A board game about marketing was sent into The Croc the other day, and while it seemed like a novel concept at first, we soon realised that lots of games subliminally convey marketing messages.
So far in the Mattel School of Marketing, we have…
Monopoly – the game is all about getting the maximum return on your investment while staying out of jail – both of which work in the marketing context too.
Jenga – not technically a board game, but there are times when you need to strip away as much as possible, but still leave enough there so that the messaging still stands up.
Buckaroo – then there are times when you’re asked to pile on as much as possible and hope that your audience doesn’t kick off.
Snakes & Ladders – most marketing agencies will agree with this one: you spend ages building up SEO or social followers, only for a change of algorithm or a cull of fake users to leave you back where you started.
Kerplunk – the antithesis of marketing, as you hope that your actions will keep the funnel blocked up and cause all the trickle-down to go towards your competitors.
Operation – marketing can be tricky, but it’s not really brain surgery!
That’s our list, how about yours? Let us know which games remind you of marketing practices by tweeting @crocbites with the hashtag #boardofmarketing.
