Return on Investment: Making GTS Work for You

(from Comics & Games Retailer #168)

Way back in C&GR #97, I wrote a piece entitled “Success on a $1.72 a Day.” In it, I posited that if you added up all the costs of attending the GAMA Trade Show, it would break down to $1.72 per day from your annual budget, making it a very affordable investment for your store. I then went on to suggest that the benefits of attending more than paid for that capital outlay.

I thought I’d have another look at the issue. Is it really cheap to attend GTS? Are the benefits you get worth it? The world has changed since April of 2000. So here’s another analysis of whether it’s beneficial to spend the time and money to go to Vegas.

Expenses: Back in 2000, I budgeted $250 for a plane ticket – Vegas is a destination city, and airfare is generally cheaper in that regard. In the years that I attended the show, though, I was never able to fly that cheaply. Two factors are at play here. First, the rising cost of fuel in the past few years has really hurt airlines’ abilities to offer those cheap rates. The price of gasoline may be back down, but jet fuel is still through the roof. Second, GTS is held during Spring Break – a time of year when plane tickets are more expensive anyway. At the time I wrote this article, prices were averaging around $300.

The hotel room is $94 a night, which is up from the $69 rate available in 2000. Assuming you arrive on Monday and leave Friday, that’s $376 plus tax. So now you’re at $676, which is already more than the $626 I estimated back in Issue #97, and you haven’t bought any food yet.

It’s to be expected that prices will go up in five years’ time. As always, though, you have to evaluate if it’s worth it to invest the money. So, can you lay out $800-$900 this March to invest in your store? Will you get a comparable return? We’ll come back to that in a minute.

Benefits: In the meantime, I think the answer to whether you should go is a qualified yes. There is benefit at the show that you can turn into cash, but you will need to work to get it.

The biggest benefit of a trade show is education. It all comes down to what you learn, and there are several ways to do so at GTS. First is the exhibit hall. Here is where you get to look at product before you buy it. That’s a rare thing in this business, and you should take full advantage. It’s helpful to look at the big boys’ stuff to find out when it’s releasing and whether there is an audience for it at your store. It’s even more important to look at small press games. I don’t say this to make a pitch for small press. Rather, I’m in the opposite camp. You need to look at these materials with a critical eye. Are they well made? Do they have an appealing hook? What’s the price point? This is your chance to do some research so you can increase the likelihood of bringing winners into your store. Not every guess you make will be right, but, if you can examine the product, more of them will be.

Networking is another powerful tool. Talking with other retailers about what works and doesn’t in their stores is a great way to improve your own operation.

A third benefit is the seminars. These can be good or bad depending on the topic and the speaker. If you get a chance, ask around before the show to see who are good speakers so that you can use your seminar time wisely. You’ve only got so many hours, and you don’t want to waste any.

ROI: Over the course of the year you need to measure the return you get on your investment. If you lay out $900 to attend, you need to make more than $900 on what you learned. Just breaking even is no good. You could have done just as well without going. Those new products you find have to make back the money from your trip. Those new ideas you get from seminars and retailers have to make back the money from your trip. You should come out ahead or it’s not worth going.

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