rather than put the BMovie logo on the back, put a selection of individual cards on the backs, it'll be quirky and more memorable.

Before you do any advertising, do some press release / news stuff on the sites in question. There's no point paying for what you can get free, and it'll give you a gauge of interest. Make sure you track clickthroughs. Outside of gaming, maybe some of the smaller film review sites might be interested or relevant? Webcomics with a filmy feel too.

The video is a good idea, but just embedding it on your site is kinda inverted thinking. You want to spread it around the youtubes and vimeos of this world and use it to draw people through to your site. Again, something quirky will get noticed.

Two minor points on your website, make the news links the text of the title as well as the date, that'll flow relevant text with any linkjuice. Make sure the http://giantbrain.co.uk works as well as the www version, it currently goes to a holding page.

-Matt

Realms Publishing

If you haven't added a B-Movie page to boardgamegeek.com, you really should. Geoff is far more qualified to talk about the pros and cons of it, but it really is the website for talking about card and board games on the web.

As for videos - why not try to make a fairly simple "how to play" video? All you'd need to do is video you and Ross playing a round of it and then talk over the top about what you're doing and why. If you can make it as funny as possible, all the better, as then you can whack it up on youtube and try to get some viral marketing going.

As for banner ads on websites - I've never had much success. Certainly ads on rpg.net and enworld haven't resulted in any obvious peaks of sales (or even hits, particularly). I think you're better off targeting your marketing budget elsewhere.

You get your price breaks on reasonably high runs of posters. I'd be looking at about £1/A2 poster, professionally printed, for numbers under 50. You then need to factor in purchasing poster rolls and postage on top of that. Lets be generous and say that each of them costs another £1 in total. Add in the costs of an introductory letterhead (say 10p) and you are looking at a cost of £2.10 per shop for each poster. ASSUMING that they will even consider putting that poster up? If you make another generous assumption that maybe 1 in 3 shops will actually place the poster up, keep it up and put it in a reasonable place then each poster is costing you around £6.30. Factor that into your costs first!

If the poster strategy was going to yield a high turnover of product or was selling a pricey product, then the ROI would be higher. If there were lots of follow-on sales in terms of merchandising and concerts, then again, the ROI is higher.

I think that there's more to postering strategy than meets the eye.

What I would suggest is that you contact a guy called Zev Schlasinger (his last name is spelled different everytime) - the Z-Man in Z-Man Games. (zman@zmangames.com) Zev is an old buddy of mine in the states so feel free to name drop me from the get-go and he makes games very similar to RotBMs and has a lot of time for new people in the business. He might be able to give you some marketing hints as well with a better inside track.

Video is a great idea. Instructional videos rock.

Neil

Take the King's shilling at http://www.omnihedron.co.uk/dutyandhonour/

Zev is a top guy - I had the pleasure of meeting him at Gencon UK a few years ago, and I second Neil's recommendation. Very helpful, very nice!

Iain,

Any reason not to just literally have your business card be an extra "special" card for RotBM? As in a promo card which has the same back as the regular cards and acts as a card when you play the game, but also has your details on the front?

Or is that a bit costly? Obviously you'd need to get it done by GoB.

Is there mileage in a promo card anyway?

A promo card sounds like a good idea, if it's feasible. CCGs always used to do ones tied to a specific con, but it'd be better to tie them to a season of cons or the like. You could even have it self-referential like "unwashed con goers" or "rabid roleplayers."

Andrew

Is what I'd do. Print them cheaply, perhaps only on business cards, perhaps just on normal card, guillotined up.

Put them in envelopes and give them away free as a 10-minute taster game.

Graham

Thanks for the z-man link guys, I have emailed him this very evening.

The business card is something I have been thinking about for a while. Ryan is happy enough to print of 108, they only go in multiples of 9, for me of one card. It would cost $6.50 plus shipping which he is going to find out for me tonight. Will keep you updated. I will start another thread about that and attach a PDF experiment of the card.

This will also lead, if shipping ain't too much, to me producing limited edition cards for different cons like 'from Conpulsion 2009' etc. Do you guys think that is a good idea? The idea would be to give it away at that con with purchases of the game or sell it for like 50p a shot.

BGG stuff is underway.

I think I will put together a poster and let you guys look at it. Once I have feedback from you and other places I will make a call.

Free demos of the game to give away I am not sure about. This works for RPGs when you do a lite version but I would still like it be good quality. The quality of cards is a big thing in selling a card game and I wouldn't want to do any demo thing on the cheap. Anyone else think I should do this?

Cheers

Iain

Mob Justice now available!

'The Giant Brain':Small games, big ideas.

If this was the States and con attendance ran in the thousands, I'd say that was a good idea. As our cons are piddly and small, I think it would be a lot of effort for little gain to tailor them to a specific con - better to have a "season" of cards instead.

Andrew

Hold, stop, halt, etc.

Before you spend any money on ANYTHING to do with marketing, let the free stuff do its work. Do not spend a penny until you have established a solid base of consumer awareness.

If I may be blunt, this is something that failed to happen with Mob Justice. However, B-Movie is a sparkly new product and gives you the chance to really build a profile for the game that will benefit sales in the short and long run.

