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I think they started to with the return of Red Box I saw a lot more publicity. Do you think they will ever have an add in the middle of prime time TV? Or just on Cartoon network, Scifi, and G4? Don't say Big Bang Theory.

You know how the military adverts show a knight fighting a dragon and then he morphs into a soldier in combat? Maybe take that idea and run in reverse. D&D was something I saw a lot of deployed soldiers enjoy in their down time. A lot of them never played before.

Sep 16, 2012 -- 12:51AM, Qmark wrote:

Sep 16, 2012 -- 12:39AM, Quidhala wrote:

Do you think they will ever have an add in the middle of prime time TV? Or just on Cartoon network, Scifi, and G4?

Hasbro has its own cable network now.
Rerunning the 80s D&D cartoon on the Hub might be a great idea.

Really even getting a two page article in a non-rpg magazine would be a huge deal. Especially if it explains how D&D is different than bored games and video games...

Sep 16, 2012 -- 12:57AM, CarlT wrote:

Sep 16, 2012 -- 12:39AM, Quidhala wrote:

I think they started to with the return of Red Box I saw a lot more publicity. Do you think they will ever have an add in the middle of prime time TV? Or just on Cartoon network, Scifi, and G4? Don't say Big Bang Theory. You know how the military adverts show a knight fighting a dragon and then he morphs into a soldier in combat? Maybe take that idea and run in reverse. D&D was something I saw a lot of deployed soldiers enjoy in their down time. A lot of them never played before.

I dunno.  If they hadn't already tried the "lets appeal to nostalgia with a "red box" in 4E - I'd agree.


But I think if they try that stunt again they'll be ridiculed all across the internet.


They'd be better off going for a white box or a woodgrain box than a red box.


Carl      

Or just modernizing it and getting a box full of modern art work. With lots of cool dragons magic muscles and cleavage. that would sell like crazy...

I've always kind of wondered why you don't see a whole lot of advertisements for tabletop games in general outside of magazines and websites that are basically already largely devoted to tabletop gaming. I mean, my assumption is that people crunch the numbers and determine that it's inefficient (advertising isn't cheap, although it's cheaper in some places and media) to advertise in places outside of media where you know you're getting a very targeted shot at your audience. Tabletop gaming is a niche hobby that people get into mostly through their friends (I think). An advertisement on television would have to translate into a heck of a lot of sales to be worth it, and I don't know if people make their tabletop gaming decisions like that.

There's one thing that I can think of that would make an advertising push maybe make more sense soon than at most points in time; with a new edition, they benefit to some degree from mere awareness of the product, perhaps dramatically more than normal.

On the other hand, Wizards' flagship product, Magic the Gathering crept up the advertising in more mainstream channels a few years ago, but appears (although my sample isn't very exhaustive) to have backed off a bit from there since then. (If anyone's seen Magic television ads recently, let me know.) It's certainly not because the market has shrunk; the game has had nothing but best-year-evers for the past several years, and they've finally started producing an introductory product that's really singing for them. It's possible that broadside advertising simply isn't that effective for products like D&D. Seeing D&D ads in mainstream locations would be sweet; I'm guessing we just don't get that because they've decided that it's not worth it.