At Toy Fair 2015, ICv2 caught up with Mayfair Games’ Bob Carty to discuss the company’s plans for this year, which include a new
Catan Traveler Edition, more on the
Catan line rebranding (see "
'Catan's' New Look"), and a website upgrade that will aide in driving traffic to local game stores.
In June, Mayfair will release Catan, Traveler Edition, a new geomorphic edition that folds to fit in a lockable, trapezoidal box with a carrying handle. The game board includes collapsing trays for peg storage, and features double-sided tiles (which means that there are only hundreds of board permutations, instead of thousands). MSRP is $45.00.
Carty showed off the new interior art for comparison with the old, as well as a board game with a mixture of old and new tiles. He then explained how the streamlining of the game line will help store owners. "With the rebranding, everything looks better on the shelf," Carty said. "It’s a very congruent line. You can now get five products in the space as four."
"We’ve renumbered (the game line) by order of complexity," he continued. "We go from Settlers, to Seafarers, to Explorers and Pirates, Cities and Knights, and Traders and Barbarians, which are really scenarios, not expansions. Then all the 5-6 Player Extensions are all even numbered. We put them in this order so if someone says 'I played Settlers, what should I do next?' Seafarers. And then Explorers. Small stepping stones."
Carty then shared plans for a new upgraded website, which will feature tools for store owners. "We’ve rearranged the new website so it’s geocentric," he said, which means that when users log in, it will utilize Google tools to show stores in the user’s area based on their physical location. "There are maps if you want, events will be tied that way, so you can find events that are close to you."
Future improvements include an area for posting specific store events. That section is planned to roll out in the next six months. "It’ll be much more user-friendly and much more functional as far as driving consumers to stores," Carty said. The new system will also pull information from Alliance Game Distributors to update what games a store is stocking. "We get a report from Alliance each week, which has (store’s) address and what they bought each week," he said. "So items that they haven’t purchased (recently) will expire after so many months, and items that they order regularly will just renew." Mayfair has been testing the system, with plans to go live in six weeks.
Carty also shared information on Mayfair’s yearly holiday advertising initiative, which it ran again at the end of 2014. Mayfair took out a 1/3 page ad in USA Today, advertising a promotional price on both the base Catan game and Star Trek Catan for 25% off. Participating retailers were listed in a special secondary “retailer finder” section for the promotion. "There are two nodes," Carty said, clarifying that there is a regular store locator as well as a promotional participant one. Store are listed in the regular locator "as long as they remember to update us regularly."
Carty said Mayfair plans to continue the promotion in 2015. "I think it helps drive new consumers to independent retailers because they can find them," he said.
