Trying My Hand at a Game Room Promotion

Though I try to make Wilcox Arcade as exclusively “by players, for players” as possible, there are times I like to discuss the business side of…well, the arcade business. This is one of those instances.

This October, to get into the frightening mood, I’m hosting my first full-scale event at the Main Street Tavern game room. The premise is simple: Get the highest score on The House of the Dead, share photo proof of that score with me on social media, and be in the running to win the House of the Dead movie on DVD at the end of the month.

Behold, the House of the Dead High Score Competition.

Since my game room is totally unmanned and I now live approximately 70 minutes away from it, I decided it wouldn’t be wise to attempt a live tournament. (Hence the social media sharing.) Even so, I’m very proud of the promotion I’ve created.

Those of you who follow me on social media are likely aware that I post…erm, very frequently. But for the House of the Dead, I’ve been going especially hard. I want people to know this is happening. I want players to know I care.

Here’s what I’ve done so far. I posted flyers throughout the Tavern:

I placed spooky October time decorations in the game room:

I added the event to my website, Google Business listing, and Facebook page:

And I even uploaded to YouTube what I consider to be, in my totally biased opinion, a super wicked promotional video:

While my reach online and in-person is incredibly limited, I hope the effort shows. I’m doing what I would want any other local arcade to do: timed events throughout the year. This is my slightly downscaled version of that concept.

So the question remains: Are players taking to the event?

Well, that’s something I’m not so sure of. I haven’t yet received any score submissions, but I’ve seen some interest on my online posts. My honest-to-gosh best answer I can give you right now is…we’ll see. As much as I hate to say it, the quarters will do the real talking at the end of October.

All in all, I hope people enjoy the House of the Dead High Score Competition. Even if it’s bust, I’ve had so much creating promotional images and participating in spooky October time fun.

That’s all the business-numbers stuff I have for today. I hope you all don’t mind this diversion from my usual content. Would you like to see more inside baseball in the future? I would tell you to respond in the comments, but I’ve temporarily removed those for formatting reasons.

I guess…like, talk to me on Twitter or something.

I like Twitter.