‘Think globally, act locally’ says president of Kool Things PR

Publications featured in large, English-language media outlets are without any doubt the Holy Grail for game publishers. They’re the first thing they will have in mind when it comes to PR.

There’s a very good reason behind this approach – those media have very high opinion-shaping power and therefore are able to boost promotion significantly. It’s all down to the current, highly globalised information flow, really. English language is the most global communication method of our times and news tends to spread by itself via the Internet when featured prominently in top tier English-language outlets. That puts them at the top of the hierarchy.

Reaching such established media looks to be a high priority for anyone at first glance. That being said, we should never forget about the old, but always relevant mechanism: think globally, act locally.

Despite what I’ve said above, that phrase is still very much key in the field of PR and general promotion of brands. A typical Polish gamer is certainly not getting his news from Gamespot, but from the established Polish gaming online media.

These media use the reader’s everyday language, they speak in subculture-appropriate forms used in their close social circles, and they put the news in a context which is relevant to regional specifics, such as the habits and preferences of gamers in Poland. The local media have local people in mind – to put it simply. And this accessibility is a power that PR should be utilising to its best.

This situation is similar in any given country, be it Europe or any other part of the world. The local aspect may be crucial to positioning the brand or the product in the region and tying it to the audience stronger than a prominent global feature can, which will feel distant to a large portion of the readership – and sometimes completely unavailable for non-English speakers.

A local agency knows exactly which journalists are, for example, avid fans of RPG games similar to your title. And a local agency knows that it should be talking to certain specific journalists and not to anyone else in editorial. But this recognition of the best person for the topic is only the tip of the iceberg, when you really look at it. 

The local agencies also have personal ties with journalists that cover the gaming industry in their country. We attend the same events, meet on the same occasions, have mutual friends in the industry and, through cooperation across numerous PR campaigns, we know what will work the best for each of us.

This kind of know-how and relationship is in very large part essential to getting across the things you want to communicate properly and translating it to a great media publication.

Marcin Marzęcki is president of PR agency Kool Things, established in 2010. It specialises in holistic promotion of games and related technologies, addressing its services both to leaders in the market and to ambitious newcomers. The company has a client list including Activision Blizzard, Razer and Superhot.