No day is like the other in Massive’s Brand team. From collaborating with the production teams to creating trailers and talking to journalists: their work is varied, fast-paced, and – most importantly – a lot of fun.
In October 2017, Karolina Lundin started working as an International Product Manager for The Division 2. We meet in the kitchen for a coffee to talk about her journey to Massive, but also what it means to work in a AAA studio’s Brand team.
“It can be difficult to define everything that we do, but our ultimate mission is to make Massive’s games shine,” she explains as she pours herself a cup of coffee.
She goes on to explain that the Brand team looks at the entirety of the game, first to strategize how to show it to the world; and second to make strong communications around it. It’s about creating awareness for the project and then continuously work to keep the sentiment about it positive.
For Karolina, the road to the game industry wasn’t always clear cut. Her first industry experience was through a summer job in the Massive reception – and during that summer, she fell in love with the studio.
“I can still remember the first time I entered the studio, and how I was immediately fascinated by the studio’s positive vibes. It was just so friendly and international, and I was thinking to myself ‘am I still in Malmö?’. I had heard of Massive before, but never really understood how … massive it was!” she says laughing.
I had heard of Massive before, but never really understood how … massive it was!
After the summer at Massive, Karolina moved to London to study Marketing and Communication for three years. When she returned to Malmö she had no doubts: she was going to apply for a job at Massive.
“That feeling of being in the studio – I just couldn’t let it go. And I was thrilled when I was invited to an interview for the position and then offered the job!”
In her daily work, Karolina has to get into the nitty-gritty details of the game, and one of the things she appreciates the most about her colleagues in the studio is the passion that goes into everything.
AN Extremely creative environment
In a sense, the Brand team is like a connection point, working closely with almost every aspect of both production and business.
“And that is one of my favorite aspects of the work we do. I think it’s super exciting to get those insights into production, I learn something new every day. At the same time we need to keep top of mind what’s changing in the market and how we should adapt to such a fast-paced industry. There is no day like the other. Talking to journalists, planning events, working on scripts for trailers, writing creative briefs … it’s an extremely creative environment,” she says, and continues:
“Everyone here is 100 % committed to their work, and it really shows in everything we do – if you look at The Division for example, just the level of detail is astounding. Working with so many talented and passionate people makes everything so much fun.”
A lot of the work that the Brand team does goes on behind the scenes, and it’s not until the game is out in the limelight that their work is visible to the public. For The Division 2, this happened during E3 2018 – an event that Karolina holds extra dear to her heart for that exact reason.
“That’s when everything became real in a way for me. I hadn’t been able to explain to my family and friends what I was doing before that, but after E3, I could physically point to the screen and say ‘that presentation and trailer you see there? We helped create that!’. That was something I felt – and still feel! – extremely proud of.”