Gift Focus - May/Jun 2019 (Issue 113)

81 PROFILE Do you direct more of your marketing energy towards trade or consumer customers? We market to both trade and consumers equally. We don’t have a big marketing budget, so whatever we do, we like stand out a bit. For example, we launched Europe’s first board game vending machine last year. And our van is pretty lairy. Do you attend any trade shows? What impact do these have? We are trade show addicts. If there’s a trade show happening anywhere in the world, we like to rock up and show off our wares. Something exciting comes from being at even the smallest show. Do you attend any other events throughout the year? We always attend Comic Con, Summer in the City, SXSW, UK Games Expo, Essen and other non-trade events. It’s where we get a chance to get the public playing our games and put on a show. Do you have any tips for new traders? Our tips for new companies selling games is to make sure the game is really fun and to stand out when you get a chance to show it off. What can we expect to see from Big Potato Games in the future? We’ve got quite a few things planned that we’ve got to keep secret for a little while longer, but one new adventure that’s underway is the Big Night In, our travelling board game night (or day). People and businesses can hire us for events, and we rock up with loads of games and put on a show. It’s a great alternative to going down the pub for the office social. “The ideas for our games come fr om everyone in the company – literal ly. We have regular “hat sessions” (everyone thr ows an idea into a black top hat , and every six months, we empty it out and go thr ough them). Last year, our head of f inance came up with an idea that we ended up making: What Came First?” For more information, visit bigpotato.com or contact emily@bigpotato.co.uk