Joining Josh is Elena Dimitrova (Sandsoft Games) as they discuss creative strategy in a crowded marketspace, marrying creative and data teams for UA and plans to visit Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe (Museum of Arts & Crafts) while in Hamburg for Gamesforum Hamburg!

Josh: Thanks for joining us Elena! Can you introduce yourself?

I'm Elena, the Marketing Creative Lead at Sandsoft. My experience in graphic design goes across different industries including gaming, tech, and retail industries. My career has taken me through significant roles at Ubisoft London and Product Madness, where I led design teams to create immersive and innovative visuals. Previously, at Laptop Outlet Ltd, I collaborated with leading tech brands like Asus, Lenovo, and Google, focusing on delivering compelling visual experiences across digital platforms.

Josh: What is your go to mobile game at the moment?

I enjoy playing puzzle games, one of them is Royal Match and but also I like Cat game, where you can collect cats. It’s very beautiful 2D artwork with very settled animation. I do occasionally play action, strategy games.

Josh: What led you to work in mobile gaming?

My family has always been a fan of gaming, and we often play games together. My brother is working in the e-sports sector.

Looking for my next challenge, I came across a job opportunity as a Motion Graphic Designer at Product Madness. This is a completely new adventure and I’m happy that I went for it.

Josh: The market is becoming more crowded, especially on the casual side. How do you capture the mind of an audience?

The most important part would be to be able to grab the audience's attention. It’s important to be truthful and show the features of the game but there is always a way to emphasis on the action and bring up more life to the story behind it.

Do not underestimate the power of live-action where you have dedicated scenarios that actors follow to present the game in the best way possible. Make sure to have diversity, but also to create unexpected scenarios and combinations and test them in different geos.

Josh: Do you have any advice for balancing creative processes between UA and data teams? How do you find a middle ground?

As every designer wants to create engaging content doesn’t necessarily mean that can understand the data behind the campaigns. The same goes with the UA managers who are more data-driven and don’t always understand how the creatives being made and what is the best approach to share feedback with the creative team.

My advice is to have a person who is creative but also very into the data to get, to discuss the next steps with UA and pass the message to the creative team.

Josh: How important is it to embrace the ongoing AI revolution and what does that look like in practice?

It’s important to keep up with the new trends and tools. AI as every tool it should be used to help us make our job more enjoyable and creative.

One of the hardest things for creative people is to do the additional task of creating artwork from scratch, resizing, and re-designing. AI is supposed to give time to the designers to work on the ideas and refine the designs rather than wasting time on small tedious tasks. Don’t forget the iterations!

Josh: As a speaker on our Ad Creative panel, what can our audience expect to hear from you?

Discussing what is it to be a lead designer in UA, and how important is this role. Being a lead designer means balancing creativity with strategic thinking, ensuring that our ad creatives not only look great but also perform well in terms of metrics.

The implementation of AI tools in your daily work. This not only increases efficiency but also frees up more time for the creative team to focus on ideation and innovation.

Josh: Other than the event, what are you excited for when visiting Hamburg?

I’m excited to visit some of the historical sites as Peicherstadt, Rathaus (City Hall), Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe (Museum of Art and Crafts), but mostly I would like to discover more of the city and the culture.

Josh: Thanks Elena for your time and see you soon!