Case Study 01

Building the Marketing Function at a Community-Led Gaming Company

Built the company's marketing function from a minimal starting point into a structured, multi-channel operation spanning brand, campaigns, community, launch support, and workflow systems.

Company: Community-led gaming company (anonymized) Role: Marketing leadership Focus: Zero-to-one function build
Business Need

Marketing needed structure, not just more output.

Marketing was fragmented, overly skewed toward Web3 audiences, and not yet structured around the broader player base needed for the core game product.

Why It Mattered

The business needed a stronger GTM base.

The company needed stronger visibility beyond Discord, a more coherent brand identity, and campaigns that could support both early audience-building and eventual go-to-market needs for the main product.

What I Owned

Function design, GTM support, and cross-functional coordination.

Function build

Created the core marketing function from scratch, helped define team structure and responsibilities, and built foundational workflows for campaign delivery.

Brand and GTM support

Shaped branding strategy and market-facing messaging, supported launch preparation and audience development, and helped bridge product direction with campaign execution.

Cross-functional leadership

Coordinated with leadership, product, community, and external partners across playtests, showcase assets, Tokyo Game Show support, and ongoing campaign beats.

What I Built

The team, system, and campaign foundation behind scalable execution.

Team + Operating Structure

Defined a lean but scalable team model

Clarified support areas, trained specialists across PR/Comms, Social, and Content, and introduced workflows that made campaign planning and delivery more reliable.

Audience + Channel Model

Built structure across game-first and Web3-adjacent audiences

Balanced messaging across Discord, social, newsletters, playtests, livestreams, and Telegram activations while keeping campaigns tied back to product and brand narrative.

Campaign + Launch Foundation

Created repeatable planning across pre-launch, launch, and liveops

Built campaign foundations and recurring content structures that supported playtests, showcase moments, roadmap communications, and later launch preparation.

Key Challenges

Senior work under real constraints.

Dual-audience brand tension

The brand had to speak to game players and Web3-adjacent audiences without losing coherence.

Uncertain market conditions

The product was emerging in a crowded environment where visibility and differentiation were not guaranteed.

Build the team while shipping the work

The function itself had to be created at the same time campaigns, launch support, and community-facing execution still had to move.

Impact

Built a stable function, stronger visibility, and launch-readiness foundations.

3-person team

Built and trained with clearer role coverage

121K+

Discord community grown with the team, 80K+ to 121K+

66K+

Newsletter audience scaled

307K+

X / Twitter growth supported

Phase 1: Building a stable function

Created a marketing team and operating structure with clearer role coverage across PR/Comms, Social, and Content.

Phase 2: Creating stronger market visibility

Supported integrated campaigns that grew Discord, newsletter, and X while expanding visibility beyond a narrow starting footprint.

Phase 3: Establishing launch-readiness foundations

Built campaign logic spanning pre-launch, launch, and liveops, including support for playtests, roadmap communications, and Tokyo Game Show 2024 activations.

In Motion

The pre-launch trailer and behind-the-scenes film the function shipped.

Pre-launch trailer — final cut supported by the marketing function.
Behind-the-scenes shoot with the game's lead composer.
Selected Artifacts

Brand and product materials shipped by the function.

Media kit cover featuring the game's character lineup

Media kit

Press and partner-facing media kit packaging the brand, key art, and product story for external distribution.

Brochure cover spread with hero key art

Product brochure

Outward-facing brochure used to introduce the game and studio to players, partners, and event audiences.

Rebranding kit title page

Rebranding system

Rebranding requirements that established the refreshed identity the campaigns and channels were built around.

Campaign Spotlight

"The Uncharted Dream" — measured cross-channel results.

A multi-touch campaign run on X / Twitter over a one-month window. The pulls below are the campaign's own analytics — impressions, engagement, and CTA tracking captured across the activation.

Uncharted Dream campaign overview analytics Uncharted Dream impressions analytics Uncharted Dream engagement analytics Uncharted Dream engagement activity analytics Uncharted Dream media engagement analytics Uncharted Dream CTA tracking analytics
Takeaway

This project demonstrates my ability to build marketing structure from zero in an ambiguous environment, align multiple teams around a more coherent go-to-market direction, and create a foundation that supports both immediate campaigns and longer-term scale.