Advertising Your Game

This is a fun and satisfying part of running your HvZ game, because you are finally ready to put it out to the public.

Make sure registration is OPEN for your game before you start advertising. Your advertisements should be actionable - they should specifically tell students to go to your site and join your game.

Since this is your first time playing HvZ at your school, you probably want to make the game seem friendly and social, and avoid any violent images like the bloody hand prints on this page.

The first advertisements for the first HvZ game ever, at Goucher College, simply said, "HVZ2K6 EXPLOSIVO," and listed a URL. Chris and Brad put those fliers up in hallways all around the school, and almost a hundred students signed up from those mysterious posters and word of mouth alone.

Traditional Advertising

Traditional advertising such as fliers and posters can be effective if they build curiosity and pique interest. Printed materials are a great place to start, and you can see some poster designs in this thread in the forums.

It's more fun if you make your own posters to appeal to the atmosphere at your school - feel free to use the vector of the HvZ Logo which is hosted on our multimedia page.

How do clubs at your school promote events? Do they run ads on campus T.V.? Do they put signs on students' doors?

Step 7: Market Your Game

Signs will only get you so far - it's a new world, and HvZ is on the bleeding edge. Here's some ideas to help get your creative gears going:

• Get a reporter for your school paper to write a story about HvZ and link to the sign-up URL
• Set up a table on a busy pathway or quad, and have a laptop ready to register students
• Buy Facebook ads
• Chalk all over your school, and write things like, "THE ZOMBIES ARE COMING TO OUR SCHOOL: [URL]"
• Hand out business cards that just have the URL for registration and no other information
• Get student government or the administration send an all-campus e-mail
• Make a YouTube video
• Have a zombie film fest and sign people up. Show clips from the Goucher HvZ documentary.

"The way our group got started is by making a Facebook group. Invite your friends at your school and in your area and basically just talk to everyone you can about it. One tactic that I've found is just wearing my bandanna on a day that we're NOT playing the game and people will usually ask me "wtf is up with the bandanna?". Anything that makes you stand out really. Chalking is also a good idea, if your school allows it and even if they don't really." - Catymet, HvZ Mod

Step 8: Host an HvZ Rules Meeting

It's really important that before your game, you assemble all of your players in a meeting (or series of meetings) and explain the rules.

Players will have questions, and want to meet each other before the game.

This is a great opportunity for people to get more info before registering, and could be part of your registration drive.

We recommend that you also have players sign the safety waivers and liability releases at these meetings as well.

If you want to examine modified Nerf guns before players use them in the game, now is your opportunity. Ask players to bring their Nerf guns to the meeting.

Next: Running Your Game and Managing a Crisis