table I was selling at. So far, so good.

I came up with using an attractive game board with miniatures representing pre generated characters to allow the potential buyers to try the game in a combat, skill and intellect scenarios. So I created a game board out of pink foam insulation board and a curious layout of cliffs and "red star life" along with "lawn" for the base. I used several resin pieces to add more interest to the game board. The miniatures were painted to a high standard and every thing looked very attractive. This was my first mistake.

I had forgotten a basic truth. Roleplayers are not miniature gamers and Miniature Gamers are not roleplayers. My gameboard looked like a miniature game and no role play gamers did more than pass by. The second mistake was the gamebook.

I had taken the book and decided to make it more friendly for use by providing frosted plastic covers and a clear coil binding. It looked like an ashcan edition from a distance. I would of been better off saddle stapling it. To compound the previous paragraph's impression, I used photos of miniatures in the book instead of illustrations. Although the book was well laid out and visually pleasing it didn't look like a role playing game.

A third mistake was not using an open mike the convention provided to alert the people there about Saga of the Dead Earth. Expecting the game to sell itself was a mistake. I should of been on that mike at least twice a day.

For the number four mistake, I should of had some banners behind the table to draw people closer and get them curious enough to talk about the game. The booth next to me, Snarling Badger Games, had a nice vertical banner and a stand to hold it up properly.

One thing which was uncontrolable was I had a table in front of a window and my whole table was in silhouette against the outside light for much of the day.

To sum things up, I learned some things not to do or ineffective ways to sell. I'll try some other tactics for selling this fall at another local con and see if it fares better (and I'll share the results.)

Any suggestions would be welcome relating to ways you have attracted people to your booth to get them to try your game would be appreciated. Otherwise, I simply put this out as a lesson learned and shared.

All for Now,
Keith

[iago]

Another suggestion for improving: don't go it alone.  I know from watching the indie games area at places like DexCon that more indie games in one spot beget stronger interest, stronger sales.  Find out if there are other local designers willing to go to the local conventions with you and form an allied, unified presence.  Learn each other's games, how to promote them, demo them, and play them.  Watch each others' backs.

[JSDiamond]

This is from experience:

1. No booth "babes."  Hot girls scare gamers away --especially female gamers (this usually only works at comicbook and anime conventions).  Girl friends and wives are cool, just not all slutted up, unless it's something very game-related thing like a costume. 
2. Be professional.  Pay to have a nice banner made and have the gear to put it up. 
3. Set yourself apart appearance-wise.  Example: Bring your own tablecloth and cover your table so you're not the thousandth stiff with a blue and white bunting and that awesome gold shag carpeting from 1972.
4. Have free stuff like flyers and sample characters that people can take back to their hotel rooms and read about.  And for-fuck-sake make sure your free stuff is in COLOR.  Unless b&w images are specifically in tune with the vibe of your game.  Example: My flyers had a character on one side and a digest of the rules on the back so they could actually play scenarios.  They were so nice people kept asking me if they were free or for sale.  I finally put a "free" sign on the table with them.
5. Which reminds me --put a free sign out for free stuff inviting people to "take one" etc.
6. Prices. Putting the prices out in the open makes it easy for attendees to do their calculations on spending the all-too-scarce convention dollars.  Although it's equally valid to suggest that not doing so gets them to your table and starts a conversation beginning with the all important "How much?"
7. Have someone man the booth with you. 
8. Avoid either standing at the table's edge looking desperate and also sitting with arms folded as though you don't need this (E.g., imagine the projected attitude of the average VtM player --and then do the exact opposite). 
9. Avoid rpg "critics" as they are mostly cunts.  You'll know who they are when they tell you about how great every other game in your genre is --without looking at yours. 
10. If you have a chance to meet and talk with Ron Edwards or John Wick, do so.  They are extremely cool. 
11. Do not play music.  Nobody likes what you like.
12. Keep food and drinks off the table and as out of sight as possible.  Pay attention to interested people.
13. Answer all questions.  Even about the stuff you screwed up.  Why?  Because everyone at the convention has thought about or written their own game rules.  The only difference between them and you is that you didn't quit when it became actual work.  It may not be at the forefront of their minds, but gamers do understand how hard it is to create something. 

 


   

[Ron Edwards]

A hell of a lot of the things I know, I learned from Jeff. He is spot on.

Best, Ron

[sean2099]

Hi Keith,

I think you have the right attitude, learning from your mistakes and the willingness to try again.  I haven't tried to sell a game at a convention, so I can't offer too many tips yet.  However, the attitude thing carries over in all aspects of life.  In addition, threads like this are good places to pick up a few tips.

Sean

[Michael S. Miller]

RPGA-dominated cons are a particularly tough nut to crack. You have to realize and accept that most of the players paid good money to be there so that they can earn XP for their RPGA character. If they spende time trying out your game, even if they have fun, they've lost that opportunity to earn XP.

The solution is to get your demo down as short as possible. 10 minutes from "have a seat" to "that's the demo. Thanks for playing." Tops. Practice, practice, practice until you get it down tight. 10 minutes is time to do ONE thing, so only put the game info you need to do that one thing on the character sheets, with maybe one teasing detail about what the full game might hold.

