Way to grow the Hobby: Kickstart a Pre-Hobbit Movie Ad

Just an idea… maybe it has been hashed out a number of times and is not viable for many reasons that are not obvious to me.

This occurred to me a few days ago after seeing some comments that lamented the lack of effort by many publishers to grow the hobby.  (Most small publishers can only advertise to existing gamers.  Larger publishers usually seem to find their efforts better spent on advertising within the industry.)

Create a Kickstarter project to make an ad designed to run before the next Hobbit movie debuts.  Perhaps it could go before other movies too.  The gist of the ad is showing people having fun playing tabletop RPGs.  Maybe add a voice-over talking about what fun it is to make a story together or vanquish aliens and monsters.  The voice-over could also mention the social aspect–that you have to play the games with others.  Another point could be how there are nerds about nearly everything: football has people that just watch that all day, for example.  And of course tell people where to get started: make a website for the project that serves as a gateway.

The Kickstarter would be perfect for videographers related to RPGs.  A lower level reward can have videos of their series and part of the budget can go to that.  (Of course most of the budget would go to the production cost and the buying the ad time.)  Let everyone who wants to help grow the hobby and get more people to play kick in $10 for a video download of the company’s web series.  $20-$25 for a physical disc.  Higher level rewards would let publishers get a mention of mention a product either on the final frames or on the bottom of the ad throughout.  (The bottom ad could rotate every 5-10 seconds.) But the ad would of course contain their logo and info for their product and they would get a link/banner on the website mentioned in the video ad.

A bonus would be to set Free RPG Day to the Saturday that is a week after the movie debuts and mention that in the ad as well.  (Hopefully that would give publishers and game stores would have even more incentive to use Free RPG Day.)

This could be a great project for a RPG related video series: Get the extra exposure and contacts from doing the project and even fund their next series of episodes.

2 Comments on “Way to grow the Hobby: Kickstart a Pre-Hobbit Movie Ad

  1. This is a nice idea, and I’ll be checking out a few details shortly, but at the moment, I’m not completely sold. RPGs are not a spectator sport in any way, so the ad would have to be considerably more than just people round a table. But if you go too far the other way, you end up giving an unrealistic expectation of the hobby. And don’t forget how well received teh D&D movies have been as a whole…

  2. Thanks for the comment. I’m sure people who make the RPG related web series could make it dynamic. Split the action so it weaves between talk at the table and in character. Plus, it is likely only a 1 or at most 2 minute ad.