Smashing Personal Brands In Gaming With Influencer Strategist Clara Sia

How can you grow an organic gaming career from hobby to full-time work?

Clara Sia is a Malaysian-born Chinese Canadian games industry professional and lover of food, bunnies, and indie games. Sia is also a hobby live streamer of indie games and is currently known her bright pink hair. Clara Sia chatted with Forbes about her growing career and path in gaming.

Goldie Chan: Hello Clara. Thanks for joining us here. What has your career path in gaming been?

Clara Sia: I began filling my résumé for transitioning into the games industry before I even realized. Besides being a lifelong gamer, I started live streaming video games in 2014 and built up a network within the content creator space and, subsequently, the industry. I later discovered indie games (no, I didn’t even know they existed before then) and started connecting to the local dev scene in Vancouver, learning it was - and still is - a burgeoning hotspot of indies.

I gave my first talk on the impact of influencers to developers from around the world at a Full Indie Summit and began fostering relationships between contacts in my off-time. In 2015, I founded the first Twitch community meetup, where content creators, game developers, and fans could connect. This group is on hiatus now, due to the pandemic, but our events grew to 500 attendees and were last held at the Vancouver Film School. It was instrumental in helping to create the official global meetup program at Twitch. I made in-person connections with game developers at conventions and provided consultation on how to get their projects noticed by content creators. At such a gaming convention, I was offered a job at a gaming PR agency to manage their influencer relations. Devolver Digital was one of my many clients, and now I work for them in-house, managing their influencer strategy while maintaining relationships with a legion of content creators. I’m purposely leaving out the multiple times I applied to work at EB Games and didn’t even get an interview.

Chan: What has been your favorite project that you’ve worked on?

Sia: Most people assume it’s Fall Guys, but I didn’t sleep the months surrounding its release. A lot of valuable lessons were learned, of course! My favourite project currently is probably our latest major release, Cult of the Lamb. I helped playtest it from early stages after onboarding and was given the freedom to pursue some dream implementations - in particular, the Twitch extension integration, which brought live stream audience participation to the next level.

The developers were an absolute joy to work with (in fact, I’d worked with them in the past on a couple previous projects) and reception was overwhelmingly positive on all sides. I was trusted to dole out early access strategically with key influencers to build visibility and excitement, as well as preview the audience integration features. By the time the game hit full swing, average viewership per channel while playing Cult of the Lamb was over 200% in the positive, which made the game beneficial for streamers to stream. Of course, the best part of it all was finally getting my on-going requests of a plushie made for launch granted. (The first wave sold out in 3 minutes.)

Chan: How would you describe your personal brand?

Sia: As a marketer, casual professional. As a creator and social presence, awkwardly growing, constantly learning. I withhold and overshare in equal measure. I’m a natural born pessimist, but I love to celebrate others. I’ve earned my place, but know that it was with a lot of help. I swear a lot, but it’s with love. All this to say, most people probably just think of me as the crazy rabbit lady who eats a lot.

Chan: What are you currently working on?

Sia: Besides my day job as influencer strategist at Devolver Digital and going through hundreds of applications for an assistant, I’m still consulting with creators and game devs through referral and thinking about when I’ll be comfortable reviving the gaming community meetups. I’ll also be on the judging panel of the Canada Indie Cup, which is exciting to me because I love reviewing game pitches. I’m taking the odd course related to various industry topics I care about - accessibility in game design, mental health challenges for public figures, inclusive campaigning, and so on. Podcast guesting and panels when time permits. Definitely not working on my secret dream of starting the next major gaming convention for Canada.

Chan: What is a dream project you’d love to work on or a collaborator that you’d love to partner with?

Sia: I lied. I definitely do wish I could create some equivalent of a PAX convention in Vancouver. I have some specific ideas and some broader ideas that I’d need guidance on (not to mention cha-ching). This would bring together my great loves of gaming, Vancouver, and all the creators within this nutty industry. I have wonderful relationships with previous event sponsors and would love to take our endeavors to the next level together.

Chan: What would you like to see more of in your industry?

Sia: Real inclusion, less performance. Real change, fewer excuses. I want discoverability to be a responsibility taken up by all fronts. I want news of empowerment to be given as much of a spotlight as takedown stories. I want ready tools for game developers to implement a higher baseline of accessibility in their games. I want people with massive platforms to be bold, get off the fence, and pick a side on issues that matter to them and their audiences. I want our biggest platforms to have more accountability to their users instead of their stakeholders. I want user safety to be paramount on these platforms - in reality, not just in blog posts. I want better protection for developers from predatory studios and practices. We’re a long ways away, but getting closer year by year.

Chan: Any last branding or career advice for this year for people looking to break into more gaming work?

Sia: For game developers looking to break into influencers, have a strong visual identity - it doesn’t have to be “high tech,” it just has to be easily recognizable and sticky. It’s the first thing most creators will notice on first outreach and the first breadcrumb for viewers (via thumbnails). This bleeds into your rich media social presence, key art and logo design, and storefront markup. Hire a community and social media manager. Develop a voice, tone, and content plan together and start building your community sooner rather than later.

For creators looking to shift into career influencers, know both what you’re selling and what you’re not selling. Who are you and who are you not? What content do you create and what won’t be found on your channel? Appealing to everyone is tempting, but daunting and often fruitless. Foster the audience you want now. You can have an “online persona” that’s separate or perhaps an exaggerated version of your day-to-day self, but make sure it’s sustainable and feels right. Re-branding is always an option, but make sure you’re strategic and thoughtful about it. Stick to tried and true basics in business and entertainment instead of chasing success stories from the 0.0001%. Networking is not a four-letter word. Be upfront about your business intentions, confident, and prepared. Practice opportunity readiness every day. Diversify across platforms. Take improv classes.

For everyone else trying to break into the gaming industry, there are more ways in than you think, but it’s still not as easy as it looks. It is an ever-shifting landscape, so staying up on trends and wading deep into the culture will get you a massive leg up. Actually play games. Having good business sense and communication skills will always be beneficial. I can’t stress enough the importance of expanding your network as soon as possible. This is an industry that talks. I hope to see you in the arena soon.