Colin Blackwood

I am an accomplished marketing and commercial leader with extensive strategic and executional success directing brands at the forefront of video game entertainment.

I am experienced in managing UK and international marketing teams, through unprecedented market change, to deliver award winning go to market and live service campaigns for world-leading video games brands. 

As a proven strategic thinker, capable of assessing complex marketing and commercial situations, I visualise success, develop winning strategies, and lead teams to execute with excellence to delight customers (B2B) & consumers (B2C).

COUNTRY MANAGER & COMMERCIAL LEAD                                                                 09/2020 – 09/2023

Electronic Arts (Europe). Member of the Western Europe regional leadership team. Accountable for UK and Ireland revenue targets and leading and developing the people and functions within the UK & Ireland Commercial team (forecasting, reporting, finance, retail marketing and key account management).

• Revenue Accountability: Delivered year-on-year revenue growth, and achieved franchise sales and player targets, by identifying new growth opportunities and reducing reliance on promotional discounting.
• People Management: Successfully restructured our autonomous UKI group into an integrated regional team within the Western Europe business by increasing collaboration, leading a people-first review of roles and responsibilities, and ensuring revenue commitments still met.
• Growth Strategy: Defined the UKI strategic growth plan across EA SPORTS FC and Apex Legends by leading market-wide, cross-functional, collaboration and selling the vision into senior leadership.
• Country Leadership: During Covid lockdowns, led executive level reporting and managed return-to-office and hybrid work planning for UK employees, by assessing cross-team needs, capabilities and communications.

STRATEGY & PLANNING LEAD                                                                                         06/2019 – 08/2020

Electronic Arts (Europe). Responsible for collaborating with global franchise teams (FIFA, Star Wars, UFC and Apex Legends) to develop commercial strategies for UK and Ireland.

• Commercial Planning: Drove sales performance and cross-franchise growth within UK and Ireland by leading local plans and budgets with key internal stakeholders, EA Account team, local retailers, and 3rd party partners.
• Apex Legends Franchise Champion: Collaborated with the global Apex Legends lead to develop commercial strategies across Europe & LATAM and ensure optimal execution, and achievement of revenue and player targets.

FRANCHISE MARKETING DIRECTOR                                                                                08/2018 – 05/2019

Electronic Arts (International). Responsible for developing and delivering the International Marketing plan for EA Respawn's pioneering launch of Apex Legends.

• Marketing Leadership: Successfully launched this exciting new IP for Respawn and EA by leading an international team of country marketers, spanning Europe, LATAM & Asia Pacific, to over-deliver on player and revenue KPIs. 
• International Collaboration: Ensured brand consistency and campaign excellence across international markets by illustrating the added value of local teams and closely partnering with the Global Brand & Campaign leads.

MARKETING STRATEGY DIRECTOR                                                                                 08/2017 – 07/2018

Electronic Arts (International). Maternity Cover. Identifying and advanced new international opportunities for key brands, including Anthem, The Sims and Battlefield.

• Growth Insights: Identified new consumer insights and market opportunities for Battlefield and The Sims globally.
• Business Delivery: Transitioned country teams to a new operating model whilst still hitting fiscal commitments.

HEAD OF PRODUCT MARKETING                                                                                    06/2013 – 07/2017

Electronic Arts (UK and Ireland). Promoted to a larger scope role, covering all go-to-market strategy, planning and execution for all of EA’s non-Sports franchises in UKI.

• Marketing Leadership: Led the team to deliver the biggest Battlefield game ever; selling +33% vs benchmark. 
• Team & Budget Management: Led four Product Marketing Managers and optimised a budget of $10M+.
• Record Results: Drove the Star Wars Battlefront campaign in the UK, which supported the highest ever game reveal on YouTube, won “Game of Show” at EGX, and went on to be the highest selling Star Wars game.
• Competitor Blocking / Guerrilla Marketing: Influential in driving Battlefield 4 Showdown, a pioneering live stream partnership with Microsoft’s new Xbox One console; locking out our competitor on their preferred platform.

MARKETING LEAD, SHOOTERS, RACING & RPG TITLES                                                 06/2010 – 05/2013

Electronic Arts (UK and Ireland). Promoted to lead UKI marketing, and an $8M+ budget, across Need for Speed, Battlefield and Mass Effect.

• Cross Functional Leadership: Led Battlefield 3 to achieve an EA UK record for pre-orders; a key KPI of that campaign.
• Strategy: Re-focused my local web and community function into a modern social influencer team to harness the new (at the time) social marketing opportunities being enabled by Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
• Risk Mitigation: Successfully crisis-managed the launch of Mass Effect 3 when our dominant retailer, GAME UK, entered administration 10 days prior to the game launch, and could not buy stock. 

MANAGER, CRM, WEB & COMMUNITY                                                                         07/2005 – 05/2010
Electronic Arts (UK). Led the CRM team. Responsible for all digital communications and community management.

• Built integrated digital campaigns that increased The Sims 2 player opt-ins by 110% ahead of The Sims 3 launch.

Drove awareness for the FIFA Street2 release by pioneering the first EA UK use of mobile-to-website UGC uploads.

IDM Diploma in Direct Marketing (Distinction), Institute of Data & Marketing. 

BA (Honours) Economics and Marketing, (2:1), University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland.