People Make Kwalee: Harry Lang

Our Vice President of Marketing, Harry Lang, sits down with us to talk about all things marketing, and even his fantasy pet of choice…

We have the pleasure of introducing Harry Lang, the Vice President of Marketing at Kwalee. With responsibilities from user acquisition for Hybrid Casual games on mobile platforms to leading the teams for PC Console marketing, Harry brings a wealth of experience to the marketing team at Kwalee. 
With over 24 years of marketing experience, Harry has navigated through roles in agencies, consultancy, and CMO positions at leading gaming and esports organisations. He began his career journey by mistakenly graduating with a Bachelor of Science in human geography, due to a freshman week typo at Newcastle University. While initially late to ongoing study, he realised its importance in his late 20s, pursuing informal learning, conferences, and formal courses.

Harry accidentally joined the gambling industry in the mid-2000’s when he accepted a marketing director position for an online poker startup at the age of 27. Despite its eventual and dramatic failure, he transitioned to another gaming group and later founded his marketing agency, "The Fridge". Through these life experiences, he emphasises the importance of embracing mistakes, considering them crucial for growth and learning, as he says:

“Show me someone who makes no mistakes, and I'll show you a liar. If I make a mistake, I'll put my hands in the air, celebrate it, own it, and make sure it doesn't happen again. And I encourage that sort of thinking by anyone in my team.” 

Now, his focus is on strategic marketing, understanding human behaviours, and motivations, and staying informed about trends and media capabilities in the mobile and PC Console games space as VP of Marketing at Kwalee, emphasising the process of learning. 

To find out more about the man behind the book, ‘Brands, Bandwagons and B*******”, we caught up with him and asked him some probing questions…   

What is the best piece of advice you have received?

The best advice I've ever received was from my first boss, and I even used it for the title of my book. He once told me, "If you can see a bandwagon, you've probably missed it." I've carried this with me throughout my career, as it reminds me that if you’ve just spotted a trend, then it may not necessarily be a good idea to deploy it in your marketing strategy just because others are. It's a valuable lesson, teaching me not to chase trends recklessly. Instead, I focus on putting the customer first and crafting localised, flexible strategies and tactical plans specifically for each product, demographic and geo.   

What’s the best thing about working at Kwalee? 

An easy one for sure - it’s the people. I’ve never worked with such a welcoming, capable team in my career. Everyone’s fantastic at collaborating and everyone buys into the goal of making the most fun games and marketing them in an optimum way. It makes for a very refreshing and fun place to work, and I’m very grateful for that! 

Given your extensive marketing background, what made you want to work in the games industry?

I was really keen in the last decade to try and find a career pivot where I was more proud of what I was marketing. In the past, I was marketing gambling - which isn’t necessarily great for the soul. I wanted to find something where I could use all the skills I’d developed over the last 20+ years but in a role that was: 

1. More ethically rewarding. 
2. More fun! 
3. With a significant opportunity to grow - both as a marketer and as a business.

Luckily Kwalee had an opportunity for someone like me at the right time, and I feel so fortunate to be here.

Thinking of all the video games you have played in the past, who is your favourite character? 

Going old school to my university days, I always went for Heihachi Mishima in Tekken 2 - a total badass! One of my favourite video games actually stars a real person, so I’m going to say Tiger in ‘Tiger Woods Golf’ is my all-time favourite. I used to absolutely love that game and I enjoy playing golf anyway. It was a hero simulation - you basically got to act out and hit the shots of the world's very best player. If I were to pick a proper game character from one of our titles, then it has to be the frog from Wildmender.

What is your favourite game created by Kwalee?

I’ll need to give two, from the mobile and PC Console side of gaming. From mobile publishing, I’ll go for ‘Draw it’, because it’s the one that I play the most and I really love it. For my favourite Kwalee PCC game... It’s such a tough decision, I’m very excited to be playing our new game ‘The Precinct’ for many reasons. It reminds me of the 80’s cop films I used to watch relentlessly like New Jack City and I can imagine playing it for hours and hours, probably with appropriate rock music in the background - think AC/DC or Def Leppard.

If you could have any animal as a pet, real or fantasy, what would it be?

Well, I'm obviously going to lean into fantasy here because that just sounds way more fun. I'm definitely going to go for Daenerys's Dragon from Game of Thrones, as I would never have to fly EasyJet again and barbequing would be a lot quicker!

We have many job roles available for everyone. Head over to our jobs page aand see what’s in store at Kwalee for passionate folks like yourself. You can also reach out to us and our recruitment team to ask about roles that fit you. Follow us on social media (TikTok | Twitter | YouTube | Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook) to get the latest news on our recruitment efforts.