I know that not to many people here talk about marketing jobs as opposed to hardcore development jobs, but i feel like marketing plays an enormous part on the success of game titles. I have recently graduated and am having difficult trying to break into the industry, finding a relevant marketing/pr job leaving me to work at an investment bank in the meantime as a financial analyst. Can any help me out or offer some tips on breaking through. Some of my qualifications are listed below. • currently resident in Rome, Italy • Bachelor of Science in Business Administration • Major in Business Administration, Concentration in Marketing, Minor in Communications EXPERIENCE AdviCorp Plc. Investment Bank Rome, Italy Financial Analyst (May 2005 - Present) Rome Around Tours Rome, Italy Promotions (February 2004 - August 2004) Creative Ideas Advertising Miami, Florida Project Assistant (May 2001-August 2002) Tropical Delight Drink Services Miami, Florida Accounting (May 2002 -August 2002) SKILLS Language Skills • Fluent in English • Fluent in Spanish • Working knowledge of Italian Computer Skills • Bloomberg Financial Services Software • Proficiency with MS Excel analytical tools and functions • Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, Power Point, Outlook) • Microsoft Windows 98, 2000, XP, Mac OS X • Adobe Photoshop 7 • Adobe PageMaker • Various Accounting Software Packages (Peachtree & QuickBooks)

You are right. Marketing plays a vital part in the success of companies and products. Unfortunately this site is dedicated to development rather than marketing so advice will be thin on the ground. This is because marketing is usually undertaken by publishers and big developers - with the little guys limited to DIY guerilla marketing. You really need to track down a marketing/PR related website.

Check out http://gamespress.com/ which is a UK based games PR site. They may be able to help or point you to another site that can. You should also expand your search beyond game industry marketing/PR. Get an entry level position doing M/PR in any industry you can and it will then be easier to move sideways into games.

The lionhead website used to have advice about all aspects of game making, and how to break in to the relevant fields. However it seems to have been replaced with a different site now. Perhaps their forums could help you.
http://www.lionhead.com/

Buon giorno, F.

I wrote an article about how to break in through Marketing in my monthly column. http://www.igda.org/columns/gamesgame/gamesgame_Feb04.php

But you live in Italy, and there are precious few game companies there. So read these as well: http://www.sloperama.com/advice/lesson27.htm and http://www.sloperama.com/advice/lesson12.htm

Buona fortuna, F.

Marketing comprises many sub-fields like advertisement, communications, market research, and product management. Depending on what you would like to do, your point of entry will differ. Could be helpful if you described your "ideal job".

One point about product management, if this is your area of choice. Even though Marketing and Sales have distinct skillset requirements, there is this general industry perception that in order to be a good Marketing guy you need to have Sales experience. There is some logic to that: if you have a hands-on experience in what sells, what doesn't, and why, then you are more apt at making decent decisions. Most product managers I know have "spent some time on the floor".

Hope this helps.

-cb