WOTC, when do we see a commercial for D&D on TV???

[Ycore Rixle]

Between Staffan's comment and Mark CMG's words of wisdom, this thread gave me my two best laughs of the day.

 

[Turjan]

Already happened: http://www.ge.com/stories/en/13085.html

Forgot about that one ! It's playing on the geek appeal, but must be known well enough to cause some general connotations .

 

[ssampier]

And if you die...
You die!

"Blackleaf, Noooooooooo!"

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Here you go:

http://www.retrojunk.com/details_commercial/61/

Thats cool in a retro kind of way.

Already happened: http://www.ge.com/stories/en/13085.html

Okay, that was neat, but seeing the book for a split second doesn't imply much.


In Spiderman, there is a DnD poster on Peter's bedroom wall. That, I liked!

 

[Zander]

There was a TV ad for the D&D boardgame. IIRC it was aired last year. I have a copy on video. The ad featured live action of Regdar, Mialee and Lidda.

 

[Bloodstone Press]

Back when Anthony Valtera (sp??) was still with Wizards, he came on these boards and asked for some advertising and promotional ideas. Someone suggested TV commercials, and he said they were too expensive and not within the budget limits.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

When will D&D have regular TV advertising like the World Series of Poker, etc.?
When Joe Viewer believes he has a shot at making some serious money by playing competitive D&D.

I simply cannot express how truly angry and annoyed this makes me, all the more because the above scenario is all too likely to be true. But... D&D, BY IT'S VERY DESIGN, IS NOT A COMPETETIVE GAME DAMMIT, AND I REALLY WISH EVERYONE - WOTC MOST OF ALL! - WOULD STOP PRETENDING IT WERE.

You can't "win" D&D. In a regular game when people TRY to make it a competition of player vs. player, or worse: DM vs. players, it leads to disaster. I abhor the very thought of "tournament" D&D as being utterly anathema to the very core construction and intent of the game. I feel strongly that many of the complaints about the game can be attributed to WotC's detestable approach of treating the game as a whole in the same way that they treat the rules of M:tG. Hey, if people want to play "tournaments" of D&D I'm not going to tell them they're not allowed to have fun doing so, but I insist that it is a deplorable mistake for the controlling company to be handling RPG rules in the same way they handle CCG rules and to sponsor/promote COMPETITIVE play while sacrificing the idea of handling the game as the cooperative exercise (among ALL participants) that it is SUPPOSED to be.

</rant>

 

[Dremmen]

Back when Anthony Valtera (sp??) was still with Wizards, he came on these boards and asked for some advertising and promotional ideas. Someone suggested TV commercials, and he said they were too expensive and not within the budget limits.

OK, so doesn't the saying go that you have to spend money to make money? Nearly everyone that I've introduced D&D to jumped on it eagerly. If they aired some short commercials that showed the jist of it, I believe they would repay themselves ten fold. But it is useless to make empty theories - they can try to put one out and see if it makes them anything.

Oh, and here's a little something that a friend shared with me
http://kontraband.com/show/show.asp?ID=2502&rtn=index-topten

 

[kenobi65]

OK, so doesn't the saying go that you have to spend money to make money?

Yes...but the issue is that the amount of money it'd take to do any kind of a concerted TV advertising campaign for D&D would likely far outstrip the amount of additional profits WotC would make from increased sales. Spending $2 to make an extra $1 is a good way to go out of business real quick.

Yes, you do need to "spend money to make money," (heck, I work in advertising, I better believe that ), but in order to be successful, you need to spend that money wisely. TV ads are not the answer for every product.

Nearly everyone that I've introduced D&D to jumped on it eagerly.

Yes, but those people you've introduced it to are your friends, and likely share your interests and inclinations. You may well be self-selecting who you introduce D&D to, to those of your friends that you already think might be interested.

If you tried to introduce D&D to, say, your aunt, do you think she'd jump on it eagerly? (Well, maybe she might; I don't know your aunt...but the point I'm trying to make is that TV advertising hits a lot of people who have no interest in the product, and will never have any interest in the product. And, when you're talking about advertising a niche product, it's even worse.)

Also, even for "traditional" products, TV ads are good at building awareness, but word-of-mouth is usually a far more persuasive way of generating actual purchases. I may hear about the new brand of beer on a TV ad, but if my friend tells me, "I tried it, it tastes great," it's often a far more convincing argument.

 

[Dremmen]

Spending $2 to make an extra $1 is a good way to go out of business real quick.

Sure, but spending $2 to make $5 is a good way to expand. Again, its useless to speculate. If WotC is content with how much they are making right now and the size of things, then that's that. If they are running out of ideas for sourcebooks and ways to get existing player's to keep buying books, and want to try to increase sale of core material to new players, then I think its a logical next step. I don't believe a TV add would sink WotC if it didn't make them money right away - if Green Ronin or Malhavoc Press were to sink their funds into one it could potentially break them financially but WotC is huge and makes money from a number of different products - I would think if anyone in the RPG industry, they could put together a kick-a$$ add that made people excited about D&D.