Advertising/Marketing for D&D/d20

[rpghost]

Actually, Rpghost, I didn't even notice your ad was in Dragon until you mentioned it and I found it. I think a new ad is in order; mayhap even advertising some of the great products you have. A suggestion to those advertising in RPG magazines; think outside the box.

Good point... we use several ads as we were testing the waters. Some of the more early 1/2 half page ads we ran and the ones we run in KOTD and Legends Mag are actually a cartoon. But that super-fantasy (over crowded) one is in Dragon and our GenCon registration book ads. The old RPGNow.com full page ad was another fantasy peice by Storn as well but it featured about 10 PDF product covers - most people comeneted they liked that one. (shrug)

We're planing to run a B&W ad in an upcoming newspaper style publication ... so I'm more then willing to hear input for a new design.

James

 

[JohnnyWilson]

Corrections and Observations

As the president of Paizo Publishing, the new publishing company for Dragon and Dungeon, I wanted to clarify some misinformation about WotC periodicals and to offer some research that speaks to one of the issues on this thread, but must be considered with a view toward my personal bias (after all, advertising in Dungeon and Dragon is one of the important revenue streams that keeps my company alive and my family fed).

First, allow me to correct some misinformation. A former advertising agency employee stated on these boards that WotC was charged for ads in Dragon and Dungeon. When I arrived in mid-1999, there was an internal charge for advertising. However, this was the height of the Pokemon sales peak and the magazines were considered to be marketing vehicles. So, I said it was stupid to double-charge the brand teams and I removed ALL charges from late 1999 until the beginning of this fiscal year. Why did I start charging again? My ground rules had changed and I was no longer a "marketing vehicle," I was now expected to manage a profit-making (or, minimally, cost neutral) product. So, we charged WotC the bare minimum cost of a page to reflect our new charter.

Since part of the agenda for the person posting was to discourage WotC from advertising in Dragon and Dungeon because it still cost them and they were preaching to the choir, I thought I should clarify that from Fall of 1999 until the end of 2001, those WotC ads were absorbed in the expense of creating the magazines and were FREE to the brand teams.

Another person posted about remnant ads. Remnant ads are when an advertising salesperson who hasn't met his or her quota decides to offer pages at absolutely absurd money-losing rates in order to tell their bosses that they met the number of pages. I regret to say that because I only received minimal accounting information when I was group publisher at WotC that I did not realize my advertising director was offering $300 pages.

As for my losing the ad or running the wrong ad three different times for the posting person's company, I am afraid that this is an embarrassing truth. I was attempting to run the magazines, start the new company and sell advertising all at the same time.

Also, I will affirm that Osseum can get you the best rates possible for Dragon and Dungeon. Why? Simply because they can place so many ads at such a frequency that they pre-negotiated a rate before any other ad rep or agency was interested.

Finally, the research that I believe is significant. First of all, even though I have a biased reason for sharing it, let me admit that it isn't research from my readers. It is research from the computer game industry. There was a time when advertising agencies were telling entertainment software companies to QUIT advertising in Computer Gaming World, PC Gamer and Computer Games Strategy Plus because they were "preaching to the choir." Here is what the actual computer game customers had to say about the importance of publishers advertising their products in those magazines:

If a software publisher advertises their game in a gaming publication, it means...

They are committed to it (43%)
They are confident about it (30%)
Indicating that it is probably of high quality (5%)

In short, 78% of those surveyed indicated that advertising indicated something positive about quality.

Of course, the flip side is:

They are just trying to sell a poor product (9%).

The rest were no responses. AND, before we have the usual "baffle 'em with questions" stuff from the experts, let me say that this was a PROJECTABLE survey built off the Polk data base, as well as fielded, tabulated and analyzed by an independent (non-magazine publishing) company specializing in consumer research.

Further, the same study (one year earlier) had a group of respondents that stated that advertisements in general computer magazines (56%) and advertisements in computer game magazines (56%) were more instrumental that advertisements in general interest magazines (30%) or advertisements online (37%).

