There are many ways to promote your game, each with pros and cons. As someone who has done marketing for more than 30 years, here are some of my favorites:
- Social Media: Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Reddit are great places to advertise your game. You can create a page or group for your event and share updates, photos, and promotional materials to attract potential participants. Good pictures of actual gameplay are crucial to your success.
- Email Marketing: You can create an email list of people interested in LARP events or who have attended your previous events and send them newsletters, updates, and promotional materials. Only add people to a list with their permission, though. Spamming people is a sure way to get them not to like your game.
- Online Forums: There are many online forums and discussion boards dedicated to LARP events and communities. You can post about your event on these forums and engage with potential participants to attract them to your event. The downside to these forums is that many other games also compete to grab new players there.
- Word of Mouth: Word of mouth is a powerful tool to promote your LARP event. Encourage your participants to invite their friends and family members who might be interested in attending. Give a point reward for each new player someone brings.
- Flyers: You can create posters and distribute them in local gaming stores, comic book stores, and other places your target audience will likely visit. Have someone good at design create your ad materials, as first impressions are everything.
- Press Releases: You can create a press release and send it to local newspapers, blogs, and media outlets to get coverage for your event. Of course, LARP isn’t a spectator sport, and not everyone wants to see themselves in the newspaper playing a LARP, so use this idea with caution.
- Partnering with Related Events: You can partner with other events or organizations that share your target audience and promote your LARP event to their participants. For example, we set up a booth at The Connecticut Renaissance Faire to promote our events. In the past, NERO used to have a booth at the New York Renaissance Faire. Setting up at gaming conventions is an even better venue as more people there have likely done tabletop games and get what you’re trying to do.
- Paid Advertising: You can use paid advertising methods such as Facebook Ads or Google AdWords to promote your event to a broader audience. We’ve done this with Facebook ads and have had some success, but I wouldn’t put it toward the top of the list when there are plenty of free options before it.
- Collaborating with Influencers: You can collaborate with influencers or bloggers who have a strong following in the LARP community and have them promote your event to their audience. I’d chalk this one up with paid advertising if the influencer isn’t a friend and wants to charge you for their time. Yes, people might see their video playing your game and praising it. There is no loyalty there, though, and they’re off to honor the next game that throws them money.
- Attend Conventions: You can attend gaming or fantasy conventions and promote your LARP event to attendees likely interested in LARP events. We mention this above with “partnering with related events,” and it’s essential.
Some things you shouldn’t do to promote your game include publicly badmouthing other games and going to other LARPs to recruit their players and NPCs. Doing so makes you look unprofessional.
