Riding a trend from side hustle to business
During the COVID-19 lockdown in Melbourne, Nat Delaney-John and Cam Jasson saw an opportunity: a party game based around sounds.
Like Pictionary and Charades, That Sound Game is designed for group play. Players act out words using sounds and movement, but with a twist: they must keep their hands behind their backs.
It was a brilliant idea. The viral potential needs no explanation.
Jasson’s experience with technology and AI, combined with Delaney-John’s product expertise, led them to use Exploding Topics to track emerging trends and behaviors for their marketing strategy.
Once That Sound Game launched, its first paid TikTok post led to immediate traction. Visual and engaging gameplay made That Sound Game perfectly suited to video marketing.
Jasson and Delaney-John sold 400,000+ copies in less than 3 years.
Their focus on consumer behavior and willingness to adopt new tech, such as ChatGPT-integrated shopping, kept their product at the forefront.
“When you think about a board game, it’s quite traditional, but it’s really important for us to know how our customers are buying and behaving,” said Jasson. “For instance, right now, we’re looking at an exploding trend around how consumers are going to start shopping in ChatGPT. If a customer wants to have a conversation with ChatGPT about what Christmas presents they should get or what game their family can play on Christmas Day, and they find our product, we want them to be able to buy it directly in ChatGPT.”
And to bring things full circle, That Sound Game is now tracked in Exploding Topics as a trend all of its own.
Their journey from side hustle to full-time business highlights the value of trend spotting to achieve maximum social media visibility.
