Wizards of the Coast Debuts NFL Showdown 2002

Renton, Wash. -- This past fall, Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro Inc., introduced a variety of P-O-P materials to support its new NFL Showdown 2002 card games. The displays, which began appearing in mass merchants and hobby/game stores in late August, were designed to promote the card games as well as to introduce consumers to a new card category."These sports card games are a new category that blends the collectibility of traditional sports cards with the fun of trading card games, as well as with the strategy of fantasy sports," says Tom Goedde, marketing director. "It's not a video game-like experience. It's much more strategic. I like to say that it is the thinking man's alternative to video games. This game really requires you to coach a team and understand the game."Distinguishing the cards from video games and traditional trading cards is an important element of the company's marketing. To communicate that message, display materials feature the tagline, "Cards that play ball."The game uses cards with bar-coded numbers and a Play Grid card reader. Players swipe their cards through the reader, which compares player statistics and strengths. The Play Grid then indicates the outcome of the play. "Most trading card games are based on dice or numbers on the cards," says Goedde. "For us, it's always important to focus on the cards because that is what our business is. The card reader just allows us to do much more complex calculations."The main demographic for the cards are male fantasy-sports fans who are 25 to 35 years old. Goedde says that 11- to 13-year-olds, who may have graduated from the company's other card games like Pokemon, might also be attracted to NFL Showdown. P-O-P materials were designed to appeal to both audiences, though Goedde says that the message stays consistent. "The younger kids who are interested in fantasy sports don't have a hard time aspiring to the messaging that we use for our older demographic," he says.In addition to shelf talkers and countertop displays, more than 6,000 corrugated standees of Minnesota Vikings player Daunte Culpepper were shipped. A great deal of thinking went into selecting Culpepper. "He was chosen very strategically because he is a very innovative player," says Goedde. "He is an unusually large individual for a quarter-back -- 270 pounds. He is redefining the idea of what a quarterback is. We saw a unique fit because he is unique and different and so is our product."Culpepper is featured on the card game packaging and in print ads, as well.Goedde says the P-O-P actually helped sell the idea of the new game to retailers, as well as to consumers. In fact, after retailers saw the P-O-P, many called to increase their initial orders. "Retailers were calling us back saying, 'Hey, this is different than what we expected. This is really exciting,'" he says. "It's not often that you actually get to see the direct correlation between P-O-P and sales, but we definitely did with this program."All of the display materials were designed by the company's in-house design team and printed by InnoMark Communications, Fairfield, Ohio.Although the displays were initially designed to last in stores for the first couple of months in the fall, Goedde expects that many will remain in hobby and gaming stores for the entire football season.

Wizards of the Coast Debuts NFL Showdown 2002

P2PI MEMBERS

JOIN P2PI

Related Images

Business Topic

Market Segment