＼ Career Path ／
Traveled to SE Asia for business.
In charge of SE Asia and the Middle East.
Q1What I Studied
In middle school I joined an environmental non-profit organization, and when I started college, I was put in charge of publicity. I did everything from social media management to asset creation. A lot of it was completely new to me, but I really enjoyed it and developed an interest in communications and advertising. I'd look at investor relations info as I was trying to come up with corporate tie-ups that would be mutually advantageous for both the organization and the company, and was intrigued by the idea of strategic information releases. That experience ties in to my current PR work. I also did a year-long study abroad program in Barcelona to study Spanish during my 2nd year of college.
Q2Why I Joined SEGA
I struggled with the language barrier while I was studying in Spain, and games really helped with communication. Even if you don't know what the other person is saying, you can have fun simply by playing together. I had a palpable sense that games are the world's common language, and started thinking that I'd like to work in the game industry so I could inspire people all around the world. I learned about SEGA through a seminar where a senior member of my group was a speaker. I remember liking the vibes of the people from SEGA, and later when I talked with someone on the HR team at the Boston Career Forum, it locked in that impression. I felt the interviewers were more interested in me as a person than in my accomplishments, and I decided that I wanted to work with people like that. That was why I decided to join SEGA.
Q3My First Assignments at SEGA
First, with the support of a mentor, I learned how to create press releases and manage web ads. From there, I joined press events throughout Southeast Asia, supported local outlets, helped with interviews and photoshoots, you name it. Through my interactions with the local media, I was able to learn the fundamentals of communications in the game industry.
Q4Biggest Surprise After Joining SEGA
That failure isn't always a bad thing, and they'll support people who want to try new things. That's the culture here, and it's deeply embedded. There's an atmosphere where opinions are valued and ideas are embraced, regardless of seniority. From a PR perspective, I was also surprised by how much projects are willing to go outside the game industry for global brand collabs, and how fast things move.
Photo from a business trip to Indonesia during her first year at SEGA, where E.S. handled media coverage for a game event
Q5Current Duties
I handle localized PR for the Sonic series and other titles in SE Asia and the Middle East—press releases, ad placement, demo event planning, things like that. It's interesting how different the press is in each country. For example, in Thailand, people like social media ads with some humor, while in Singapore they prefer articles or long-form videos with detailed content. We really have to work with local outlets on the best ways to communicate in each country. For all countries I handle, we communicate mostly in English, so there are days when I hardly use Japanese.