I suggest taking your own meal breaks right after a new timeslot has started. Because during the scheduled meal breaks, you'll want to be inviting folks to demo YOUR game before the next RPGA event starts up.If you can hold to that 10-minute mark, you can get 4-5 demos per meal break. PLUS, during scheduled slots, you can possibly snag folks for a quick demo while they take bathroom breaks and the like. Ideally your demo can be run for a single player, or for a larger group.

[Jake Richmond]

I just did Gamestorm a few weeks ago and ad a great time. here's what i learned:

Don't go it alone: I shared a table with Travis Brown, Christian Griffen and Chris... I forgot Chris's last name. Anyway, 4 inde publishers at one table excited about their games! Multiple publishers/games draw attention!

Get help: My brother Nick ran the table the entire weekend, freeing the rest of us up to run games , talk to players and do panels and interviews. This meant that there was always someone at the booth, but there was always someone out in the con getting people excited as well!

Demo: We pushed our table back and put a small demo table out front where it was the center of the attention. Anytime anyone stopped for even a half second we would lead off by saying "why don't you sit down for a quick demo". As a result we ran demos pretty much non stop all weekend. Travis Brown was at the booth the most and ran the most demos, so it's no suprise that The CrossRoads of Eternity sold a ton of copies! The more demos we ran the more people came to the table. When we weren't around Nick ran demos for us.

Run Games: Travis and I were there all 3 days and scheduled an aggressive number of games. 8 games between the 2  of us!  Going into the con we had no or few sign-ups for any of our games, but we generated so much interest at our table that we ended up having to turn people away from several games! Most of those games resulted in one or more sales, and many of those games generated very nice AP reports!

Do a panel: We asked if we could do an indie games panel. The result was the four of us in a small room talking about our games for the better part of an hour. Lots of fun (but a littlescattered. i was pretty far gone at that point). Pretty much everyone that came to the panel ended up at our table afterward.

Signs! Travis Brown and I brought signs, andsigns help people know who the fuck you are. Sometimes you just cant figure out a booth without a sign. Travis ad I had matching 3x4 CrossRoads/Panty Explosion banners that we put on a stand next to the demo table. I also had a stubidly enormous 4x6 Classroom deathmatch banner that went behind the table on the wall. People came over all weekend to ask about the CDM banner. Unfortunately my books hadn't arrived from the printer yet, so I didn't have any to sell. But I was able to tell people about the CDM preorder, and I saw a spike in preorders for the book after the weekend.

Be very excited: because you have to get up way early in the morning there's a temptation to sit behind your table and just chill. But you have to be out there getting people excited. And you have to be excited. Stay upbeat and interested for the entire weekend. drink a ton of soda!

tell people about the show! Small cons suck at advertising. Go out and tell people about it! Talk about it on your site, make fliers with your game on it and hand them out at local shops. Tell all your friends and get them to come. We did a good job of both letting people know about the show and letting them know we would be there. The result? The first hour of the first Day saw a young woman run up to the booth and ask me "which one of the Panty Explosion guys are you. I came to the con just to try your game"! Over the weekend we had a ton of people who came looking for us because they knew we would be there, and a fair number of people who said they came just to see us!


That's my small con experience.


Jake

[KeithBVaughn]

Thanks for the feedback and tips. I had a 10 minute demo I was doing but I couldn't get any over to play it. So I'm going to try a full color banner behind the booth to lure potential customers there. As for the free handout, I may do a full color map of the Dead Earth and either the rules on the other side or deck plans for skimmers, gunboats and other vehicles. I'll do this on a 11 x 17 sheet.

The advertizing for the con while pimping the game sounds like a good idea that I'll look into.

As a side note: will anyone else be going to Oshcon in September? (Oshkosh, WI) I run my booth solo and that is a challenge to make an understatement.

[Adam SBG]

As a side note: will anyone else be going to Oshcon in September? (Oshkosh, WI)

Why yes, I'll be there. But of course, I run it so I need to be there.

Actually Keith, there are only a couple of booths left, so if you're interested you should jump quick. I did have an idea that may interest you: pay the normal booth fee (a measly $25 for a table) but instead of being in a booth, you could be at a gaming table in the game area (in front of the the dealer booths) all weekend long (meaning you wouldn't have to move) and you could do demos in with the rest of the gaming and still have permission to sell games from that table. My game company Snarling Badger Games is thinking about doing the same thing. Then Peter can run demos and sell games when I have to be away from the table doing con stuff. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

www.oshcon.org

[KeithBVaughn]

Hi Adam,

I remember you; I was next to you all weekend. I think we had the same amount of success that weekend. Sure, I'll take that table. Private email me the details and I'll make arrangements with you. There's a lot of good ideas in this thread, we may want to discuss them and some ideas for Oshkon.

Have you looked over the copy I gave you when we exchanged games at Chaoticon?

Keith

[Clyde L. Rhoer]

Hi guys,

I made a thread about Osh Con here, so we could talk about the con a bit more.