Standing Out At Gaming Expos

Recent research in marketing suggests that customers are much more influenced by emotions. As such, marketers are gearing their research and tactics to hit on customer’s emotions.

I have given a presentation on Schmitt’s Strategic Experiential Modules (SEMs), in the presentation I spoke a little about how video game events, such as trade shows often hit on all of the SEMs. And it made me consider how studios can utilize SEMs to create a memorable experience for their game at an event.

SEMs are split into 5:

Sense: This refers to anything that hits on one, or more of your senses.

Affective: Think about the emotional ties you can feel when you see a product or campaign

Think: This refers to tactics that provoke intrigue and thought, either cognitive or creative.

Act: This is when you get hands on with a product, things like product trial etc.

Relate: Think about your social identity, or any groups, subcultures etc you belong to. This is what relate refers to.

Gaming Events

I’ve worked on many indie game stands, at video game events. Often, guests of the events will play anywhere between 20-200 video games in an event, standing out and leaving a long lasting impression are crucial to gaining full value from attending.

Affective:

Speaking directly with customers can obviously generate invaluable feedback. But, it can also be a valuable marketing tool. When we look at the affective SEM, we know that people are impacted by emotion. Consider a cheap work around for this, a simple flyer that talks about the journey you’ve had in creating your game, highlighting the struggles you’ve experienced all the highs and lows. This creates an emotional tie to the customers, of course if you can speak to each customer one to one that’s even better, but if your game is drawing in lots of attention that can be impossible. This is another reason why you should aim to fill your stand with staff who worked on your game instead of hiring outside help, if they aren’t invested in your game they may sell it well but won’t create an emotional tie to your studio, weakening the potential for repeat custom.

Think:

Your game may be a game with a deep story, a puzzle game but it can sometimes be difficult to showcase this in the small amount of time you have the customer at your stand. However by engaging with the customer about the development process of the game you can engage the cognitive SEM, or simply by talking about the inspiration for your game you can push the creative side of a customer, ask them questions about what they’d add to the game or change about it.

Act:

The most obvious link here is that people use the hardware at your stand. But think about taking it one step further, can you make your controllers more unique? Or can you bring something physical to the event, plushies and props always go down a treat!

Sense

When we game, several of our senses are always engaged. But more and more we are seeing the likes of candles dedicated to video games. These unique products are often seen as a gimmick, but used correctly they can tick off another SEM. Notably airlines make a huge use out of scents, but lighting up a candle in the middle of a gaming expo is probably not a great idea. This is one of the trickier SEMs to handle, you can’t really control the smell around your booth unless you unload 50 cans of some nice smelling fragrance, so consider sticking to basics: A good monitor, a bowl of sweets, a quality controller (Or keyboard & mouse combo), and of course the best quality headphones you can get.

Relate

Of course, video game events have people who all have a shared love of gaming. But we can also cultivate some extra marketing from an event by hosting a meet up at the expo. This will also lead to an information share, your fans will talk to other fans about your games and could potentially encourage other customers to try other games you have created.

Conclusion

If you manage to tick all of these SEMs, you’ll be onto a winner. Standing out at a tradeshow is not easy, but being remembered is even more difficult. However, showcasing at these events can sprout huge benefits, from finding new talent to creating incredibly loyal customers.

When you attend these events you are against potentially hundreds of other amazing projects. Do all that you can to create a lasting memorable experience.