Hobby game convention Gen Con, which took place from August 16th through 19th, sees advance registration increase by 10%. fishbat examines the social media impact on the event.
Hobby game convention Gen Con, which took place from August 16th through 19th, sees advance registration increase by 10%. fishbat examines the social media impact on the event.
BOHEMIA, NY, August 24 — Gen Con, a tabletop and role playing game convention, broke attendance records for its 2012 iteration. Held in the Indiana Convention Center in downtown Indianapolis from August 16th to the 19th, last year’s convention was attended by over 36,000 unique individuals according to ICv2. ICv2 interviewed Senior Marketing Communication Manager Jake Theis who reported that advance registration was up 10% and that attendance “on pace to break records.” Wizards of the Coast and Mayfair Games were the two co- sponsors of the event.
The hashtag #gencon was actively promoted by the Gen Con social media team and a Twitter search revealed many text and photo tweets from the event. According to Theis, social media was one big reason for the attendance numbers. “One of the most potent things we’ve seen for marketing outreach has been social media,” he said. “We had 600,000 people check the Facebook site this week for information.”
“Gaming and social media go hand in hand,” says Justin Maas, Vice President of Client Relations at fishbat, an online marketing company. “Many of the exhibitors do not have a large marketing budget, so social media helps spread awareness of the games much more. Gaming is a social event and Gen Con certainly took advantage of that this year.”
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