What Happened at the Unmarketing Game Hall

Including an invitation to the next session on Tuesday.

Last Tuesday, a few writers gathered at what I’m calling the Unmarketing Game Hall.

The idea was to gamify our marketing. Make it lighter, more effortless. Next week, Tuesday at 10.00 CEST, there’ll be another gathering. Send me a DM with your email to receive an invite. It’s free at the moment anyway.

It’s a fun experiment. We basically step aside as the marketer, so that our marketing can come through more naturally, no longer rooted in doing.

I had to figure out, through discussion, if gamifying our marketing would speak to us.

Some things surfaced during this exploration, thanks to the

Kat (Katrijn) van Oudheusden

and the participants.

One system can’t serve everyone

Gamification works really well for some people. Others need something else entirely, like me. By trying to funnel all writers promoting their work through one system, we oversimplify. We ignore the variety of needs we actually have.

Why limit ourselves to gamification? Whether you add game elements or just talk about marketing from a different angle in a group setting, both might serve the same purpose: they make it more playful.

Marketing with humor

That might be quite helpful. Marketing with a bit of humor from time to time. Otherwise it feels so heavy.

When humor’s there, the weight lifts for some reason. Whether we’re unwriting, exploring our true nature, or witnessing our unmarketing. You can take the work seriously without carrying it heavily. Quite a relief, that is.

Whose perspective are we using?

Another thing came up when we talked about phrasing our tasks. Our so-called marketing to-dos.

We tend to phrase things from our perspective. “I have to do this, set this up, continue this work.” We lose sight of who we’re doing it for.

When we swap it to the audience, the phrasing changes. A different intention surfaces. Something lighter, more about being of service.

The resistance trap

We think the tasks that come with most resistance could be the most valuable to our business. When we scored our tasks during the session, the hardest ones got the highest points. But why couldn’t we let go of tasks that bring resistance? Why not double down on what makes us very happy and seems deeply effective?

We think that’s not realistic. It has to come with effort. If it doesn’t, it can’t be effective for our marketing. Well, funny that we could think that way.

The love-hate thing

Many of us seem to have a love-hate relationship with marketing. We don’t like it. It doesn’t come naturally. We might view it as something separate. Plus, we carry beliefs about money, what we need, what we can ask for it. In general, we make it quite complicated, because it might still be about us rather than visibility in itself.

Invitation

The Unmarketing Game Hall continues next week. We continue to play with it, seeing what comes. Send me a message to receive an invite for the next session, coming Tuesday, 10.00-11.00 CEST.