The excellent game Roll Player entered my collection a few days ago. I’ve played the game at conventions and game nights over the last few years, and I really love it…but for some reason I didn’t actually buy it until last week.
What changed? Nothing remarkable–it wasn’t some big event or advertisement. Rather, I’ve seen photos of Roll Player pop up on social media from time to time, and whenever it does, I feel myself getting excited about the game. That excitement stayed at the “want to play” level for a long time, and it eventually built to the point of “want to own.”
This was a great reminder to me that sometimes the most effective marketing strategy is to make a photo-friendly product. Make something beautiful and/or evocative, and people will naturally snap a few photos.
But will they actually post those photos? Here are 3 ways to encourage sharing, particularly with tabletop games:
Bragging Rights: Some games come with cards that say “I won!” and include social media tagging information on the card itself, encouraging you to take a photo of yourself with the card after a video. I’ve seen Escape Rooms do the same thing.- Personalization: When I bought a copy of Forgotten Waters last year, I was delighted to find a pirate-themed handwritten note in the package. The note wasn’t addressed to me specifically, but it still made my copy special. In a different way, legacy games in which you’re naming characters and places (in non-spoiler ways) encourage sharing.
- Final Showcase: In any game where you’ve spent the entire game building something special, you’ve essentially created your own photo op. Win or lose, you’re proud of what you’ve created. I’ve seen this quite a bit recently with our game, Red Rising, with tons of people sharing photos of their final hand of cards.
The last time you shared a photo of a game or other product, what compelled you to do so? Have you ever bought something because you kept seeing photos of it on social media? What other techniques have you seen companies use to encourage people to take and share photos?
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12 Comments on “3 Ways to Inspire People to Post Photos of Your Product”
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I think you’ve hit the nail on the head with these. Games like Zombicide have a real ‘Final Showcase’ prescence to them, especially when the odds don’t appear to be in your favour. One lone figure against an uncountable number of zombies :)
I think these 3 points are great and personally I have 2 additional ones on my list:
4) A unique, special, or otherwise unseen before component(s). Tapestry would be a great example of this as the buildings not only look great, but are unlike anything in any game before. If you’ve not seen it before then others probably haven’t as well, meaning it’s more likely to get liked and reshared.
5) Providing a way to connect the game to another part of your life which you also like sharing. An example of this would be the “cat setup” from The Isle of Cats as people love photo’ing their pets and this gives them an opportunity to take and share another photo of their cat while promoting the game.
I particularly love that second idea, Frank, and the way you did it in The Isle of Cats is brilliant.
This is why Instagram has the highest buyer influence amongst all social media platforms. It’s all photo based. Also it has the largest amount of users following businesses, so businesses are focusing more and more of their marketing dollars in the platform.
I take photos of games I play because I want to highlight the aspects of the game I enjoy to others to hopefully inspire them to try games. My Instagram became a diary of our plays because it also gave me an outlet for my built up photography urges lol. I hope that my photography passion and training help me produce interesting photo content that show aspects I enjoy and appreciate of each game.
There have been for sure times I found a game on Instagram due to posts that ended up with us investigating a game further to see if we are interesting! Seeing a customer share their positive experience on Instagram with a game, or component upgrades for an already loved game, has very much influenced us.
My favorite aspect though is the community, I have regular back and forths with others that only enrich the environment I am adding content to :) I love following folks play games and be artistic with game experiences!
@kyla.denton
Thanks for sharing, Kyla! I really enjoy your Instagram channel–I’m always excited to see our games there, but I’m sure I’ve bought a few games after seeing you feature them as well. :)
Awww! That is so awesome to hear :) Stonemaier games are my favorite to take photos of because they are really photogenic with colours, arts, meeple/models, and table presence (also a ton of fun to play, which is the important part lol)! Also, so many upgraded fun component options are available we can really customize our game look!
Haha I am here posting this instead of our game tonight on Instagram. Whoops!
Unrelated to the content of your post, but I wish I could click on your image to see a larger version of it so I can look at the game better, haha
Hey Wonmin. There are quite a few pictures on the Red Rising page here:
https://stonemaiergames.com/games/red-rising/
Good stuff! Table presence has a huge factor in how much I enjoy a game. My friends and family always make fun of me because I can’t help but say “such a pretty game” whenever one of these gorgeous things are on my table all laid out in the mid/late game. Just another example of how important art and graphic design is to your game.
I received a game package in error
Robert, I’m not quite sure what you’re referring to, but if you’re talking about an order you placed on the Stonemaier Games webstore, we’re happy to help if you share the issue and your order number via email to contact@stonemaiergames.com.