TOMAH and SPARTA CASE STUDIES BACKGROUND
My name is David Colbert. Forty-five years ago I started a company, Citigames of America, Inc, that created localized versions of the popular board games, Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit, for hundreds of cities, towns and counties throughout the United States during the decade of the 80's. As the 80's ended, so did the world-wide infatuation with board games, as PlayStation and Xbox started to steal the spotlight away from those proven, family-friendly standards, and so, unfortunately, Citigames also ended. I transitioned to another form of publishing - magazines and guidebooks - and the halcyon days of Hometown Monopoly and Hometown Trivia faded into memory. After 20 more years of successful magazine publishing, I retired and moved back to my country homestead near Tomah, Wisconsin.
Even though I was officially retired, I still kept tabs on the board game industry, as on occasion I do some consulting for publishers, and I noticed a few years ago that board game sales were making a huge comeback. Analysts were attributing it to the fact that parents were getting sick of seeing their kids' faces glued to cel phones so they were buying board games, setting them up on the kitchen table, and telling the kids "Say, put down the phones for an hour and come play this game, and interact as a family." Having grandkids who seem to have an addiction to scrolling, I get it.
THE TOMAH MUSEUM
Then one day I was driving down Tomah's main drag, Superior Avenue, and I saw a billboard I had not noticed before, depicting a huge thermometer showing the progress of a special community fundraiser, the goal of which was to be the construction of a new Tomah Area Museum - necessary, it seemed, because the small storefront that then housed the museum was jam-packed to the rafters with exhibits and artifacts. And at that moment the light bulb went on - just like in the cartoons - and an idea hit me: Maybe I can help our local museum reach - or get closer to - their fundraising goal by selling Hometown Trivia games that I could create for them... and at the same time, get back into the localized board game business.
I called the museum, chatted a bit with Jim, their director, and set up a meeting to discuss fundraising with him. I suggested a form of partnership - I would contact and sell the advertising spaces on the board (those different colored spaces around the wheel that players move their pieces over as they advance around the game by answering trivia questions correctly), contributing a portion of those ad fees to the museum's fundraising account, I would print and assemble the game units and provide the museum with a hundred games for them to sell to their many patrons and visitors, and I would line up retailers to sell the games to the public, giving the museum a "royalty" of five dollars per game on all wholesale purchases over the next two years.
Jim loved the idea, and the board quickly approved it, and in two days I was walking from store to store in Downtown Tomah, showing the mockup game board sample that my printer had created for me, selling the 36 spaces on the game board and taking pre-production game orders from the very same advertisers who were buying the board spaces.
In three weeks I had the board completely sold out and had game purchase orders for over 300 game units (a very good number for a town with less than ten thousand population)! Bottom line: I pocketed $12,000 out of the $15,000 in ad revenue, after having donated the 20% to the museum that Jim and I had agreed upon. My profit on games sales easily covered my production cost of the first 500 games, and the museum sold all 100 of the games they received, gratis under the terms of our deal, bringing them in another $3500. When you add to that another $2000 in commissions that the museum received as the remaining 400 games were sold, the museum fundraiser "thermometer" jumped up over $8000.... and I was paid pretty decently for about four weeks of work!
NO FUNDRAISER NECESSARY
With the great success of Tomah Trivia, I of course was invited to create such a game for the businesses in nearby Sparta - also a small city of right around ten thousand population, and the place where I grew up and graduated high school. But, in Sparta there was no obvious fundraising effort going on to tie into - so I decided to do Sparta the old fashioned way, the way we developed our games in the 1980's....by myself, again walking down Main Street, showing my game board (this time the actual Tomah Trivia game) and signing up merchants.
Sparta took longer—six weeks instead of three—but because I kept all the ad revenue and all the game profits, my net from Sparta was just over $18,000. Not bad for six weeks of walking and talking.
WOULD I RECOMMEND WORKING WITH A FUNDRAISER?
It would depend on the degree of sales experience the marketing agent has. A person new to B2B marketing could find it helpful, and supportive, when walking in to a merchant and starting a pitch to be able to begin that pitch with "I'm working with the Historical Society (or museum, or Boys and Girls Club, or whatever entity he or she is partnering with) here in putting together a Trivial Pursuit-type board game... for Smallville". Whereas a person who has experience selling newspaper advertising, radio advertising, insurance, just about anything requiring meeting business owners and presenting a project or product, that person would be just as successful in making a presentation without the connection to a fundraising group or project, and would certainly make more profit per city.
SO, WHAT'S THE BETTER PATH?
Looking back at Tomah and Sparta, here's what I've concluded: The fundraiser partnership made Tomah faster. Walking in with the museum's mission opened doors and softened the ask. For a beginner, that's invaluable. It gives you a reason to be there that feels bigger than just selling something. But Sparta made me more money. And once I'd done Tomah, I didn't need the crutch anymore. I knew the script. I knew the objections. I knew the numbers.
So here's my honest advice: If you're new to this—if the thought of walking into a stranger's business and asking for money makes your stomach tighten—find a fundraiser partner. A museum, a historical society, a youth sports program. Let their mission be your door opener. You'll make less per game, but you'll actually finish the project. If you've got sales experience—if you've sold anything B2B before—go it alone. Keep 100% of the revenue. You'll be glad you did. Either way, the mechanics are the same:
You need a mock-up that looks real.
You need a price that feels fair.
You need to know what to say when they say no.
You need a system for gathering questions.
You need a production partner who won't ghost you.
That last part—the production—is where most people get stuck. They sell the ads, collect the money, and then realize they have no idea how to actually turn all that into a box with cards and a board. I've been doing this for 45 years. I have the templates, the vendors, the systems. I've made every mistake so you don't have to. If you'd like to see the exact step-by-step process I use—from the first cold call to the delivered game—I've finally written it all down. Just reply with "TELL ME MORE" and I'll send you the details.