FFG Wants FLGSs to Spend $1000 to Advertise in Their Stores

16 Comments

1. Tweets that mention FFG Wants to Charge FLGSs $1000 to Advertise in Their Stores | Purple Pawn -- Topsy.com on 14.10.2010 at 04:46

   […] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Matt Thrower, Purple Pawn. Purple Pawn said: FFG Wants to Charge FLGSs $1000 to Advertise in Their Stores: Talking Game nails it when he questions FFG’s new vi… http://bit.ly/bx42mq […]

2. rkalajian on 14.10.2010 at 07:54

   That’s just insane.

   “Hey, pay US a butt-load of money to advertise our products in your store”

3. Jay Adan on 14.10.2010 at 08:03

   A: You’re paying FFG (or one of their distributors) to buy a certain amount of product – product that you might buy anyway. In exchange, they are providing you with the unit to use to help sell that product.

   B: Have you watched their videos? They’re great. Having them run in your store regularly would certainly help sell their games – which would help make the game store money.

   C: This blog post is inaccurate at best.

4. Daniel on 14.10.2010 at 08:56

   If you were going to buy that much product anyway then I could see it.

   I does seem like a bit of a money grab though.

5. Gary Ray on 14.10.2010 at 09:36

   Most professional retailers can’t wait to get signed up (it was supposed to happen already). Honestly, if you can’t sell $1000 of FFG games in the next six weeks, through the holidays, you don’t belong in this program. The game industry needs more innovative programs like this.

6. Guest on 14.10.2010 at 09:47

   I think it’s less about the cost of the goods (yes a decent retailer can move that product) but that the terms are a bit crazy.

7. Jay Adan on 14.10.2010 at 09:58

   I would still say that while your article is factually correct now, I think that it is overly hyperbolic. There’s no controversy here. It’s an offer available to retailers who may choose to participate or not. Sure – point out the contract points that might make people uncomfortable. That’s helpful. But you make it sound as if the retailers are somehow getting screwed by it. They aren’t. If they’ve chosen to participate then they know that there’s a good chance that the box is going to help sell games and add an extra bit of professionalism to their store. If not (and they don’t break the thing in the process) what have they lost? If FFG games sell as well at their store as they do in ours then they lose nothing. Perhaps they’re a little overstocked on FFG stuff for a while – but if they’re good at their jobs then probably not for long.

   1. shadejon on 14.10.2010 at 10:03

      Jay, not being a game store proprietor, it is entirely probable that I don’t understand the business.

      I know that putting a Nike logo onto a sweatshirt might help sell a sweatshirt, even though it costs you more and you walk around advertising for Nike; I would want Nike to pay me to put their brand logo onto my shirt. But that’s branding, and that’s content, and that may be the way things work.

      My post may be overly hyperbolic, but it expresses my opinion. Purple Pawn is not an antiseptic news site; the opinions of the posters are front and center.
      Yehuda

8. NjCo on 14.10.2010 at 10:08

   I think the above poster who said that if you can’t sell that amount of product over the holidays then you really don’t need something like this has it spot on. Retailers see this as a positive thing. It’s money they are likely going to spend anyway, now they just get a free salesperson to tell people about all the FFG products and run some ‘How To Play’ videos on those games. It’s really a win-win. FFG has to also protect themselves. They are giving retailers a iPad and they have to make sure that it is used as it should be. Nothing draconian there at all. Don’t fault FFG for trying to get their games in the hands of more people and at the same time supporting retailers. The FLGSs always seem to be getting the short stick in this business. This is the best thing to come along for them in a while.

   Sure FFG is pushing to boost their 4th quarter, but who isn’t? Are you faulting these companies for trying to make money?? I think Days of Wonder is much worse with their Necromancer Island expansion. Retailers can’t buy this product, it is only available as a promo. You have to buy TWO copies of Small World to get a copy of Necromancer Island. Here’s an example of trying to pad your 4th quarter without helping out retailers in the process.

9. Christian Petersen on 14.10.2010 at 10:54

   Purple Pawn,

   FFG spends a great deal of resources in making great visual content (i.e. video’s, learn-to-play tutorials) that is distributed online. With this program we are trying to help retailers take advantage of this content in their stores. We think it is time that some of the advantages of the internet and modern technology be harnessed by retailers at large, at no great investment (or technical acumen needed) required by them.

   FFG is paying for the device, for the software that automatically pulls content and maintains itself. We think that it will help not only retailers, but also customers to make good purchasing decisions. In return for this investment on FFG’s side, we ask that a minimum amount of product is in the store (i.e. via the purchase of product, which most stores would do regardless) and that if the device is damaged or lost, that FFG is compensated (we don’t have any control over the environment that the unit is in).

