Josh Brown joined FuturLab in February 2021 as a Community Manager and is now our Senior Marketing Manager and leads on all things PowerWash Simulator 2 marketing. I had the pleasure of chatting to Josh about his career journey, the ins and outs of how his job works, the highlights and struggles of marketing a new game. Huge shout out to Josh for being the first to take part in a FuturLab Feature! These features will look to share some insight behind the people at FuturLab, and give advice to those looking to enter the games industry!
What’s the summary of your career so far? How did you get to your position as Senior Marketing Manager at FuturLab?
“I joined FuturLab as a Community Manager, and I was doing a similar role before joining FuturLab, so it wasn’t my first role in the gaming industry. Before that I was a full-time YouTuber for just over six years, at the end mostly playing a game called Paladins. A lot of the skills from that business could be brought across to my career in marketing like setting up events, communicating key information and creating content. So it was sort of an off-the-cuff experience of the industry but still helped me get into games formally.”
Do you still upload to YouTube?
“No, I had every intention to carry on but realistically there’s no time. Even more so now I have a baby!”
How did you hear about FuturLab? Did you join before PowerWash Simulator?
“Yes, PowerWash Simulator (PWS1) wasn’t a thing when I joined FuturLab. To be honest, it felt like a risk moving studios and not knowing what the project was. But my industry connections had good things to say about FuturLab, and taking that risk into the unknown turned out to be a very good thing!”
How did you feel when you found out you’d be leading on marketing PowerWash Simulator 2 (PWS2)? Did you feel any pressure? (no pun intended!)
“There wasn’t much pressure when we first started. It was lots of research and high-level planning and the panic doesn’t set in until much closer to announce when the deadlines are looming!
“Stress isn’t the right word though, I was very excited. I’d been working on PWS1 for a long time so there was the comfort of knowing what we’d already done in the past, but also excitement to do things differently.
“It’s been exciting to work on a new project and also on something that we know has an amazing community. But still a bit of pressure to get that community excited for the new game and also trying to appeal to new players.
“But it’s not a one-person task, lots of people have been involved and I think everyone on the team has been doing an amazing job.”
When did planning for the PWS2 announcement begin? What was the process of approaching this first big marketing beat?
“I can’t remember the exact timeframe, but it’s been a long time coming and probably started way into last year. With a sequel we can go backwards and look at what worked, what hasn’t worked.
“For marketing beats like the announcement, we always start with a marketing deck/plan which establishes the tone of the comms, how we approach the brand, the team resources we’ll need and looking if we have any gaps, who the target audience is and if there’s any new audiences we’re trying to reach.
“Also, a big part of my job is starting conversations early on with first-party partners, onboarding any agencies we need and that’s all happening in the background really. Also, lots of talking internally to teams so I have a good understanding of the game and the features.”
How did you come up with the idea for announcement trailer?
“For the announcement trailer, we didn’t plan it around gameplay because the game is very much in development, so we knew we’d need a CG element as the safest option. It was a nice surprise to be able to include some gameplay!
“We had a big marketing team creative brainstorm, and the idea developed to focus on the gnomes in the new home base, and we eventually decided we wanted it to be Pixar-esque reveal of the game.”
How do you feel the PWS2 announcement went?
“I think that the announcement went amazingly, to be honest. I couldn't have really hoped for more press coverage.
“We’re really, really happy with the response on all our social media channels. It was overwhelmingly positive. We’ve been sharing some more sneak peeks since the announcement trailer with our dev logs, streams and newsletter and fans are really excited to find out more about the game."
PowerWash Simulator 2 Announcement Trailer Thumbnail.
What are you working on at the moment? What’s the next step for PWS2 marketing plans?
“That would be telling! I recommend people have their eyes peeled for the next marketing beat coming very soon though! We still have lots more of the game to show off!”
What is your favourite thing about your role?
“I think the whole process of coming up with ideas and them being created. Obviously the more senior you get, the more you’re overseeing projects rather than making the content. So, I’ve been really enjoying seeing people grow and creating amazing things and celebrating that with those people.
“I also love seeing a plan develop and go in unexpected directions when you involve more people because they bring their own creative ideas to the table.
“It’s obviously great to watch the reaction on launches and announcements and watch the wishlist numbers go up and up!”
What advice would you give to someone who wants to work in marketing in the games industry?
“I think try to get involved in anything related to what you’re interested in, even if it’s outside the games industry. So if you wanted to get into community work then try to get involved with discord servers, writing your own blogs, creating YouTube content and things like that.
“Also try to just immerse yourself in the world by looking at marketing talks and using resources like podcasts and game industry websites. It helps you to have your finger on the pulse of the industry and learn about what key topics are and so on.
“The industry has been a bit turbulent for a while now, so anything you can do to set yourself apart from the competition is a big thing.”
What’s the biggest challenge to your role?
“I think the fact I’m always spinning quite a few plates. There’s a lot of moving parts within a campaign and everyone is busy so I have to decide which plates to spin and who is responsible for each part of the project.
What’s something you wish more people understand more about your role/marketing?
“I think how much work happens in the background beyond creating something and it releasing. There’s a lot of thought, planning, negotiation and talking that happens and aspects like store page approvals, localisation, agencies are a huge part of what goes into launching a game.
“There’s so many layers to what marketing is and sometimes people only focus on the direct-marketing they see in terms of trailers/advertisements. But really it’s about every single communication from store-page copy, to social posts, to securing opportunities with first-parties and so much more.”
If you weren’t doing your current role at FuturLab, what do you think you’d be doing?
“I don’t think I’d be in a different discipline at FuturLab or within the games industry, I think I’ve found what I enjoy the most. If I didn’t work in the games industry, I’d probably be in the tech industry in some way. I love all things science, technology and computers.
“I’d probably still be doing marketing/comms, even at university my sociology dissertation was about social media usage!”
What’s your favourite game of all time? What is your dream game that doesn’t exist?
“Definitely The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. As a kid, it was just so perfect. It was one of the first RPGs I’d ever really immersed myself in.
“In terms of a dream game, I don’t have loads of time for gaming now, so I think an amazing 3D platformer like Mario Odyssey but better! I used to love shooters and big RPGs but I don’t have as much time for them as I use to!”
(Following this statement, Josh reflected that he had actually recently played the entirety of Elden Ring and its expansion and has recently played through the Oblivion Remaster.)
Thanks again to Josh for sharing this with us! More FuturLab Features will be coming soon. To keep up to date with the latest FuturLab game and studio news, please subscribe to our newsletter.
