BGMP 023 With A Smile & A Gun with Jonathan Vallerand (JV)

In this episode, host Nalin talks to Jonathan Vallerand (JV) about marketing for With A Smile & A Gun , that raised  CA$ 16,411 on Kickstarter.

We discuss:

-          [0:50] What With A Smile & A Gun is about.

-          [1:57] Being active in online communities a long time before launch helped with feedback, ideas and establishment.

-          [7:14] Asking questions and asking for help in forums takes time, but eventually helps creating and establishing a presence online that will transfer to promotion for the game. 

-          [10:45] Havin different ways to involve the communities into the game like asking for feedback, or creating an online tournament to build excitement a few weeks before launch and to promote the game. 

-          [15:40] Running the online tournament and online stream conversation the most organic way possible.

-          [18:09] Building social capital on social media, and groups by posting on launch day to remind everyone of the campaign. 

-          [20:08] How stretch goals helped the game reach a broader audience through mouth-to-mouth promotion. 

-          [22:56] Running targeted ads (like focussing on the game being canadian made, for the canadian audience) and doing traditional PR during the campaign  like podcast interviews and reviewers checking out the game. 

-          [25:58] Taking advantage of the benefits of collaboration (and networking), where people will not only contribute to the game, but also be invested in it and promote it as well. 

-          [31:10] The importance of providing value in conversations (offline and online), and not being scared of reaching out to people in the industry.

-          [33:16] What’s coming up in the future for Subsurface Games and where people can reach out to JV.

Thanks for listening to the Board Game Marketing Podcast!

Final marketing tip from Jonathan to new board game creators:

 Make connections first. If you approach every conversation with "how can I get something out of this?", you're doing it wrong! Instead, connect with people, learn about them, help them out, involve them in your process. If you're too sales-y, you might get one customer. If you are more genuine, you might get one spokesperson, and that's much cooler. 

Kickstarter campaign: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/subsurfacegames/with-a-smile-and-a-gun-a-dice-drafting-game-for-2-players

Website: https://subsurfacegames.ca/wasag-landing/

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/subsurfacegames/

For more information on how to market your game, be sure to check out the Meeple Marketing Blog.