The Piggyback Popularity Effect
Posted by Michael Mindes on January 10, 2012
Lets face it. If you are trying to publish and sell games (or any other creative endeavor), then you are looking to create hits. It may be niche hits with decent sales or mega-hits in the main stream. No matter how great your product is, there will be the initial difficulty of getting it noticed.
There is a simple fact that applies here. While a company or publisher can own your intellectual property on a permanent license. They do not own your personal image or name. Think about actors that grew their influence and reach via Twitter while they were on a popular television show, like Greg Grunberg who played Matt Parkman on Heroes.
The Concept
This is where the "Piggyback Popularity" comes into play. That is my own invented terms, and it encompasses the 3 step process below:
1. Get recognized and promoted by an existing popular figure.
2. Become popular based on the quality of your product.
3. Release your own products yourself in the future.
The Story
The best exemplify this, I think we should turn to musical history in rap. I used to enjoy rap music very much, but have fallen away from that due to message that comes through much of it. Regardless, this is a story that starts with Dr. Dre...
Dr. Dre was part of the rap group N.W.A. which allowed him to gain inpidual recognition as part of a group of 6 people. N.W.A. would end up backed and supported by 3 different labels. This certainly allowed Dr. Dre to be recognized by Death Row Records which produced his solo debut "The Chronic" (1993), which garnered him album sales, popularity, celebrity status, and a grammy.
Did Dr. Dre stop there? Nope... He took he new found position in life and started his own record label (1996) under which he released two more of his own albums. Eventually, he would sign Eminem and 50 Cent, both of which have become sensations themselves.
Eminem himself took his extreme popularity and celebrity status and established his own record label (signing 50 Cent among others), radio station, and has begun acting. He himself using the piggyback on the popularity of Dr. Dre.
50 Cent has also developed his own record label, and so forth.
Rapper's Delight - A Creative Industry
Being able to be recognized among the large number of creative projects being released every day is becoming more difficult. People that have gone before and been recognized will be able to get your project in front of more faces, inspire more confidence, and get you started.
While a record label probably has some influence over the sound of a record, Eminem would sound very close to the same without having worked with Dr. Dre. However, when Dre signed him and backed him financially and with his credibility, it allowed Eminem to explode in popularity. Eminem would probably not be where he is today without Dr. Dre, he would probably be successful, but not the dominate force he is now.
Kickstarter And Removing Yourself From The Piggyback
Now, he is a little warning or bit of advice if you are considering utilizing Kickstarter to launch an initial game project of your own design. While it could fund and garner a decent amount of sales, consider the potential benefit of the piggyback.
As somebody that has built up popularity from zero to hero over several years, consider taking the immediate boost. I have done the following actively for quite awhile:
- Publish and service well designed board games that fit a need for many gamers.
- Communicated actively, directly, and personally with every person that has contacted me.
- Written extensively about the experience of publishing and provided advice for those that might follow after me.
- Developed relationships with the guardians of the industry (along with inpidual customers). Including website owners, other publishers, manufacturers, fulfillment houses, retailers, reviewers, and so forth.
When you see a Tasty Minstrel Game go up on Kickstarter, it is likely to succeed as a result of all of the previous work done. While we publish great games, and the game is obviously important, much of the result is due to all of that previous work done.
While we can make a big splash, it is shown by the immediate success of Kingdom Builder, that having a popular game previously designed will bring immediate sales. Consider the benefit that could come from leveraging the reach of others.
Publishing games and doing it right is hard work
It is. It is hard and there is a lot out there to potentially distract and tempt you. Depending on who publishes your game, you will learn much about the industry without having to do the work yourself. You can just sit back, learn from somebody with experience, and collect royalty check.
Conclusion
This is something I have thought about some over the past couple of days. It pertains specifically to Kickstarter, because the platform allows people to get right to possibly funding and publishing their games. In the end though, if your game is really good and you can design more good games in the future, then you might benefit most by having your game signed with an existing publisher that can boost your popularity immediately.
Of course, if you go this route, then you will want to make sure that the publisher is going to treat your name and game properly.
