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The Ultimate Geek Showcase Showdown

Stuart Greenwell 0 View

I was alerted to a very interesting happening on Daytime Television yesterday (2/16/11). And by my father, of all people (of course he is retired and can watch daytime TV). On the venerable game show, The Price is Right, they had a rather interesting prize package for their Showcase Showdown.

In addition to a new laptop, video games, and a new car, there was roundtrip airfare, hotel, and VIG passes to Gen Con.

Gen Con? As a prize on a game show? Thankfully a young guy won it, and not a little old lady.

You can view this episode of The Price as Right on CBS.com. The Showcase Showdown starts at about the 30:30 mark.

Of course, it is all marketing. Companies give product to the game show to get airtime. But I think Gen Con missed the mark here. One of the most important principles in marketing, is to target the correct audience. And I have a hard time believing that the Price as Right viewership has that much overlap with Gen Con potentials. The correlation between TV game show and gaming convention would be a dotted line, at best.

What are the reader thoughts? Is Gen Con becoming that mainstream? Is it loosing its cloak of Geekness +5? Is this marketing genius? Or did some just win a trip that they will NEVER forget. 🙂

Stuart

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Stuart Greenwell

My first experiences with serious gaming came from the Hero Quest board game. I then made the next step to the RoboTech RPG and a lunchtime meeting of AD&D Oriental Adventures. My interests now are pretty much the same. Boardgames and RPGS. Some of my favorites boardgames are currently Settlers of Catan, Battlestar Galactica, and Space Alert. For RPGS, it is Monte Cook's Cypher System. But I am always down for a good round of Dungeons & Dragons.

2 thoughts on “The Ultimate Geek Showcase Showdown”

  • Trent
    February 18, 2011 at 8:25 am
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    My guess is that Gencon gives a number of passes to the Indianapolis Travel Bureau and they use those passes to promote Indianapolis. Though, I will say that I think Gencon is slowly getting more mainstream. There were 30K people there after all.

  • Reis
    February 24, 2011 at 11:19 am
    Permalink

    Also consider that The Price is Right has changed its target demographic from little old ladies to rowdy college kids.

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