Remi Sklar oversees global communications for Warner Bros. Games, which publishes such major franchises as Mortal Kombat; Hogwarts Legacy and other games from the Harry Potter universe; DC Universe games such as the Batman: Arkham franchise; and such LEGO titles as LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga and the upcoming LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight, among many others.

As senior vice president, worldwide communications and public relations, Warner Bros. Games, she often faces long, full days. “You often wake up to things happening in Europe and go to bed with the happenings in Asia,” Sklar says. And Sklar is one of Warner Bros.’ go-to people across all marketing communications for games and divisional communications initiatives. That requires her to stay prepared for anything while remaining calm in the moment. That’s the approach she advocates for her teams as well.

“A typical day starts pretty early and ends pretty late for me, but everything happening during the day -- from the creativity to the challenges -- keeps me on my toes. It’s why I love my job,” she says. “It’s not predictable and it’s never, ever boring.”

Sklar, a GEMA board member, shared some of these lessons with GEMA’s current GUIDE mentorship cohort in the fall and with Spotlight in this week’s exclusive Q&A. GEMA is preparing to launch the next GUIDE mentorship cohort for members. If you’re a member of GEMA and interested, you can apply here.

‍Spotlight: You have worked in film and TV in your career and now your focus is on games for Warner Bros. Discovery. How do you find games operate differently than TV or movies? 

‍Remi Sklar, SVP, worldwide communications and public relations, Warner Bros. Games: Games have a real live and interactive nature to them. For instance, Mortal Kombat 1 – a game we're still working on now that launched over two years ago – has so many live components. The DLC – or downloadable content – that you put out for fans to keep games going longer really extends the life of a campaign. You want to keep sentiment high and you want to keep players engaged so our jobs never let up even when you are launching new games. Games really do differ quite a bit from film and TV in terms of content and technology, and continuing my education to learn all about a game as well as all of the new technology involved for every launch is one of my favorite things about the category. 

Each game has its own needs, and you have to make sure that you tailor whatever you're going to be putting into a campaign for that game specifically. We get into the process early on with the developers of a game. Games take longer than films and TV shows to make, and they have more content – typically you are thinking about a 100-hour game versus a two-and-a-half hour movie or 8-10 episodes of a TV show. You have to get in with the developer, figure out the key features of a game, and then decide how you are going to promote it over a longer period of time. We work to figure out what will be the best length for a campaign, what are we going to be saying, who our target audience is, and how we might want to expand that audience. 

‍Spotlight: Games tend to be a passion play with passionate ongoing communities behind them. How do you work with those communities in an authentic way? 

‍Sklar: I think gaming was one of the first mediums that really had engaged communities online. They created their own community networks, and now many of them are on Discord, and you have sub communities in places like Twitch, Reddit, YouTube and Tiktok. People figured out how to chat with each other, so they could advance in their games and get better at playing those games. 

For us, it's all about being organic. Influencers and streamers had a strong start in gaming and have now grown to be a huge entertainment marketing tool. We embraced influencers early and the space is changing all the time. Like most things, who's hot one minute is not as hot the next - and up and coming voices are exciting to work with. We have to stay involved in that community and learn from our player and fan bases. 

We find that working with micro-influencers – people who may have a good following but not the biggest following – can work well. You don’t want someone who typically just plays Fortnite to all of a sudden stop and pick up your game, just because they have the widest reach. You want someone who is going to create content that will attract an audience that really wants to engage with your game and can help influence that FOMO and that real appeal so people want to join your game’s community.

It's not necessarily the widest reach that counts, it's the quality of that reach and the quality of that engagement that you are looking for. You really want to target your organic influencers and your earned influencers, as well as your paid influencers.

‍Spotlight: Do you think corporate media PR teams in general are switching to influencers over journalists to get the word out about their content and products? 

‍Sklar: I think that the influence of content creation and the wide reach of it, along with that engagement is just different from that of the press. Whereas press is one person's opinion or one person's writing about something, the actual audience of an influencer is something you're also looking for. It's just a different tactic. I don't think we necessarily decide to go to influencers or to social media over going to the press. It's more about doing both at the same time, while tailoring the message. We want to make sure that we are covering all of our bases from a corporate perspective as well as a product perspective, and when we speak to the community or to our content creators and our social media platforms, we really tailor those messages to be in the voice of that audience. We are looking to either earn their respect or keep their respect and hopefully grow that audience while cultivating their trust. 

