Growing the Scrabble community, one bookmark at a time

When you really dig into the process of growing the Scrabble community, you realize that it all begins at the grassroots level. It's about connecting with people, one at a time, and teaching them to love the game. And there are potential Scrabble lovers all around you. Whatever city, whatever town, whatever neighborhood you live in, there are opportunities to meet people and expose them to our great game. And there are all sorts of creative ways to go about doing that.

Today, I'd love to share one example of an idea our team has devised for reaching new players at the local level. If you've attended a CoCo tournament in the past year, you've probably seen our spiffy bookmarks featuring alien buddies playing an interstellar game of Scrabble. Scrabble spouse Shan Liu, Jesse Day's wife, did a fabulous job creating the art for the bookmarks, and we're big fans of her design. So we figured - why not use her fantastic work as a promotional tool to get more people interested in Scrabble?

Here's what we did. We just ran our second printing of the bookmarks, and this time around, we printed a QR code on the back side. The bookmark invites curious Scrabble players to improve their game and find a nearby tournament, and the QR code routes the user to the CoCo website.

Then we started distributing the bookmarks. One reason why we printed a big batch is because a lot of word nerds enjoy more than just over-the-board bingos. Many are avid readers and go to independent local bookstores, too. If there's a ripe target audience for potential new tournament players, this is definitely one of them.

To cast a wide net to reach new players, we've been scattering CoCo bookmarks all around our local neighborhoods, and now around the nation. We've put bookmarks in Little Free Libraries around Seattle to drum up interest in our local one-day tournaments. Halfway across the country, in Austin, Texas, Becky Dyer is placing CoCo bookmarks in the Little Free Libraries there, too. Her outreach efforts just might inspire a new local player to try Jesse's recurring Austin one-day tournaments.

These little outreach efforts can work - and maybe even for you. Whether you're in a big city or a small town, odds are good that there is an aspiring tournament player near you. And though it may seem quaint or old-fashioned, techniques like leaving a bookmark in a Little Free Library or independent bookstore can be a great way to help new players spontaneously discover the Scrabble scene.

Zooming out, the bookmarks are just one of many ideas we have to reach new players. Some of those efforts are bigger in scale, like producing world-class livestreams for audiences around the globe; other approaches are more homegrown, like engaging with local publications. Our last Seattle tournament was featured in a neighborhood newsletter, and we hope the feature sparks interest in someone who might play our next Seattle one-day event.

Growing the Scrabble community is a long-term process, and there's an opportunity for everyone to play a role. Are you ready to do your part?

If you live in an area with active tournaments to promote, or simply want to help spread the word about Scrabble in general, contact us, and we can send you bookmarks to distribute in your area. You just never know when one might end up in the hands of Scrabble's next great player.