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Behind The Screens - Game Marketing Shenanigans with Romain Messer, Brand Manager @Twin Sails Interactive

Updated: Aug 5, 2024

Teaser: we're talking video game marketing and it involves clarinets.


Welcome to our debut interview feature!


Starting today, this blog will spotlight the unsung heroes behind the screens—those who keep the video game world spinning and the games rolling; those that we rarely hear from.
In these exclusive interviews, we’ll delve into the insights of the everyday experts who quietly make the magic happen for games and players everywhere.

I’m honoured and veryyy excited to kick off our series with an interview featuring Romain Messer, Brand Manager at Twin Sails Interactive, an indie game publisher.

A logo of Twin Sails Interactive


Get ready to uncover the quirky world of video game marketing from someone who’s been there, done that, and has stuff to say about it all! Yeah! Strong words!!!

This isn’t your average interview—explore Romain’s insights with our interactive, expandable Q&A, and find out by yourself why we're talking about those dang clarinets!


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What is your vision of marketing?

It’s not so much about convincing but rather showcasing what’s there. I start with the assumption that people are interested and show them the product’s strengths. It’s not about saying, “You need this” or “This is the best,” but rather introducing the game to its audience instead of artificially putting together an audience for the product.

In a field like marketing where there are few scientific certainties and everything evolves extremely quickly, how can we prevent ideologies from creeping into knowledge?

We often adopt existing practices without much discussion, until someone influential steps in and says, "Stop, we're doing something different." Once someone who is successful advocates for a change, it becomes the new reality and paradigm under which we must operate. We also tend to cling to the methods that worked when we first learned our trade.

There's a difficulty in shifting to a new paradigm when you've been trained in a specific one. It feels dichotomous: you either blindly follow a successful trend or stick with what you were taught at the start of your career.


The best approach, in my opinion, is to move away from this and take the best of both worlds, combined with the few studies available, to forge your own path. We have limited data and scientific analysis, so we juggle between past practices, common sense, and new trends, with the definition of common sense varying from person to person. To mitigate the impact of this aspect, there's a need for education and continuous reassessment.

What’s the biggest misconception about marketing in video games?

That marketing should be treated purely as 'ROI-driven'. Today, as we discussed earlier, we lack reliable tracking to base marketing decisions on ‘assured’ ROI. This mindset erases opportunities for creating human, organic marketing based on authentic emotions and experiences. Often, we don’t know the exact impact of our strategies, and we lack the tools to predict results accurately.


Following conventional marketing wisdom can stifle innovation, preventing us from evolving and creating memorable communication that inspires people to engage with the game or brand differently.

What recurring marketing mistake annoys you the most?

The belief that people are naive or simple-minded (to put it nicely). We still treat people too much like they need hand-holding, which can be invasive. We’re stuck in an outdated idea of a marketing that would be “superior to its audience” and whose approach assumes we know better than them.


Especially in indie gaming, the audience is very well-informed and interested in the first place, so they research independently and have a lot of experience on their own. Spoon-feeding them doesn’t work; they can call out our bluff. Respecting their experience and knowledge is how we do good work in my opinion.

What’s a question you wish you were asked in your work but never are?

Recently, no one has been asking, “is this game fun?” when working on it pre-launch. We often focus on market readiness and bug-free experiences but neglect to ask if it’s actually enjoyable. We take an artificially “objective” approach, viewing the product within an ecosystem it serves, and in trying to meet quality and process standards, we sometimes lose sight of the fact that it’s firstly meant to provide enjoyment and entertainment.

What’s your favorite marketing ‘failure’ in your career and what did you learn from it?

Amberial Dreams, an indie platformer game that failed to succeed, for several reasons:


  1. The data we used didn’t account for the changing audience. The game initially had 2 million players on the Flash version, but the shift from free browser games to paid Steam games meant we only partially reached those players. Plus, many of these were probably gone from gaming anyway.

  2. A good game with strong USPs and excellent developers might still not attract an audience if the current trends don’t align. The preferences and game aspects we assumed would be most loved weren’t shared by our intended audience.

  3. You can drive traffic to a Steam page with good marketing, but good marketing doesn’t always guarantee success in the market.

What are the biggest differences between marketing a digital product and a physical one?

Obviously, you can’t physically show your purchases… but you get instant gratification and immediate access! Digital products offer quick consumption and the ability to change your mind very easily with refund policies on platforms like Steam or mobile being super accessible. A good First-Time User Experience (FTUE) is also crucial for retention, as people can decide in 10min that they don’t like your game… and return it. We have to take all that into account when marketing our games.

If marketing were a musical instrument, which would it be and why?

Instinctively, I’d say that bad marketing would be a sousaphone—loud and unsubtle, trying to stand out and make noise. Good marketing, on the other hand, would be a clarinet—gentle, charming, and seductive, guiding people to the product like the Pied Piper.

What’s something that makes you happy in your job?

Interacting with different teams—community managers, QA, producers, game designers and others. I get insights into various aspects of the product I don’t usually engage with.

What’s your favorite thing about your professional self?

I have a strong moral code professionally and have never compromised on it. I’ve always opposed practices that were questionable in terms of benefits or fairness for players and developers alike. I insist on transparency and honesty, actively refusing and protesting against morally dubious marketing campaigns or those with hidden objectives.






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