   That’s it. If that makes sense to a store, we make this option available to them. If the store doesn’t like the device, they can return it. If it doesn’t, business as usual. The title of this post is inaccurate, accusatory, and frankly disappointing. While editorial opinion in a good thing, this one is based on false assumptions and a perceived evil that does not exist.

   Christian Petersen
   CEO
   FFG

10. Jay Adan on 14.10.2010 at 11:26

    Shade Jon,

    Your above post makes me believe that you don’t have a clear picture of what’s going on. FFG isn’t providing stores with a running video of how cool Fantasy Flight Games the company is, they are providing a series of videos that help sell their product.

    Go check out their current videos – http://www.youtube.com/user/FantasyFlightStudio

    I believe that this represents the best the industry has to offer right now in terms of marketing of games. And that’s the business we’re in. Selling games.

    Now, I could just buy a tablet computer, set it up to run this YouTube channel, mount it on a wall in my store and call it a day. But really, I probably won’t. I have too many other things to do. But why would I even consider it? Because those videos will tell people about the games in a way that I can’t. They can provide more detail and present that detail in a way that gets people excited. So when FFG says “Hey, we’ll loan you an iPad with our logo on it that shows off these videos in a cool way to help you sell our games if you do a big restock just before the holiday season” then I’m going to seriously consider it. It’s a great incentive. I can even understand the clause about having to pay for breakage.

    So, I understand that these are your opinions but you generally do a good job of being well informed and this just isn’t. I think that I can speak for all game retailers when I say “thanks for looking out for us” but it just wasn’t really necessary in this case.

11. NjCo on 14.10.2010 at 16:07

    I forgot to add something to my post so I’ll throw it in here. As I mentioned above, there really shouldn’t be any controversy over this. A game store will either want it or they won’t. The medium to larger stores will likely want it since they will spend that money on FFG products anyway. And those stores should have no problem shelving/storing the product. Smaller stores likely wouldn’t see enough customer traffic that the device would make any difference in their sales.

    The only bad part about this is whether or not FFG has stocked up on games to meet any demand this program will generate. FFG makes quite a few popular games which unfortunately means their product is often out of stock. In general, from owners I’ve talked to, FFG does a fairly poor job keeping their popular titles in stock. You have to wait for the slow boat from China before you can get the game back on the shelf by which time the buzz over a popular game could be gone and you are missing out on sales you could have easily made because you can’t get the product in. So say a FLGS decides to hold off for 3-4 more weeks before placing their $1000 order. Are there going to be enough FFG products in stock at distributors for a lot of these stores to even place an order??

12. Gary Ray on 14.10.2010 at 16:18

    I was approved this afternoon and placed my order an hour ago. My fill rate was pretty good, partially because I put the order together over a week ago.

13. Willi B on 15.10.2010 at 02:28

    IFF (not a misprint) there is a guarantee of working condition and at least a year contract of working service, it is a decent deal for some…. otherwise, it is a VERY BAD DEAL. Terms and conditions should be a 2-way street. The value of display space is often undervalued by publishers (see the huge boxes of FFG). If that display space has no value, than no one would pay merchandisers.

    BUT, realistically, retailers should already be showing videos on demand with something we call the internet. Any and all games possible that intrigue the customer should have a short video.

    Seeing as how FFG has videos on their site, why pay without a promise of something else? I can run Tom Vasel’s video for free. This allows one to sell more than FFG. Put $1000 into a dedicated computer for the purpose and try that first.

    To each their own.

14. Episode 25 Shownotes | Chance of Gaming Podcast on 19.10.2010 at 13:15

    […] FFG Wants FLGSs to Spend $1000 to Advertise in Their Stores […]

15. Kenny on 22.10.2010 at 03:56

    So what you are saying is that FFG is giving out adverticement boxes to the stores who buy games from them for free. My god! Won’t someone stop this evil, please someone think of the children!

    They want compensation if it breaks. Oh my, that’s horrible. If they didn’t ask for compensation here’s how the deal would go down in some stores:
    Shopkeeper buys new load of FFG games.
    Gets littlle box
    ???
    Calls FFG; “The box broke”
    Shoopkeeper has new tech toy to take apart.

    It seems you quite unjustly accuse them of being evil simply because they are offering their costomers (the stores) a cool piece of hardware to help advertice their products. Noone has a gun to anyones head, and noone seems to have evil intentions.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.