Grassroots game marketing

June 24, 2009

Game advocates, Nate Scheider of Chicago Board Game Meetup and Mary Couzin of the Chicago Toy and Game Fair, have found a way to increase board game play by enabling people to actually play board games, in this case, while they are waiting for their planes.

Here is what Nate wrote me:

The Chicago Toy and Game Fair, in conjunction with the Chicago Board Games Meetup is placing board games from long-time ChiTag exhibitors into Admirals Clubs in Chicago O’Hare International Airport.

The games available for play were supplied by the following exhibitors of the Chicago Toy and Game Fair:

Rio Grande
Out of the Box
Hasbro
Fundex
Buffalo Games
JAX
HL Games
Live Oak Games
Top Trumps
Celebrity the game

Titles range from kids games (Candyland, etc) to abstract strategy. The future product mix will be determined by feedback received.

The Chicago Toy and Game Fair and its exhibitors greatly appreciate the opportunity American Airlines is providing to increase the visibility of traditional board games, and we look forward to further development of this program nationally and internationally.

If you are taking similar actions to advocate for toys and games, please let us know. Thank you Nate and Mary for keeping us posted on your efforts.

Posted by Richard Gottlieb on June 24, 2009 | Comments (2)

July 6, 2009

In response to: Grassroots game marketing
Beth Muehlenkamp commented:

The Million Minute Family Challenge is also a great advocate of board and card games. Visit www.millionminute.com to learn more. Basically all you have to do is grab a game, some people, and play and then log the minutes you have played at the www.miillionminute.com website. The goal as a nation is to reach 1 million minutes of game play each September through December. We know families play games, but this is a great way to make the committment and families always thank us for raising their awareness to spend more quality time together. Families, schools, libraries, anyone can make a group and join in. At the website you can sign up now, to be notified when the organizer kits will be mailed out. There is no cost to participate either, just fun.

June 25, 2009

In response to: Grassroots game marketing
Dr. Alice commented:

Awesome Idea! I would also recommend: another great educational and parent and child time together resource, Think It Ink It Publishing providing more opportunities for your children to become authors!! They will love using their creativity and imaginations to write their own story to professionally illustrated wordless picture books. It's also a great way to keep your child occupied on a long car trip and to keep them reading and writing over the summer so they go back to school prepared and not behind for the next school year. Go to Think It Ink It Publishing.com for more.