Vanessa Andersson set to become a pioneer in VR games marketing

Vanessa Andersson has been working in marketing all her life. Last year she decided to pursue her dream of entering the games industry and applied to the Futuregames Games Marketer diploma course. In December she landed her dream job as Marketing Manager for Beyond Frames Entertainment, working with digital games within Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality.

“I believe that VR gaming will be the leading gaming media, and it will contribute not only in the entertainment industry but in fields like education, health and manufacturing. I am so excited about it, and I am looking forward to being part of it!”

Vanessa describes marketing as a passion. With a bachelor in marketing and advertising from Greece, and later a master’s management program, she has worked as a marketing coordinator and marketing manager in a different range of industries in Sweden, including startups, big corporations, and the hospitality industry.

Then covid hit, and she suddenly found herself without a job for the first time in her career.

“When covid knocked on our doors, I was currently working as a Marketing Coordinator at Hilton Stockholm Slussen, and as we all know, the hospitality industry was the first industry covid knocked out of the scene. It was the first time in my life I got unemployed. I have to admit that I felt in dire straits since it was challenging to find a job during this time.”

But instead of being let down she saw this as an opportunity to pursue the industry she really wanted to enter – the games industry.

“I did not let this situation absorb my positive energy thoughts! I saw this as an opportunity! I finally had the time to think about what I want to do next in my career, and that was working within the gaming industry. I was so lucky to see this ad on Facebook and enroll to the Games Marketer course at Futuregames.”

The Futuregames Games Marketer diploma course is the first ever course in games marketing in Sweden, developed in close collaboration with the Swedish gaming industry. The course is designed to help marketing and communications professionals transition into the fast growing games industry, with hands-on training in video game marketing best practices by games studio marketing leaders.

“Gaming has been in my life since I was a kid. You like playing so much, but you just don’t realise that you can work in the games industry! I realised it two years ago when I met people working within it.”

How did you land a job in the games industry? 

“That is such a fantastic story! My classmates and I were invited to the Christmas Reflections event, hosted by Martin Johnson from Electric Dreamland and Lynn Ersan from Twitch. The event was on Thursday the 17th of December and was held virtually. There I had the chance to meet with Ricky Helgesson, the Beyond Frames and Cortopia Studios CEO. During the event, he mentioned that they are looking for a candidate in marketing, and I applied straight away and contacted Ricky in person on LinkedIn.”

“On Monday the following week, I had my first interview, on Tuesday my second, and on the same day, in the evening, I signed my contract. On Wednesday, I started working as a Marketing Manager at Beyond Frames and Cortopia Studios. It is crazy that it went so fast, I still can’t believe it! I also want to highlight that the end of the course was on Tuesday and the day after I started working in the gaming industry!”

The fit is perfect, seeing as Vanessa is especially passionate about VR games. VR and AR games are also a segment within the games industry with the potential to grow exponentially going forward.

“I LOVE VR gaming! It is so different from the other games because you experience yourself inside the game! You are in the game! It is an entirely different feeling compared to other consoles. VR is still in the beginning process and has so much potential! I am looking forward to seeing how it will evolve. Now, with Oculus Quest 2 and the crazy competitive price Facebook shared, I believe that the VR console will be soon accessible to everyone!”