D&D 5E How Should D&D Next Be Advertised?

Kaodi

Legend
I think this question is fairly self-explanatory.

For myself, what I mostly want to ask is whether when the next edition comes out, the time will be ripe for a hardcore commercial advertising campaign. There are two ways that commercials are done these days: the old fashioned way, on televsion, and the new fashioned way, on web videos. Fortunately it is possible to make one commercial that works for both formats.

The thing is, in any case, that D&D has something going for it right now that it has never had before, and possibly never will again: it is a game played by most of the main characters on the most popular show on television. If only D&D Next were coming out tomorrow, I would be begging the corporate masters at WotC to take a chance on recruiting Johnny Galecki, Jim Parsons, Simon Helberg, Kunal Nayyar, and Kaley Cuoco to do a Dungeons & Dragons commercial (or series of commercials), perhaps borrowing elements from Blizzard's celebrity WoW commercials. But it is hard to tell exactly where The Big Bang Theory will be in two years. I think it will almost certainly be around, but as it reaches its seventh season it could be on the downswing. Ratings permitting though, such an advertising scheme, if done properly, could be an absolute coup for D&D and WotC. The likelihood of that may be debatable, but I believe it is within the realm of possibility. And there of course a few other celebrities that could perhaps be tapped as well if you were really gunning for it.

I think the other question is then: If you are not going to go for the gold when you have the opportunity, do you rely one the tried and sort of true advertising schemes that have been used in years past? Or are there perhaps other ways to modernize the way D&D is marketted that might not be so risky financially?
 
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A great idea, but probably too expensive. I have no idea what the sales figures and marketing budget for D&D are, or what a national TV advertising campaign costs, but I can guess.

Let's say a new D&D edition PHB is expected to sell 100.000 books. WotC's portion of revenues after printing, retail margins etc. is USD 10. These USD 10 pay the WotC employees and freelancers, artists, offices, con presence...

The total cost of a series of nationwide TV ads to run during BBT breaks is maybe USD 1 million, including production, air time, and actor royalties.

If WotC bumps the suggested retail price of a PHB by USD 10 from 35 to 45, they make around USD 5 more on the book. So even if they sell twice as many books (200.000) at a 10 Dollar higher price, they still didn't make extra revenue yet, they just covered the advertising campaign. And it's highly questionable a few TV ads could double sales. However, the Internet would be on fire with gamers complaining about the price hike.

If I was WotC, I'd be extremely happy about the free name dropping on a popular TV show (assuming that it's not some kind of product placement already). But I wouldn't spend any money to buy TV spots.
 
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I just hope they have enough sense to just call it Dungeons and Dragons. If the word Next shows up in the title I think I will disown them.
 

I was thinking they could bad mouth older game editions, then run a series of Internet videos of Chris Perkins and his gaming group playing old editions, and conclude with the message "But the game is the same" spoken in a French accent. Because French sells.

:uhoh:
 

I was thinking they could bad mouth older game editions, then run a series of Internet videos of Chris Perkins and his gaming group playing old editions, and conclude with the message "But the game is the same" spoken in a French accent. Because French sells.

:uhoh:

We laughed a lot when we saw that video over here.
 

If they do a television advertising, they need to reach an audience of kids, but it also needs to go in mainstream stores like WalMart and Toys R Us. If it's just going to wind up in the FLGS, there's really no point in doing mass advertising.

If they are going to advertise in magazines, they need to advertise in mags that are likely to attract creative types--digital art mags, video game mags, Wired, etc. Again, the game needs to be placed in a mainstream store like WalMart or Target.
 

Is The Big Bang Theory really the most popular show on television?

It's popular enough in a sea of generic comedies on TV.
Geek is in, so to speak. And I can totally see the gang playtesting the open testing rules similar to this weeks Star Wars The Old Republic gaming marathon sleepover...
 



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