Riot Games nabs BBH's strategy director to head up APAC marketing

Riot Games has appointed BBH Asia Pacific's former strategy director, Alasdair Gray, as its head of marketing for APAC. In his role, Gray (pictured) will oversee the company's APAC brand marketing which includes marketing leads for the various game categories and eSports. At the same time, he will also be overseeing the APAC communications and channels team. His role will see him leading strategy in regional marketing, support in-market teams to hyper serve players and local communities, while enhancing Riot Games' hub capabilities under its new operating model, a company spokesperson confirmed to MARKETING-INTERACTIVE. He reports to Riot Games' APAC managing director, Alex Kraynov. 

As head of marketing, Gray's goal is to create meaningful experiences that excite and delight Riot Games' players, while allowing them to express their fandom and creativity. "Everything we do feeds into our goal of becoming the most player focused gaming company in the world. So for us marketing isn't just a way of attracting new players, it's an extension of the player experience," explained the company's spokesperson. 

With more than 10 years of experience under his belt, Gray is a creative strategist from a gaming background, said his LinkedIn. Gray also spent more than three years with BBH. He initially joined the creative agency in December 2018, helming the senior planner for a year. In January 2020, he took on the strategy director position and worked with clients such as Riot Games and YouTube, according to his LinkedIn. Before BBH Asia Pacific, Gray spent more than four years at Iris, where his last held position was its senior planner, working with the likes of Samsung, Royal Caribbean, Abbott Diabetes Care, Nescafe, and Club Wembley. 

Aside from BBH Asia Pacific and Iris, Gray has also worked at creative and innovation agency, Five by Five, last helming the position of planner. In this position, he was based in London and worked with brands such as Discovery Network, Garmin, and Activision. Gray initially joined the agency in June 2010 as its analyst before moving up the ranks to junior planner in May 2011 and finally as a planner in 2012. 

Attempting to beef up its physical presence in its key APAC markets, Riot Games has also had a series of regional and local appointments. This move comes after the company unveiled its plans to set up offices in Southeast Asia last month. Riot Games previously ran the Southeast Asia business out of its Singapore hub office and had an office in Japan. Now with a focus on hyper localisation, the company has decided to open new publishing offices in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, India and the Philippines. 

According to Riot Games, this move also saw a diversification its operating model, with publishing being at the forefront. Other business pillars alongside would include games, entertainment, eSports and enterprise.  Since re-establishing its Singapore HQ in 2018, Riot Games has significantly grown its workforce and is now doubling down on publishing in the region, said Riot Games. Kraynov is currently leading the publishing efforts in APAC. 

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