Ambush Marketing

Two or three months ago Games Workshop changed their policy around White Dwarf. In the past subscribers had received their copies up to two weeks before the general release which was a great selling point for subscriptions.

This has now changed. Now the subscription White Dwarf is sent on the day of release so that most people get it at best 2-3 days after they are available in the shops.

Now this got me thinking, why would Games Workshop do this? Over time one of the clear advantages of having a subscription was gone. It was almost like GW doesn’t want people to subscribe.


As always the answer comes down to money. I suspect a lot of White Dwarf subscribers are like me. Happy to pay a reduced issue price and have the magazine delivered to their letterbox. They then do their purchases online circumventing the local Hobby Centre. This isn’t wonderful behaviour if GW want to maximise their revenues.


Far better to get these subscribers into the Hobby Centre to pick up their White Dwarf with the opportunity for staff to up-sell the latest release. Suddenly you have an influx of customers who weren’t coming to the shop now turning up monthly and at least they will buy their paints and who knows you might get the impulse purchase once they see the bright new shiny model.


You don’t have to make many extra sales to offset what would be a small percentage of reduced White Dwarf sales.


Smart marketing ploy GW!!!! But I’m onto you!