‍Spotlight: I feel people in jobs like yours really have to be first movers.

‍Sklar: I've always been a bit of a media hound and studying the evolution of the wider media landscape. I come from a journalism background, so it definitely interests me, and I always like to know more, so curiosity mixed with learning probably makes me well suited for this. It's definitely not for everyone. I think a lot of people are exhausted with how much noise there is. That is part of what I talked about in my talk with GEMA and the people participating in the GUIDE program. There's a lot of noise, so how you stand out amongst that noise is something we have to think about as marketers and definitely as communications executives. We have to figure out how we stand out and how to craft what we are saying so that it really resonates with people.

‍Spotlight: Let's talk a little bit about GEMA and the GUIDE program. You were one of the first pair of mentors that spoke to this cohort. Along with how to stand out amongst all the noise, what sorts of things did you speak to the group about? 

‍Sklar: I think rising above the noise is difficult for anyone in the current media and social climate. My hope with the GUIDE session was to impart to the mentees that they can craft their narrative and make it stand out if they work hard to think about what they want to say. It could be in a meeting. It could be something they want to do for a press pitch or for a marketing campaign, whatever it is that they want to communicate. I wanted them to think about what it is that they really want to say before they say it: Who is their audience? What do they need to tell them, and what can they bring to the table that nobody else can? Is there an anecdote or a story that will ground your communication with a personal connection and make your audience feel connected to you? How do you do that, and how do you craft those messages so that you stand out? 

We looked at how different companies and people have successfully achieved breakthrough communications. It was really great and rewarding to hear the mentees' different perspectives, especially from up-and-coming marketers who were both really skilled and really excited to learn. We had a strong dialog throughout the day beyond what I was presenting to them. 

‍Spotlight: Is mentorship something that has benefited you throughout your career? 

‍Sklar: I have never had one mentor who was someone I have looked to throughout my career, but I have found my own people who I connect with, and who I can bounce things off of. There is a mutual admiration component to those special relationships and connections, where I have people who I respect, trust, and go to within the wider entertainment and tech industry. They are both in my field – comms and marketing – and also in different areas of business. It's incredibly helpful to cultivate personal connections. I have built my own little kitchen cabinet to chat through situations or decisions big and small. 

That's why I feel mentorship is really important for me to pass along and pay it forward. While I didn't have one mentor, I am extremely fortunate to have had several people who have been very generous with me in terms of their time, guidance and support. Sometimes you just want to feel like you're not crazy. It's great to have people to talk to and who you can count on. And as a working mom, I totally understand that if I am asking for someone’s precious time -- the greatest gift you can give – I want to make it a valuable conversation for both of us. 

As a result, it’s been a personal mission to make the time for others, and I have done that -- not only with GEMA, but also by being on my alumni board at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and by doing several other things over the years in terms of mentorship at Warner Bros. I feel like it's such a rewarding thing for both the mentees and for myself. Personally, I learn a lot, and it keeps me in touch with people who are starting out, and hopefully they can benefit from the support.

‍Spotlight: How did you advise the GUIDE mentees to go out and find their own kitchen cabinet? Was that something you did intentionally or was it something that just showed up for you? 

‍Sklar: You need to put in the work, and learn your craft so that you earn people’s respect. Networking can't just happen with cold emails off of LinkedIn. Although I have responded to help out on some of those messages, it is not the best way to connect. You really have to start by meeting people, taking jobs and taking internships that will get you in the door. A career, especially mine, did not happen overnight. My internships changed my life, and I still work at networking all the time. It is different now, but I really want to meet new people, and I want to learn from people. I feel like you need to want to know about people and not just utilize them to help you. 

A lot of my guides and mentors have come from work or have been people I have worked with in different capacities, or who I have met through the industries I’ve worked in – whether that’s games, entertainment, or tech. Even though I’m naturally an introvert, I put myself out there. I've been to many events where I've just had to strike up conversations. I have earned relationships with people who work with me, not only at Warner Bros., but at other places I've worked as well. I retain people who mean a lot to me, and they retain me, too. It's not just a one-way street. We have conversations, and it's not just about what they can do for me, but also about how I can help them. It's not ‘please tell me everything you know, give me all of your contacts and help me grow my career.’ I have literally had people approach me in that way, but there should be more of a conversation over time, building on trust and connection. I've worked with people who I didn't even know I had an impact on, but unbeknownst to me they were able to speak up on my behalf when I wasn't in the room. And that is huge. It’s one of those things that only comes from time and hard work.