It’s always a pleasure to see direct and positive effects from your networking efforts – especially if you’re promoting a project you’re really passionate about! We found a perfect example of networking success in Tim Nicholls’s use of custom MiniCards, made to promote a Kickstarter he created for a personal book project.
The book – titled Artcade – is dedicated to spectacular classic arcade art from the 80s and early 90s. It includes art from all the games you’d expect to see during that period, plus a few images from games that were only rumoured to be in the making. To help get the word out on his project, Tim transferred some of the artwork to a set of MiniCards (the proportions worked perfectly with the long, thin dimensions of an arcade machine) and handed them out at a popular gaming conference. In no time, his Kickstarter was funded far beyond his initial goal.
In with one collection, out with anotherTim came about his collection of high-res vintage art in an unusual way - with a day job of making props for TV shows, he learned about a massive archive of original arcade game artwork, collected by a Hollywood movie props company that was going under. “I couldn’t let that happen,” said Tim, “I sold off a whole bunch of stuff, including my arcade machines, and raised the cash required to buy the archive. It was very expensive but it turned out to be a worthwhile sacrifice.”
Tim then painstakingly spent well over a thousand hours reassembling and restoring the art images for printing – he even framed a few pieces and offered them to people who backed his Kickstarter. “These amazing images have been overlooked for too long; they should be considered as art in their own right and that’s why this project exists.” He wrote on his Kickstarter page. “When I was a kid, I didn’t have a lot of cash – that meant I spent more time wandering around the arcades looking at the machines rather than playing the games. Maybe that’s why this artwork means so much to me.” He was eager to share his collection with people he thought might feel the same.
Tim spread the word about his Kickstarter through friends and on social media, but it wasn’t until he used his MiniCards at Play Expo in Manchester (which he describes as a ‘nerd-gasm’) that he noticed his donations really take off. Tim hung out near the arcade games, starting conversations with the players and handing out his MiniCards to anyone interested. He also tweeted beforehand that he’d be there and gave his followers a sneak preview of his cards, encouraging them to collect them all at the event.
He was then able to track where the traffic to his Kickstarter page was coming from after the event – originally it had mostly been from his Twitter account, but thanks to the conference, tons more traffic was coming from people typing in the URL directly off the card. His Kickstarter donations quickly rose to £22,000 – over double his £10,000 goal!
Thanks to his backers, Tim’s limited edition book is now ready to publish, and is available for pre-order here (he ships anywhere, so gaming nerds across the world are able to purchase)!
We really loved how Tim used his MiniCards to turn one of his favourite subjects into a tangible product he could share with fellow game lovers. If you have something similar in mind for a project, or just think MiniCards would make a good conversation starter at your next networking event, learn more about them here.