Finally, my personal biased opinion: Plenty of ads = an assurance to consumers that the hobby is vibrant. Assurance that hobby is vibrant = a confidence that the consumer will not be stuck with useless hobby junk (ie. dead game systems and unplayed modules). Consumer confidence = more $ spent. More $ spent = more $ for publishers to spend on ads. Spiral continues upward.

Less ads = question to consumers whether the hobby is vibrant. Questions and confusion = less confidence. Less confidence = less $ spent. Less $ spent = less $ for publishers to spend on ads. Spiral continues downward.

Obviously an oversimplification, BUT it is the way I look at expenditures in other areas as a consumer (movie attendance or video/DVD purchases, book purchases, and collectibles). I don't want to get stuck with the equivalent of my son's baseball card collection in the hobby world. Again, we're not talking about the core of the core gamers. Some of us buy games that we know are going to die and that we know we'll never play. I'm talking about the fringe gamers who can make or break the profitability of our hobby.

 

[rpghost]

Re: Corrections and Observations

As for my losing the ad or running the wrong ad three different times for the posting person's company, I am afraid that this is an embarrassing truth. I was attempting to run the magazines, start the new company and sell advertising all at the same time.

First, Johnny, let me say that your owning up to this and the fact that you guys did make good on the above issues is why I'll still be running ads in Dragon in the future. I hope you took no offense to this info being made public, it wasn't my goal to put Dragon down. In all honesty, if you ARE going to do a print ad, that's the one place I'd go first.

James
RPGHost Networks

 

[JohnnyWilson]

No Offense Whatsoever

James,

No offense was taken. You mentioned an embarrassing fact to point out that things were changing, even at that point. I only wanted to clarify that I wasn't ALWAYS so careless with precious ads and I wanted to make sure everyone knew that "there's a new sheriff in town" and there'll be no more "cattle rustlin'" of remnant ad space. BTW, I refer to the ad sales director as the rustler, not the customers who recognized great deals when they were offered them.

 

[Samothdm]

Welcome to the boards, Johnny. I'm very glad that you saw this post and are able to use it as a forum to express your views.

Obviously, I love the game as much as everyone else here, and just want it to do well. I, like James, hope that I didn't offend you with any of my ideas/opinions/comments.

Since my skill-set lies in advertising and media planning, I speak to the business-side of the hobby from that standpoint. My opinions, however, are just that: opinions. Advertising and media planning is an art, not a science. Some members of my team might not even agree with some of the ideas I've put forth here. These are just my thoughts and ideas about how to improve the marketing of D&D and d20 products.

Since part of the agenda for the person posting was to discourage WotC from advertising in Dragon and Dungeon because it still cost them and they were preaching to the choir, I thought I should clarify that from Fall of 1999 until the end of 2001, those WotC ads were absorbed in the expense of creating the magazines and were FREE to the brand teams.

Thanks for clearing that up. I was definitely misinformed on this point, and I apologize for any confusion.

And, please don't think I have an "agenda" here. I'm just bringing up some discussion points. I still firmly believe that the D&D brand should be spending money outside of hobby magazines and websites to promote the play of the game, not just the product lines. But, again, that's just my opinion.

I think Dragon lately has been doing a good job of tying in with a particular month's product launches (ie, the tie-in with the Stronghold Builder's Guide) so I'm just not certain that a lot of large, multi-page advertisements need to promote the same product, too. But, part of that speaks to the creatives who put the ads together - it seems that most of the ads that Wizards does are 2-or-4-page spreads vs. single pages.

Finally, my personal biased opinion:
Plenty of ads = an assurance to consumers that the hobby is vibrant. Assurance that hobby is vibrant = a confidence that the consumer will not be stuck with useless hobby junk (ie. dead game systems and unplayed modules). Consumer confidence = more $ spent. More $ spent = more $ for publishers to spend on ads. Spiral continues upward.