Make announcements on key fora (and don't just say "Here it is!" make it interesting, make it spark debate and comment)

Utilise your blog(s) to their fullest extent, get other people to mention it on their blogs, let the word spread

Do the free stuff like a video demo, that's a great idea

Encourage purchasers to talk about the game, start a culture of people posting up their most outrageous or funny winning movie names (like the creation of oracles for In A Wicked Age, this could become a thing in itself)

As Matt suggested, go beyond gaming: hit movie fora, send press releases. Hell, a press release and a free copy to Empire (or similar) might have the potential to get some publicity.

Paying for advertising is pretty much a waste of money. Don't bother about it just now. Look at the bald facts: the 100 copies you have are there to build a fanbase and get the ball rolling. There is zero point in a big, paid for marketing/advertising campaign at the moment. Concentrate on building solid, word of mouth recommendations, get people talking. When you're getting 500 copies printed, then you might think of a few posters for games shops, but don't spend a penny until then.

Edit: And for future reference, it might be wise to think about these things and plan an effective and workable strategy PRIOR to the game coming out. There are several people on this site with an excellent working knowledge of both marketing and small business practice. Getting their input and feedback into a marketing plan in an offline environment before launching the product would be an extremely beneficial proposition.

Cheers
Malc

Contested Ground Studios

I certainly want to go about doing the free stuff first, I am more garnering opinions for down the line. As for doing this prior to the game coming out, I would have done more beforehand but have been extremely cautious on that front due to being let down on several occasions by a variety of printers. I was only completely sure this had gone ok when the product arrived on my doorstep.

I would love your, and others, input Malc as I gear up into advertising ROTBM and I certainly like some of the ideas thrown about so far, Empire is an especially nice idea, might try that.

Graham has suggested that I talk about the plans for the game down the line, try and get people to contribute card ideas etc. Any thoughts?

Any particular games sites I should send press releases to that I am missing? I am working on one for Gaming Report and I am currently active on RPGnet, Storygames and BoardGameGeek. I am going to be looking around for more movie based forums etc. this evening and over the next few weeks.

Cheers

Iain

Mob Justice now available!

'The Giant Brain':Small games, big ideas.

What I'm really suggesting is that you start a thread on Story Games where people can give you ideas for cards. You might need a pretext under which to do that.

You should get a review on RPG.NET. Perhaps send a pack to C. W. Richeson? It's a good looking game, and a fun idea, so it might appeal to him.

Graham

Yeah I need to put together a list of people that I would like reviews from. C.W. might be one of them but I need to look around RPGnet and BGG to see who reviews this kind of thing.

Cheers

Iain

Mob Justice now available!

'The Giant Brain':Small games, big ideas.

I think we're all in the dark at the moment about how your card game will go -- you're leading the way here, Iain. I think there will be a lot of reacting to what you find along the way.

As Graham notes I think it would be a good idea to get the word out -- have a press release on the web (the usual news outlets and your site, of course) to coincide with the launch at Games Expo. Then follow it up with pics and quotes garnered from purchasers at the Expo. But we don't know what they will say at the moment (though I'm pretty hopeful it will be super-positive).

I would agree with Malcolm about being really wary of having budgeted marketing right now. For a start, you can't deliver on supplying large demand at the moment, right? Your margins are tight and your first print run is about getting presence, play and covering your set-up costs.

The cards look great by the way can't wait to see them in the... card? (flesh?)

Indeed it will be interesting to see how all this works out for me and I plan to keep everyone up to date through my blog about the exact figures just so they can judge for themselves.

I think I was unclear on the posters. My idea is that if a shop orders some of my stock, then I will give them a poster or two to advertise the game in the shop due to my lack of a display case or equivalent. I was in no way planning to mail shot to 500+ stores a random poster. I am going to put something together soon and will let people have a look and see what they think. I would print maybe 20-30 of these things.

Are we going to have posters displayed on the stall at GE?

I thought I would summarise briefly what I have done so far and what I am planning to do:

1) BGG now has an application for a page on the game. That should be approved soon and then I post up some pictures. In the meantime I am engaging with that community as loads of them are interested in small run card games.

2) Story games: I am not sure how much more valuable story games is going to be as their content is really more geared towards rpgs. I will keep posting press releases and other company set-up related articles there however.

3) Chris Baylis of the Games Gazette is going to be given a copy of the game at Games Expo and seems interested in doing a review.

4) Once I am back in edinburgh I need to get some website stuff done and some press releases for Gaming Report, RPGnet and anywhere else I am pointed at. I am currently trawling around the net looking at various card and board game related sites.

5) I have found loads of B-Movie sites and a few of which I may just be able to do a press release to.

6) Links: For all those who have sites on here, and have not done so already, I would appreciate you adding a link to The Giant Brain and I will return the favour.

7) IPR: I am currently talking to Fred and Brennan about taking the game on and they seem interested. I will be sening them a copy to look at once I get back.

That is all I can think of for the moment. Pictures and quotes from people at Expo is a good one and I will be doing a press release early next week on every site I can find.

I will be talking to my brother tomorrow about getting a video camera and doing the AP video and then sticking it up on youtube etc. to show the game off. Also will embed that in my site.

Anyway, must go and finish of my Expo demo for RA.

All the best

Iain

Mob Justice now available!

'The Giant Brain':Small games, big ideas.

And just this moment the BGG page has gone up.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/36687

Cheers

Iain

Mob Justice now available!

'The Giant Brain':Small games, big ideas.

Shannon Appelcline.

Tim Gray
Silver Branch Games
www.silverbranch.co.uk