Audio EXP Podcast: #243 – Marketing

Welcome home.

This is Audio EXP for the 25th of May the episode title is “Marketing”

[The following is a transcript of Audio EXP: #243]
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Calamity Punk Publishing won the RPG Publisher Spotlight this month.

It was about midnight, and during a howling storm, a social media ping from one of the Calamity Punks landed on my phone. I was about to go to bed.

So, no. I’ve not written up the Spotlight piece because I’m holding out for that interview. We still might run out of time, but I’m now in contact and have fired off one round of questions.

Cutting it fine, huh?

I’ve titled this podcast episode “Marketing” because it’s my day job and keeping me very busy. Of course it is, it’s the bank holiday weekend before the giant UK Games Expo.

In the perfect world, after sorting through my lottery win, I’d be getting ready with interviews, previews and teasers for this great big gathering of tabletop geeks. That would help market their games and be a win-win. I’ve been busy with the marketing day job.

Looking at the RPG news, and related news, this week, I’m not the only one in that situation.

This is not another snipe at how bad some gaming companies are at marketing but when Kickstarter announced a new vision I sighed and said “Finally”.

The last new vision for Kickstarter was a disaster and had people threaten to quit the crowdfunding platform. They wanted to decentralise and use blockchain technology. Maybe they still do. However, at the time, blockchain and NFTs were synonymous, rightly or wrongly, and the world was discovering how terrible some of the NFT ideas and techniques were.

Kickstarter’s new vision is about marketing.

The lack of marketing assistance from the platform has resulted in an ecosystem of companies that help campaign coordinators with their pitches. They run ads, they might do some outreach to influencers, and they might even help with fulfilment. Some of these companies have become so large, like BackerKit, that they’ve launched their own rival crowdfunding platforms to take on Kickstarter. They’ve been biting the hand that feeds them.

It’s taken a while, but now Kickstarter can do most of that and is moving to do all of that. Kickstarter as an in-house performance team to help you get backers. Oh, they suggested you consider it a digital marketing team because some people see the two as similar, but I don’t. There are overlaps, but you can certainly do brand and behaviour change campaigns with digital; it’s not always about ringing the cash register.

Kickstarter will help a bit more with logistics by having a better backer survey, and the CEO has said that they’ll be doing a lot more.

The feedback from Kickstarter users, though, must surely be that they want better backer protection. It’s a risk not well known that crowdfunding is different from buying a product in a shop.

Right now, though, Kickstarter needs to walk the walk and not just talk the talk. I’m not a crowdfunder, but Geek Native writes about crowdfunding a lot, and I saw nothing in the announcement that appealed to me. There’s no new tools to help me better cover tabletop games on the platform and nothing to make it worth my while.

I will, of course, still try to keep up. Geek Native tries to do small indie RPG projects as often as the big beasts. I don’t think that I’ll ever get to earn money from Kickstarter coverage while I sleep, it’s going to be hard work, not lucrative work to write up games.

Speaking of sleep, and still on marketing, a company that sells CPAP machines got in touch with data. CPAP.com sells machines that fit a mask over your mouth while you sleep to ensure air can enter your lungs. Why wouldn’t it? Some common sleeping disorders effectively try and choke you as you sleep. Scary as heck.

What CPAP had been looking at is which computer games, given their music and tempo, are good and bad to play before trying to get to sleep.

The top three worst games are;

• In third place; Call of Duty Warzone.
• In second; Dragon’s Dogma 2.
• In first place, and thanks to a Cup of Liber-Tea, Helldivers 2.

However, there are better games too.

• In third place; Valorant.
• In second; Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.
• In first place; Rise of the Ronin.

Bronwen, who is staying home to art and blog while I charge around the UK Games Expo halls, also noticed the rewards of marketing success this week.

Marvel’s Union Jack The Ripper #1 features zombies and popular baker Greggs.

For me, Greggs is just a high street chain where you can go to buy a scone, or a drink, or a pizza slice, or a sausage roll however it’s been adopted by the British public as a treasure.

On TikTok, I’ve seen American influencers try British food, try Greggs and rave over their buns and sausage rolls. Why do I watch that? Is any of it true? America is a land of great food and people who take hospitality very seriously. Surely a Greggs bake can’t be all that impressive?

In the comic, though, there’s no zombie sausage rolls, just a mention of the brand. It could have been worse. Or better, I suppose.

I did not talk about zombies or sausage rolls when I talked to Rob Heinsoo this week. Thank goodness I did, otherwise there would have been scant tabletop joy for me since we last spoke.

Rob and I talked about The 13th Age 2nd edition. That’s the post-D&D fantasy the D&D designer created for Pelgrane Press with Jonathan Tweet.

It turns out that when Osprey Games launched Frostgrave Second Edition, with that game compatible with the first, it was enough to convince Rob he could do something similar for 13th Age.

Lastly, before the outro, it’s worth noting that it’s PaizoconOnline right now, with new digital bundles and big discounts from third parties and partners.

For the outro, I’ll point out the game and comic book Bundle of Holding deal called Wyrd Breach from Wyrd Games. That’s the Malifaux tabletop RPG, and it’ll take you from nothing to being well-equipped.

So, remember; no podcast next weekend as I’ll be in the NEC but watch Geek Native’s social media for lots of photographs and little videos.

Let’s hope for no strikes or flooded railway tracks, and I’ll see you in two weeks. Unless that is, I see in you, Birmingham.