This is going to be a bit of a rambling stream of consciousness kind of a post.
As you know, if you follow my blog, that I paint little toy men and goblins (among others). If you just popped by, then hello and thank you.
So this said hobby of mine can get a little expensive, add in a printer and after the initial outlay then it can become a bit cheaper. Paints, flock glue etc bumps the price a bit too.
I opened my Geek club in school where the kids paint models that I print for them. I support them by using the tools and resin. There are six of them and each one of them wrote to a company to see if they would help us out in any small way they could. Would you like to guess how many bothered to reply?
Zero,
We only chose companies that I have spent hundreds of pounds with. Not one even bothered to reply.
Now, I know that my little school with its little website isn’t going to make any companies their millions, but it is half a dozen 10 year olds who are getting into the hobby . One is moving onto pastures new and bless her on Friday she was making a list of the companies I got my stuff from.
I have written to the company we get our paints from. I did send a bit of a begging letter to see if they could send us some paint so we can get her a good start keeping up her hobby that she loves. My little club has spent nearly £200 getting paints etc. from them. Sadly I am not holding my breath.
Every other YouTube channel I watch has these companies firing out free stuff to people. One guy I watched was up to his third 3D printer.
Now this may seem that it is sour grapes and to some extent it is, not for me, but for a little group if six kids who wrote letters instead of painting miniatures. I did advise them that people might not be able to help, but to not answer in my books is pretty shitty.
Here endeth the rambling B.S. for today
Bogenwald 
Bad marketing, I think…
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Dude, I wish I had had a teacher, school administrator or advisor that took as much concern over me and my friends as you do with your little group! Don’t lose faith!
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Follow-up: Send me an email at: eric.ritter.65@gmail.com. Let’s find away I can personally help.
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Cheers Eric that is very kind. Right now I am going to keep chasing companies to see if they will help. I will keep going until I run out of companies or until one caves in . If they do I will let you all know who they are.
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I had a teacher who who would let us play D&D while he graded papers after school. Not necessarily a huge thing, but little things like that stick with a kid forever.
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Not sure my teachers knew what D&D was, but we did play a lot of poker with a math teacher 😉
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To tell the truth, our teacher might have thought we were just playing a boardgame as he didn’t seem to pay any attention to what we were doing. Or we might have too engrossed to really notice.
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Need to get that teacher who teaches the kids to play Zombicide in class time! 😀
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Good luck! I thought that I’d heard about some companies supporting these school clubs but I guess it isn’t materialising.
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Yea, that’s a shame! 😟
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The rotters. I wouldn’t kill them to write back would it? You’d think at least one of these companies would see the sense in supporting you, even if only in a small way. Why not try getting in touch with one of the aforementioned YouTubers? They get enough free stuff showered on them, maybe one of them would be willing to pass some of it on once they’ve finished praising/reviewing it? If one of them doesn’t see that it’s good PR for their chanel and an interesting story for their viewers (doing good by a school in a suitably far-flung and dramatic location!) they’re missing a trick. Maybe they could have you on for a remote interview?
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Its a shame because it seems to me that many of the Youtubers and other people that get free stuff use it in self-serving ways and they often seem like they aren’t even that grateful for what they get. I guess it isn’t that different from why everyone complains and doesn’t like influencers in a way. Giving stuff to kids (who could be lifelong customers) would be much smarter and engender goodwill towards the company. If only the companies in question saw it that way…
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Youtubers getting stuff is a transactional situation, though. It’s exposure for the product in exchange for the YT’ers time in creating, producing and editing the content in a situation that’s actually quite different from you or I (who both have day jobs that keep the lights on) reviewing Fallout books or Flames of War terrain for a hobby without any time pressures to churn out more content.
If you become too “grateful” for a box of Kill Team or whatever, you become too beholden to whoever sent it to you. It’s that line between being grateful for having a job and being aware that you’re producing profit or resources or whatever for your employer. It’s a transaction.
