What Entrepreneurs Can Learn From the “Board Game” Technique

How to build virality into your products

The best marketing tactic was invented by the Egyptians over 5000 years ago…

To this day I haven’t forgotten the nights when my family’s dining table was littered with colorful cardboards, figures, and rulebook pamphlets.

The granddaddy of all games, the board game industry has come a long way from ancient Egypt’s Sen’t to the modern Monopoly, and Snakes & Ladders.

The concept of gaming was nothing new. Throughout human history, there have been many products made solely for human entertainment. Think yo-yos and sudoku puzzles and more.

To create a game that gets played, good mechanics and rules are not enough. Just as there are infinite games being invented throughout human history, there are also just as many games that have failed to reach the market & be popular. Quiz: have you heard of Tangram? Not many people have. But I bet you’ve heard of Jenga, Mahjong, and Chess.

So just like any other product, games depend on people talking about them to be successful. Experience playing the game and word of mouth mean a lot.

But why did certain games get more popular and others don’t? Board games like Jenga and Chess have been around for thousands of years, yet they are still being played to this day.

What makes certain games more enjoyable and withstand the test of time than others?

I wasn’t exaggerating when I said the best marketing tactic was invented by the Egyptians 5000 years ago. Because the board game was a remarkable invention.

They didn’t just invent the board game; they also invented a viral product that caught on through constant word of mouth for 5000 years.

They built a conversational piece in their product, using Network Effect.

What Makes Board Games So Popular?

For a product to be popular and lasting to this day, it has to be built with popularity and virality in its design.

The board game industry has succeeded in being viral through old products and new marketing methods. According to a market survey, 71% of board gamers hear about new games through word of mouth. This is astoundingly higher than other gaming industries. Take video games — its word-of-mouth generation between gamers amounts to only 33%.

Wow really? Compared to the console and PC gaming giants, the humble board games become viral and popular with almost no advertising budget. While at the same time, it’s twice as effective in its customers sharing the product.

What Is Network Effect?

The Network Effect is an economic phenomenon where a product’s value depends on the number of people using it. The bigger the user network, the better the product becomes. A board game’s massive success over other game categories lies in the game’s design. It works better if your friends play it too.

In 2019, I stumbled upon a peculiar board game called Rising Sun. It is a war game with a simple objective: the player whose army controls the most land wins the game. The theme alone got me hooked. I wanted to try it out.

But the problem is: I cannot play unless there are people to play with me. It’s not a solitary game.

In fact, at the heart of all board games require “player counts”, that is the number of players required which the game’s function & fun factor depends on. So, in order to play the game, it forces me to spread word about it and invite others to join me.

The result? Lower cost for marketing, while doubling its effectiveness.

What Does This mean For Entrepreneurs?

Like Seth Godin puts it: “Every very good customer gets you another one.”

We’ve seen that network effect is a great marketing tactic to improve word of mouth, even when you don’t have much marketing budget. The secret is in the product design. Make a good game and people will talk.

Take Gmail for example. Imagine you are the first person to ever use a mailbox. In order to send a letter, you need the recipient to also have a mailbox. So, what do you do? You spread the words, and encourages people to jump on the “mailbox network.” Sooner or later, everyone will either be on the network or off the network. And the more people on the network, the better the platform becomes. It will keep growing and evolving to keep up with demand.

Therefore, what you can implement right now is to build your own Network Effect: how can your product work better the more people join? How can the product become more valuable when more people use it?

Board games managed to stay viral for 5000 years by designing Network Effect into it that relies on natural word of mouth. Who’s to say you can’t be viral too?