Less ads = question to consumers whether the hobby is vibrant. Questions and confusion = less confidence. Less confidence = less $ spent. Less $ spent = less $ for publishers to spend on ads. Spiral continues downward.

That is definitely a good point. And, I think it's valid, based on the research that you have (I've seen the same research).

I think that, overall, part of my original message was lost. My real point is that, I think the D&D brand team (and WotC and Hasbro) should consider (again) doing a little bit more "mainstream" promotion of D&D to get some new players (or seriously lapsed players) into the hobby. They are not going to get those new players by advertising in Dragon, since I'd argue that the overwhelming majority of Dragon readers/subscribers are already playing. So, they need to look outside of the gaming arena.

That said, I think Dragon is a great publication. I've been a subscriber continuously since issue #90 back in the 1980s. I read it every month. And, I've used the advertisements from other companies to make informed purchases (but then again, I'm an ad-man so I always look at ads). And, this isn't just pandering - I do really like the publication is it was still on my "must read" list even when I didn't have a current gaming group. I think you'll find if you read through my posts above that I do recommend Dragon for getting the word out, especially for d20 companies. Specifically see this quote:

Also, as an advertiser, I would point out that while you may not see a direct correlation between running a print ad in Dragon magazine and increased traffic (or increased customer sign-ups), I would argue that an ad in Dragon (and Dungeon) gives your company a "halo effect" that you wouldn't have if you didn't run the ad. In other words, those ads give rpghost.com a sense of legitimacy that it may not otherwise have.

I find this whole topic interesting and I'm glad that some d20 publishers and WotC (and former WotC) employees are interested as well.

 

[Wingnut]

Advertising anywhere is a difficult beast. When the internet first came about and a tracking mechanism got involved for small companies to effectively use, it was great. Now websites need to get innovative with their approaches.

When I worked at Mplayer.com, we offered items like Blue Streak, Rich Media Interstitials and DHTML. Though more expensive, they were very effective in getting people's attention.

Print advertising is difficult as tracking with unique URLs or unique 800#s do not work well unless its a direct response ad like James promoting RPGShop.com. Trying to track branding is impossible. Advertising is all about fulfilling that "Marketing 101" lesson about people needing to see your name 7 times before they get comfortable buying your product. Those 7 times can be any combination of:
- A banner ad
- A print ad
- PR
- Seeing your product on a retailer shelf
- Hearing the name from a friend
- Seeing your booth at a tradeshow
- etc. etc. etc.

You'll never know when it will kick in, and maybe they will never buy, but the better you know your target market, the better place you can choose to promote.

Advertising in Dragon & Dungeon to try and garner mindshare from any type of RPGer is effective...It's all about how long you are able to afford doing it! If you can only afford a full page ad in Dragon once; break it up into three 1/3 page ads over a 3 month period. Spreading your branding over a longer period of time is better than trying to look HUGE out the gate once.

 

[Wingnut]

...Oh, and in terms of the "best rates possible"...Everything is negotiable, all the time. There is always a minimum cost per page that is associated with the production of a magazine, and it takes the advertising to make up for all the editorial page costs.

No matter where you advertise, just like buying a new car, there is always a better deal to be had.

When I worked at Imagine Media, I thought the VP that decided to make PC Gamer rates non-negotiable was crazy and leading us to the demise of the magazine...Little did I know that those non-negotiable rates were able to be attached to added value incentives to get people to advertise: free inserts, position guarantees, free banner impressions, extra CD space, etc. We were losing money on the added value, but it was just like negotiating the ad page rate without those items...And giving those items to the advertiser made them feel all warm and fuzzy.

 

[Samothdm]

Advertising in Dragon & Dungeon to try and garner mindshare from any type of RPGer is effective...It's all about how long you are able to afford doing it! If you can only afford a full page ad in Dragon once; break it up into three 1/3 page ads over a 3 month period. Spreading your branding over a longer period of time is better than trying to look HUGE out the gate once.