From the post, it seems like Maenoferrin has been contacting smaller retailers rather than producers? I might be wrong there, but asking Firestorm Games or Element Games (or whoever) for free stuff is different to asking GW or Army Painter themselves…
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That’s a good distinction to make, mate. Truthfully, I wasn’t thinking about the time they put into their videos as part of the transaction. Though I was just watching a video where someone on Youtube got an expensive starter box ($200-300) for Necromunda sent to them for free and that is pretty generous compensation for making a video, I would say!
This is definitely a different situation and perhaps some of my complaints aren’t really valid here. I am a bit miffed that GW gives away free products and publicity to a select number of people, some of which don’t seem to deserve it but that is a topic for another time and well beyond the scope of sponsorship!
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I mean… I’m still going to respectfully disagree with you. I think you’re looking at it from a hobbyist perspective when it should be looked at as a business transaction. The RRP for a GW box might be $2-300, but you can’t eat the plastic and the cardboard won’t be accepted as currency for the power bill.
There’s also a rather large difference between RRP and cost to produce. it’s not costing GW $300 to send them a bos that didn’t cost GW $300 to make, and a free $300 box that you wouln’t have actually purchased (that you’re expected to spend time and money to give exposure to in return) isn’t really saving you any money.
Of course, GW has to pay for their artists and such (though word is that they don’t pay especally well) but the rumour is also that the cardboard box that your space marines came in cost more than the shot of HIPS did. Certainly the cost to post them to the YouTuber would be more than the cost to produce that box.
A big issue is really about the word “deserve”. It’s a transaction, not charity. It’s not generous, it’s something in return for something else. The value of the box set to a Youtuber isn’t the Space Marines inside it, but the early access to product that gets them hits that gets them paid with money, not more grey plastic.
Are some of the Warhammer YT brigade basically douchebags? For sure! That’s not in (or the) question. The question for GW (or whoever is this week’s video sponsor) is whether that particular YTer’s viewership reach is worth the freebies AND money they they get in return.
At the same time, think about this from your own perspective of a rather excellent painter and someone who I’d have no problems assuming can figure out their way around some modern editing software. Would you give up your job to make Warhammer videos on Youtube even if you could get the boxes for free? How much money do you need to start making until your wife needs to stop supporting the both of you? How do you get anyone interested in sponsoring you, let alone how much time and work do you need to put in to grow to the point where GW notices you enough to give you free stuff?
And at that point do you feel “grateful” to GW or do you feel that it is indeed a transaction and they’re getting as much (or more. probably more) out of you than you are from them for the cost of a box of plastic and freight to send it to you?
Or do you keep your “real” job with whatever perks you get (medical/paid public holidays/long service leave/insert your perks here/etcetera) and just review things now and then that you enjoy for little to no reward except for warm fuzzies and the interaction with other online geeks?
I chose the latter.
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I wish I could say I’m surprised, but I’m not. If a company responds with a “no”, then it’s worse in a lot of ways for them than saying nothing. Either the company or an individual has to put their name to a negative message.
A lot of people, in and out of businesses see “school” and think “government” and therefore “they have tons of money” without any realisaton or care of the actual truth.
The Youtubers thing is simply a matter of calculated marketing towards people who have a larger reach. The larger your reach the more you get paid for advertisements, this starts smaller with free product for review (even I’ve gotten that a couple of times now) and moves right up to paid sponsorships – but to be fair, that’s what pays the bills for YouTubers to keep their lights on.
Ironically, GW of all of the “evil” companies has a schools program where they provide games, rules, some minis and even a few paints…
https://warhammer-alliance.com/uk/schools-programme/
You could also look at something adjacent, like Netgalley who provised e-books in return for reviews. I’m sure they have some YA Sci-Fi and Fantasy fiction that would be available, and I know that they have Graphic Novels and Comic collections from time to time as well. They specifically mention that they like to work with educators – and obviously, reading works well with Literacy!
https://www.netgalley.com/
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Cheers, thanks for the ideas. Funnily enough I have just contacted the evil ones today 🙂
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