Mindlessly scrolling through Instagram isn’t usually the way these launch stories start.
But that’s exactly what brought these two founders together and led to a $198,354 Kickstarter launch.
Let me explain.
Meet Bryan Brammer (left) and Brandon Ohmie (right) – the founders of Tangerine Games & creators of PEAKS.
As I already said, their story starts on Instagram.
Bryan was scrolling his feed one day and stumbled upon a post by Allison from Better Half Reviews. Allison had shared a picture of an early prototype of the game Nestlings, which immediately caught Brian’s attention.
It was beautiful, and he wanted to learn more. So he joined the Tangerine Games Discord channel.
At this point, Tangerine Games had been started by Brandon, but it hadn’t released any games yet. It was actually a board game photography service business and Nestlings was Brandon’s first go at designing a game.
Bryan offered to help playtest the game and the two quickly hit it off. Long story short, they decided to officially partner in the fall of 2022 and Bryan joined Tangerine Games. Not too long after that they launched Nestlings on Kickstarter and raised $119,632.
Game on.
They didn’t slow down and started designing their next game, PEAKS.
It featured 100 hand-drawn illustrations of mountains from around the world, transporting players to breathtaking heights. But it wasn’t just about looks – the game’s innovative “Tag Along” feature keeps players engaged even when it wasn’t their turn, mimicking the collaborative nature of real mountaineering.
Their second game was ready to launch, but they this time, they wanted to upgrade their marketing strategy. So they joined forces with my team at LaunchBoom to help the launch it on Kickstarter.
And on June 25, 2024, they pressed the launch button, raising $39,495 in one day… and by the end of the campaign that number finished at $198,354.
One of the biggest differences between their first and latest campaigns was their pre-launch strategy. Let’s dive into what that was.
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PEAKS’s pre-launch marketing strategy
Making $39,495 in one day is no small feat. It was largely possible because Bryan and Brandon understood the value of pre-launch marketing. And not just any pre-launch marketing, but building an email list of Superfans before they launched. Here’s how they did it.
1. PEAKS drove traffic with Meta Ads
Meta ads are the first step to build a pre-launch email list. This is how PEAKS drove traffic. They tested many different variations of copy and imagery, but here was their best performing ad.
2. PEAKS collected email addresses on a landing page
The landing page is where they explained their product and collected email addresses. The landing page looked like this:
By the way, this is a screenshot from our LaunchKit software that all LaunchBoom Creators get access to.
3. PEAKS collected $1 reservations
This is an optional step that creators can take if they want to understand who on their email list is most likely to buy. It requires creating a “VIP Offer” where you give something valuable to the backer in exchange for a deposit in the pre-launch.
Here was their VIP offer:
- Receive The Monumental Mountains Promo Pack
The most important thing to know is that people who put down the reservation were way more likely to buy.
PEAKS got funded on day one
Leading into the launch, 857 people had put down a deposit in the pre-launch. We’ve found that “number of reservations” is one of the best predictors of how successful a launch will be. And just as predicted, the campaign took off.
On the first day, they made $39,495, and by the end of the campaign they had driven $198,354 in revenue from 2,743 new customers.
This was all possible because they followed the LaunchBoom system, which is laser focused on getting creators the highest return on their investment.
Because at LaunchBoom, our goal is not to launch a successful product, but to launch a successful business.
And Brandon and Bryan were pretty happy with the results.
Do you have a board game idea like Brandon and Bryan?
We can help you turn it into a real business (or dramatically grow your existing business).
We’ve worked with over a thousand product creators.
If you want to be the next one…
Click here to talk with a LaunchBoom expert.
