Case Study / Well Played Board Game Cafe
Well Played Board Game Cafe: A COVID-Era Giveaway That Stopped Downtown Traffic
Board game cafe in Asheville, NC.
The challenge
When the COVID-19 national emergency was declared in March 2020, Well Played Board Game Cafe closed its doors. Every 2020 plan went out the window, and the question became how to keep the community engaged with a cafe that was effectively closed.
We shifted the strategy to one goal: genuinely help people make the most of their time under the stay-at-home orders.
The approach
Turn idle inventory into a gift. While cleaning the cafe’s library of more than 650 games, staff set aside close to 100 duplicates and off-color titles. Instead of letting them collect dust, we gave them to people who suddenly had time on their hands.
Lead with PR, back it with social. We wrote and sent a press release and set up a Facebook event and posts on a Friday afternoon. That evening, ABC News 13 (WLOS) ran the story. Ashvegas covered it too, and AVLToday followed the next Monday.
Keep it simple on the day. The cafe handed out 86 games in mystery bags at a drive-up giveaway outside its Wall Street location on April 29, 2020.
The results
Cars backed up across Patton Avenue, O.Henry Avenue and Otis Street trying to reach the giveaway, and Ashvegas reported it live as a downtown traffic jam.
- 300 games and care packages donated
- About 195,000 in potential reach across WLOS, AVLToday and Ashvegas
- Website traffic up 500%
- 300 new social followers in 24 hours
The biggest gain was doing something good for the community. The best marketing happens when a business makes people’s lives a little better.
Let’s build something great.
Tell me where your marketing is stuck. I’ll tell you honestly whether I’m the right fit.