This is our first post! How exciting!! With the UK Games Expo just around the corner I thought I’d put pen to paper and outline what we will be up to and how you can help. Finally, I’ll touch on creative marketing strategies, and how they can help promote as well as attract new players to the hobby.
So some of you reading this might know me, others may not. I’m an active member of the local gaming community in Plymouth and recently launched #InGameUK. My experience is in a range of fields, including; creative writing and marketing strategy, right through to running my own CIC (Community Interest Company) and working in the Serious Games Industry for over a decade. Its been a wild ride…
InGameUK
Trading lost, forgotten treasures, from Board Games to Retro Gaming! Started in December 2017 by Andrew Jinman, InGameUK is a unique and new offering, aiming to promote and encourage, creativity, play and community! Yes we buy and sell loads of cool stuff but that’s not what we’re all about. Growing up in the 1980/90s it was such a revolutionary time for Board Games, Computer Games and Toys.. We love to get nostalgic and share a little bit of history with our friends! With the proceeds of our online sales we like to put back into the local community and come up with new ideas to promote the InGameUK lifestyle, from events and competitions right through to creative marketing strategies. We love to Share and most of all Play!
Whether its playing a Computer Game or being totally immersed in the latest Board Game or even using your imagination when playing with Toys! For us, everything and anything that uses creativity or Imagination — Is totally #InGameUK!! So come and join us and share your experiences!
What was your favourite toy or game as a kid? We’d love to know!
We’re at the UK Games Expo! Eeekk!
Now in its 12th year and the largest Hobby Games Convention in the UK. 1st— 3rd June 2018.
Several members of the Devon Gaming community are heading up to the UK Games Expo — a couple of InGameUK “Players” will be there too! We are all looking forward to meeting some great people; we’ve only met online at UK Board Game Trading and Chat Facebook Group and play some excellent games! It’s pretty exciting and we will be there for the full three days. You might see us wearing InGameUK tee’s, wandering around, if you do, please come say Hi!
We’re hoping to document the event via our Instagram Account so do follow us for all the games we play at the Expo. Everyones welcome to join in :)
We’ll also be putting loads of Board Games in the charity Bring and Buy! Check out the bottom of this page for a little competition! But more about that a little later… ;-)
Content is KING and Creativity the QUEEN.
This is a topic I’m very passionate about. I’ve blogged about the subject a number of times in a number of different ways. I stand by the statement: CONTENT IS KING! Good quality content is one of the main ingredients in an online marketeers tool kit. There is a lot of “noise” out there and if your content is of high quality it creates a certain USP (Unique Selling Point) and creates a motivator for your audience to engage with your brand.
“Online Marketing Strategy: The Queen defiantly wears the trousers in this relationship.”
Great content is cool but creativity in its application is more important. Harnessing this technique within your brands community increases engagement and helps to make your activity get more impressions and reach, spreading more organically (like the T-Virus..). We like simplicity at InGameUK, we feel it has a certain elegance and helps motivate people to participate. Here’s a little story…
SWFish and “Breaking Crab”
Brands and Branding should try to be playful. Particularly when targeting its engagement on new audiences. So this is a funny story from back in the #SWFish days, our street food music festival brand was coined.. “Breaking Crab”. It totally worked even down to the elements from the periodic table (Bromine — BR & Chromium CR)! Deep down I kind of hoped Sony Pictures would sue us for infringement on the popular Breaking Bad franchise. So we’d hit internet notoriety. I was fully prepared to have my day in court to argue that it was a “fair use” marketing strategy.
“Fair use… Is any copying of copyrighted material done for a limited and “transformative” purpose, such as to comment upon, criticise, or parody a copyrighted work. Such uses can be done without permission from the copyright owner”
Which I’m sure they would’ve done if we got BIG. The plan was to get a Fleetwood Bounder RV and dress up like we were cooking Crystal Meth… Even down to the very detail of having blue smoke, YO! Coming from the RV while cooking up. Instead cooking & cracking… CRAB. This was all intended to be very playful and aim to promote UK caught seafood by leveraging the popularity of a TV series.
I still own the trademark on the name. If ever people need patent / trade mark advice happy to help. Been through the process.
Thank You!
We appreciate the time its taken to read this, I hope you’ve enjoyed it! Please leave any questions, comments below or get in touch. If your at UK Games Expo and fancy a game and hearing more, get in touch!
For all our photos from this event and many more + loads of cool collectibles follow us on Instagram & Twitter & check us out on eBay!
Bring & Buy Competition!
We will also be putting a load of Board Games in the bring and buy. If you buy one of our games and find one of these cards, tag us in your photo either via Facebook, Instagram & Twitter picturing your purchase and the card! We’ll pick ten WINNERS from the weekend and send each of them a 10% off voucher for any of our current or future listings in our eBay Shop! There will be about 50 games in total in the Bring and Buy from us (ranging in cost and rarity) with 10% of the sale price going to Charity. Last year UKGE turned over nearly £90,000 and donated £9,400 to charity!! Happy Searching!!
UK Games Expo - InGameUK! was originally published in Board Games UK on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.