eGaming Review January 2013 | Page 101

GAMEON MARKETING SPONSORED EDITORIAL MARKETING FOCUS It’s who you know Sarah Jones, of GameOn Marketing, talks to eGaming Review about how the role of an external marketing agency has developed and how her ?rm in particular has grown As the egaming industry evolves to become a signi?cantly more complex arena, the emphasis on concise and cutting edge marketing has heightened. An increasingly demanding industry has also brought with it a need for outsourced agencies. To ?nd out more about how one ?rm is growing with the times, eGaming Review talked to Sarah Jones, director of GameOn Marketing. eGaming Review (eGR): How was 2012 for GameOn? Sarah Jones (SJ): This year has been massive for us. We’ve opened new offices, expanded our team and increased our client base and services. Building the team has brought fresh ideas to the GameOn offering, which has proved invaluable. Our marketing assistant, Emma Fevrier, has co-managed many of the company’s accounts, assisting with events and building our social network. GameOn’s new commercial manager, James Robbins, has led our new business generation giving us access to new markets. Building on James’ extensive knowledge of global news distribution, we are launching online press kits at ICE Totally Gaming in February to new and existing clients, which will give anyone attending or exhibiting the opportunity to provide journalists with a single source where they can access their ICE news. Hosted online for one year, clients can include multimedia content while tapping into social media networks on a unique URL. eGR: How has the role of a specialist external agency evolved within the egaming industry as clients’ demands change? SJ: When we started ?ve years ago, we were a marketing and PR agency but we have developed by partnering with external, corporate PR agencies, acting on behalf of clients. It’s been proven that we have a much more comprehensive contact network being a specialist agency, which reaches into the gaming industry, including introductions and the facilitation of new business opportunities on behalf of clients. Although an external agency, we consider ourselves part of each client’s team and sometimes work under their brand, which is particularly bene?cial to clients when carrying out VIP events. We’ve created new revenue streams for ?rms that wouldn’t have initially thought about moving into the gaming space. eGR: What bene?ts can an external specialist agency deliver to an egaming business? SJ: We understand the business they are in, the pressures involved and how best to reach their market with the budgets and other challenges that they face. Trust and loyalty are the cornerstones of our business and we have worked hard to build this. We are an established marketing and PR team, and for a large number of clients we are essentially their marketing managers and/or assistants. We’re always looking for new opportunities for clients to explore and new methods in which to reach their target market or markets. In the past 12 months, we have also branched out to assist companies outside the industry with their PR, which enables us to bring a fresh outlook back to gaming. eGR: What was the biggest challenge GameOn needed to overcome in 2012, and how did you achieve that? SJ: The greatest challenge was letting go and being objective about our own business, ensuring that existing clients continue to receive the same high level of service at the same time as reaching out to new clients in and outside of gaming. Another challenge is that we’re constantly adapting our business to meet customer demand, while also securing a niche for ourselves with services that other agencies might not offer, educating existing and potential customers that these services are bene?cial to their marketing efforts. eGR: What does 2013 hold for GameOn? SJ: We think there is a world of opportunity within other technologically advanced industries, and there are a number of areas we are going to explore. We are also going to continue to seek out new partnerships where our expertise can be an add-on to other service providers. Next year marks our sixth birthday and we are keen to revisit our own branding, PR and social networks which will be a really exciting challenge, but at the same time a fantastic opportunity to remind people what we do and why we do it best. SARAH JONES Sarah Jones, director, has both industry and agency experience, clocking up more than eight years in marketing, PR and event management. Prior to working in online gaming, Sarah worked for an advertising and PR agency, looking after a variety of high profile, blue chip clients. www.egrmagazine.com 99