JP Sherman: Founder & Editor in Chief
I’ve had a fairly interesting background. In 1996, I left a job in Sacramento as an archaeological dig team leader in 1998 to run off and jump out of airplanes in the Army.
After basic training, I shipped out to Fort Bragg, North Carolina to work at the United States Army Special Operations Command as a Psychological Operations Specialist. I spent most of my time in the Pacific Command theater (PACOM). I had the opportunity to learn Korean and I was lucky enough to travel to Southeast Asia and Japan several times.
One of the pivotal moments I had in the Army was when we were looking at ways to reach the young demographic in Southeast Asia, and we kept reading how internet cafes were gaining in popularity. My commander knew that I was literate and somewhat of a computer geek, asked me how we could “use that internet thing to get eyeballs on our message”. I replied that there was a process called SEO (Search Engine Optimization). He told me to figure it out. I went and found out everything I could about it, reported it back to the commander and ultimately found that SEO combined the passion I have for semantics, wordplay and research with the ever-changing technological marketspace. I was hooked.
After the Army, I went to UNC Chapel Hill and ended up with a sweet job at a company called MarketSmart Interactive. As the Business Intelligence Manager, I became an expert in all forms of interactive marketing:
- SEO/ SEM
- Media Buying
- Social Media Marketing
- Analytics
- Interactive Project Management
- eCRM/ Email Marketing
- Affiliate Marketing
- Competitive Intelligence
- Video Game Market Research
I would work with each marketing channel team to identify goals, build metric based campaigns and provide integrated channel marketing support from a strategic level with benchmarked comparisons from their web-based competitors.
In my “off time” I was an active player in the MMORPG Star Wars Galaxies, developed by Sony Online Entertainment. There I was a player correspondent for the Ranger profession. I handled the Ranger boards, making sure players were engaged, entertained, on their best behavior, and able to find all the latest and best information on the Ranger profession.
As I migrated from SWG to Lord of the Rings Online, I started writing for Ten Ton Hammer. I would share my marketing expertise to the Ten Ton Hammer team, provide community management for the forums and regularly create articles, op-eds, quest guides & walkthroughs as well as LotR related news analysis.
Eventually, I was recruited to work at Wazap, for their expansion into the US gaming market. I was the director of online marketing. I created, led, tested and refined all the online marketing campaigns. It was an amazing experience that allowed me to expand my marketing and business skills to include event marketing, business development and developing P&L statements as we worked on product development and marketing to support the business.
Starting in the summer of 2009, I started consulting with Delphis US in Marina Del Rey for their client Tecmo, makers of the legendary Tecmo Bowl, Dead or Alive & Ninja Gaiden series. Founded in 1978, Tecmo’s games are known the world over and attract gamers of all ages. They merged with Koei and are now known as Tecmo Koei. I was brought on to provide strategic and tactical marketing support to market the launch of three games for the fall of 2009.
Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2: PS3
For the release of Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, we were tasked to develop and strategize a heavy online media campaign launch across multiple enthusiast sites, develop a social media strategy and provide demographic analytics to effectively reach the American audience.
Undead Knights: PSP
For the game Undead Knights on the PSP, there were some unique challenges for introducing a new IP on a platform that, at the time, was undergoing its own changes to the PSP Go. The audience for this game is “underground” and very heavily active in social media channels.
Family Fun Football: Wii
Tecmo, going back to it’s legendary roots of their massive retro hit Tecmo Bowl, has released a new game called Family Fun Football for the Nintendo Wii. Promising to be the first arcade style football game for the Wii (as opposed to the Madden football simulators for the Wii), it promises arcade style Wii play with stylish characters and unique and fun fields. Tecmo’s committment to all types of gamers made this a fun challenge to introduce a new IP that’s related to their old game. Rather than focus on the “hard core” gamer demographic, our strategy revolved around attracting a different audience that relies heavily on word of mouth, social media and display.
Spark Plug Games
My work with Spark Plug Games as their video game marketing consultant has been a challenging and rewarding experience. They’re core philosophy is to create fun and innovative games for all ages. I provide both strategic and tactical marketing and research support for them. When they’re pitching a new title, my task is to conduct primary research for them. I take the gaming audience, segment them into groups and then identify core aspects, expectations, purchasing habits and hardware penetration to create full fledged marketing research documents. I also write content and provide Game Design Document consultation from a marketing research perspective. They’re an absolute blast to work (although I think John O’Neill taunts me with his perfect beard).
I currently live in lovely Raleigh, North Carolina with my wife and three sons (2 of which are identical twins). I guess that means I’ll be buying a Nintendo DS for each of them eventually.
Cheers.
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