At the risk of taking this beyond the "d20 Publishers" forum and into a non-related area, I'd argue that advertising is not quite that simple.

In principal your theory (the recency theory) holds true. If you have something for sale that's constantly for sale with no real "seasonality" (no time of year when people increased consumption of your product), then the idea of running smaller ads (or fewer spots per week if you're on TV or Radio) is a sound idea. This would probably work some someone like James at rpghost.com who constantly needs to remind people that they can order products from his site.

But, let's say that a d20 publisher is promoting a new product ("The Book of Righteous & Hallowed Might & Magic" or something). They need to recoup their costs very quickly (let's say in the first 3 months). Creating a "HUGE" ad presence during one or two months (say, a full page vs. the 1/3 page, or running some interstitials vs. just banners) might be a better idea. While there is little definitive consensus, most research shows that a "bigger" ad (a full page or a 30 sec TV commercial vs. a 15 sec TV commercial) has more "impact." People remember it more. Adding color to a normally Black & White newspaper ad has the same effect.

So, it's really a balance between "continuity" (running ads continually) and impact.

It comes down to the objectives: always start with what you want to accomplish, and then craft the advertising/media plan around that. Don't start with the ad plan first ("Let's run some ads on the internet!") or you'll get in trouble every time.

 

[Wingnut]

In the real world of advertising, where companies actually have set ad budgets, I would agree with you wholeheartedly, but this is the hobby game industry, where advertising budgets are a side thought at best as 80%-90% of the industry is small press (people doing their games on the side of their full time job).

Hobby game companies cannot afford impact. How many game manufacturers (beyond the top 10) actually do full page ads? Magazines like KODT, edPlay, Games, GU, C&GR are filled with smaller sized ads. Should they just stop advertising? No.

Traditional advertising consists of:
- 2 months of "coming soon"
- 1 month of "now available"
- 1 month of "if you missed it last month..."
Most companies in any industry do a three month campaign minimum. Hobby game companies can barely afford one ad once, and throwing it into a full page ad is foolish. Better to spread it over a period of time.

The rules are different here. Everything I experienced in the videogame industry went off into the sunset when I started dealing with hobby game companies. WOTC is the only place I can call to speak with about how things *should* be done! =)

 

[Samothdm]

Traditional advertising consists of:
- 2 months of "coming soon"
- 1 month of "now available"
- 1 month of "if you missed it last month..."
Most companies in any industry do a three month campaign minimum. Hobby game companies can barely afford one ad once, and throwing it into a full page ad is foolish. Better to spread it over a period of time.

I don't know that I'd say putting money into a full-page ad is foolish. It's really a matter of opinion, since no one can really say for sure whether impact or continuity is going to work better.

The danger of running smaller space ads is that they get lost in the clutter. Most small ads run on the same page with other ads. With a full-page or "page-dominant" ad, you can at least guarantee that your ad is by itself, and many times will be opposite editorial (as opposed to across from another ad, in which case someone would be more likely to just flip past it).

I know that most hobby game companies don't have a lot of money to spend on ads and most can't afford full pages. But, we should avoid making blanket statements such as saying that running smaller-space ads for a longer period of time is "better" than running a larger ad for a shorter period of time.

Reach vs. Frequency? Which is more important? Neither. It depends on the objectives of the company.

I know a company that spent 100% of their ad budget on an expensive network TV campaign on one night of the year. What night? Christmas Eve. Why? It was a battery company, reminding parents to buy their brand of batteries for the toys they'd bought for their kids. The one-night "campaign" was deemed a huge success.

Again, it all comes back to the objectives. And, it comes down to the creativity of the media planner. A very creative media planner can create a plan that will get both impact for the "launch" month of a product, and a little bit of continuity for the next month of two to "keep up the buzz." Each plan should be individually crafted for the advertiser based on budget, objectives, and "creative resources".

In the end, though, that's just my opinion. I'm sure we may have to agree to disagree.