Dungeons and Dragons and Marketing

Credit: Katrina Swafford via Canva

To all of my fellow nerdy Marketers out in the world, or fellow Dungeons & Dragons players considering joining the Marketing field, this article is for you. One might believe Dungeons & Dragons, commonly referred to as DnD, is a completely separate world from Marketing, but they’re more alike than you think.

I will be explaining how DnD is related to Marketing and how you can apply those skills learned to your Marketing career.

Now, What Exactly is Dungeons & Dragons?

For those unfamiliar with the tabletop game, a direct quote taken from the official Dungeons & Dragons website describes it as,

“…the players form an adventuring party who explore fantasy worlds together as they embark on epic quests and level up in experience. The Dungeon Master (also known as the DM) is the game's referee and storyteller…”

I remember playing my very first game in high school and discovering how hard it was to memorize all the rules, skills, and dice that came along with it. But as I continued playing with my friends and reading the material in my own time, I realized how I could bring that experience forward to my Marketing courses through a nerd-layered lens.

Skills to Apply to Marketing

Dungeon Masters are Story Telling Managers

Not only do DMs take hours to set up a meeting before a session, but they take hours to set up stories too! (I see you forever DMs)! There’s a lot of work that goes into prepping for a session. This work includes planning a story campaign to hook in their players, scheduling meetings, and adapting to the decisions players make during a session. Does this not scream Social Media Manager?

As a Social Media Manager, you are constantly planning a story to hook in your target audience, scheduling meetings and posts, and adapting to trends in order to keep your posts compelling. Even if you’re not a Dungeon Master, you certainly are a Social Media Master!

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Improv is Good for Selling Content

Improv is practically one of the main foundations in a DnD game. Every session is carefully planned out and curated for the players, allowing them to collaborate and ad-lib in different scenarios. The DM must be able to improvise in any given situation, and the players must keep on their toes to make quick decisions.

Improv also happens to be an important foundation when it comes to Content Marketing and Personal Selling. Coming up with content on the fly is a must in the industry, and you have to be able to keep up with the growing demand. Selling also requires a lot of improvisation by how you must be able to convince your client that your product is able to benefit them.

Perhaps selling a pen will become easier after a DnD session?

Dice and Analytics

Believe it or not, DnD has a lot of mathematics involved in it! You have to count your experience points, health, damage, and don’t get me started on the complexities of a 20-sided dice! When you get involved in a DnD game, there’s a lot to calculate for your character sheet. Keeping track of these calculations is an absolute must in a campaign.

Marketing Researchers might have a blast in figuring out the formulas and statistics that make up a DnD campaign. I will admit that, in my spare time, I created an Excel spreadsheet for my character to keep track of the calculations I’ve made throughout my own campaign. Hey, it definitely helped me improve at making spreadsheets for my career!

Engaging in Creativity and Communication

DnD is a game that encourages you to engage with your DM and think about all kinds of unorthodox ideas to try out and see if you can succeed or fail in a given scenario. Communicating with your team is of the utmost importance, so there is no shame in blurting out the most random idea in a session because it could very well make it better!

Marketing is a field that I am grateful to be a part of because of the creativity that goes into each job. I love being able to work with a team and come up with crazy, new ideas for a marketing campaign because who knows if it might work? A DnD session could very well inspire you for future campaigns!

Credit: Katrina Swafford via Canva

The End of The Journey

I highly encourage everyone to give Dungeons and Dragons a try! This is a tabletop roleplaying game that will have you thinking, analyzing, and laughing. I learned so many things from DnD that I bring to my Marketing career, and who knows if you might too?

Remember that DnD should only be emphasized in your resume if it relates to the job you’re applying for! Otherwise, this makes for a great conversation starter and truly gives your professional team an insight into who you are.

Willing to try it out? All it takes is a roll of the dice.

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Sources

Gygax, G. (1993). What is D&D: Dungeons & dragons. D&D Official | Dungeons & Dragons. Retrieved December 15, 2022, from https://dnd.wizards.com/what-is-dnd

House, M. (2008, May 4). Gaming : Dungeons and Dragons : Math. Dungeons and dragons mathematics. Retrieved December 16, 2022, from https://monkeysushi.net/gaming/DnD/math.html

Lurie, I. (2019, September 11). Everything I ever learned about marketing I learned from dungeons and dragons. Portent. Retrieved December 15, 2022, from https://www.portent.com/blog/marketing-strategy/marketing-dungeons-dragons-2011.htm

Ricks, B. (2013, August 30). How social media marketing is like "Dungeon and dragons". Social Media Today. Retrieved December 15, 2022, from https://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/how-social-media-marketing-dungeon-and-dragons