A New Venture

[Dire Wolf]

Finding a New Market (or this antique takes our show on the road)

Gill has been Strong Point's blogger in chief so far, so it's about time I had a go! Following our thoroughly enjoyable and pretty successful attempts at using Ouseburn Market as another way of bringing Strong Point to the world, the weekend of 9th/10th April saw us taking our first venture...

www.strongpointgame.co.uk

A little blog giving some of the latest on what we're up to with our game.

Things are going pretty well, we're up for a North-East Start-Ups Award and so far have had sales over £6000 in just about 4 months. We've also been asked to a games event in August hosted by Zatu, the UK's biggest online board games retailer. The next few months are all about prepping for Christmas. So far we've had nothing but positive reviews, but definitely have some things we wish to change when the next production run comes out.

We just need to raise the profile of the game, and make it a household name. Everyone who has played it and spoken to us has said it is more enjoyable than Trivial Pursuit, so we need to get it out there! So if you like quizzes and games or know someone who does, tell them about our game!

 

[Dire Wolf]

Found out today that we are finalists in the Startup Awards North-East, which is pretty exciting. We just have to prepare a 2 minute pitch for the judges of the event which is taking place at Sage Gateshead. I say 'just'...

 

[Dire Wolf]

We didn't win one of the 2 North East Start Up Awards today, but we did get loads of really positive feedback about our pitch and coupled with some excellent meetings at the UK Games Expo we've got some great plans and ideas for the future.

The independent games retailer Travelling Man (they have stores in Newcastle, York, Leeds and Manchester) have agreed to start stocking our game, as have Zatu the UK's largest independent online games retailer.

 

[Dire Wolf]

Why Strong Point Isn't A Trivial Pursuit

Unwind. Relax. Chill. How may times do you say or hear these words and think how important it is that you make time to do these things? How often do you think to yourself that you need to spend more time with your friends, with your family? We all think it, but maybe we aren't always very good...

www.strongpointgame.co.uk

Some of my random and not so random thoughts in my latest blog. Feel free to read and slag off/offer constructive criticism.

 

[AndyWolves]

Why Strong Point Isn't A Trivial Pursuit

Unwind. Relax. Chill. How may times do you say or hear these words and think how important it is that you make time to do these things? How often do you think to yourself that you need to spend more time with your friends, with your family? We all think it, but maybe we aren't always very good...

www.strongpointgame.co.uk

Some of my random and not so random thoughts in my latest blog. Feel free to read and slag off/offer constructive criticism.

So why isn't Strong point trivial pursuit?

 

[Dire Wolf]

You've missed a key word! A trivial pursuit. As for why, you'll have to read my ramblings...

 

[AndyWolves]

I need to read more gooder!

I did like the article btw, shows the passion for what you're doing

 

[Dire Wolf]

10% discount on our website on our game for Father's Day until Thursday morning (last day we can guarantee delivery in time). PM me if you'd like the discount code.

 

[Dire Wolf]

Latest update for those that aren't yet bored of my Trivial nonsense! Travelling Man lost and then found the stock we sent to them. It went on sale in their stores this week and they have already sold some of them!

We applied to The Great British Pop Up, were accepted and have been selected by John Lewis to have a stand in their Newcastle City Centre store for 3 weeks in November!

We are currently waiting on a major Scale Up investment loan as the original order of games has less than a third left, so we are planning an order 3 times the size of the first one plus enough budget to fund a decent marketing campaign. We think with the right marketing we can more than triple our sales in the run up to this Christmas.

The game concept has been overwhelmingly well received by people who have bought and played it, we've had messages already asking when the first expansion pack is going to be available! Exciting and nerve-wracking!

 

[Dire Wolf]

North East couple launch board game aiming to take on Trivial Pursuit – and you don’t have to be a good quizzer to win!

Everyone has their strong point … and even if quizzing isn’t your thing, this brand new game launched by a Ryton couple could make you a winner.

www.newcastleworld.com

 

[Dire Wolf]

This starts for us next week.

 

[Dire Wolf]

1 week of John Lewis pop-up in the book plus a weekend at the Living North Fair and we had around £3000 of sales. Average that over the course of a year and I could actually give up my day job.

 

[Dire Wolf]

1 year today we launched the game. We are heading towards 1000 copies of the game sold in the 1st year and sales close to £20,000. In the board game business, without the backing of a big publisher/distributor and without heavy investment in a Kickstarter campaign, this is considered a success story.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

It’s a great effort without kickstarter. Doing great and I hope you can keep up with the success.

 

[Dire Wolf]

It’s a great effort without kickstarter. Doing great and I hope you can keep up with the success.

Thanks, Pad. The plans we have are only going to take it forward from here. The initial launch was pretty much a 'suck it and see' to gauge whether it really does have the potential we believe it has. The unanimous 5 star reviews have given us the incentive to push on. Next year we will have the first proper marketing campaign and we will be reaching out to major retailers to start stocking it. We honestly believe we have come up with a better game than Trivial Pursuit.

 

[Dire Wolf]

I'm back with an update! A month from today we are having a stand at the UK Games Expo at the NEC for the first time. We've pretty much planned how our (comparatively) small stand will look, just deciding on a couple of things still.

If there's anyone here who has ever done an Expo event of any kind before feel free to share any tips and advice!

We are a few weeks away from having the first expansion pack ready to send to the manufacturers. We had hoped to have it ready for the Expo but that's not been possible as we both have still been working our regular jobs. That will change from July, as once this school year ends I plan to tell those schools that I work in that I won't be back for the new school year in September. Finally I'm taking the step of devoting all my time and energy to Strong Point Games, not without more than a touch of nervousness I can tell you!

Sales continue to be steady post Christmas and the customer feedback keeps blowing our minds. We had a customer get in touch and tell us it's the best game they've ever played and quite a lot of people tell us that they think it's a much better game than Trivial Pursuit, which is a compliment that I'll take!

www.strongpointgame.co.uk for those who haven't seen it yet. Cheers everyone!

 

[Tredman]

Done a lot of expos - main tip is don't sit at the back of your booth firking around on your laptop as most people tend to do

Stand at the front and talk to people as they pass. Have Quality street etc to give away too.

Good luck - can be enjoyable if you like your subject.

 

[Dire Wolf]

Thanks, we'll definitely not be doing that! We'll be trying to engage people with playing the game for sure.

There's expected to be around 50,000 board game players over the 3 days so hopefully we'll interest a few of them!

 

[Tony Towner]

Is it a trade or consumer show? If the latter then competitions are good for engagement, will get people to stop, the more moments you get with them the more time you have to sell to them. As at the moment you are a 1 SKU supplier then you'd need to find something different to the game itself obviously, £100 Amazon voucher or something of that ilk. I'm not an expert in GDPR, but if you ask correctly you should be able to use this information to add to your consumer database for mailshots and the like

 

[Dire Wolf]

Is it a trade or consumer show? If the latter then competitions are good for engagement, will get people to stop, the more moments you get with them the more time you have to sell to them. As at the moment you are a 1 SKU supplier then you'd need to find something different to the game itself obviously, £100 Amazon voucher or something of that ilk. I'm not an expert in GDPR, but if you ask correctly you should be able to use this information to add to your consumer database for mailshots and the like

A bit of both. Mostly consumers on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday, press and trade Thursday evening. We'll be doing quizzes using the game, probably giving away vouchers for a free Expansion pack on release as well as other small prizes. We only have a small shell stand (2m x 2m) so keeping furnishings to a minimum and using the space as creatively as possible!