Paramount recruits marketing vice president for games business
Ivo Gerscovich to lead global marketing for company's self-published and licensed titles
Paramount Digital Entertainment has recruited Ivo Gerscovich into the new role of vice president of global marketing, a position in which the former Vivendi employee will directly oversee all of the division's games marketing.
The appointment is the latest move by Paramount to take further control of its licensed products, and also to self or co-publish games directly, through its digital division. In February, John Kavanagh was named as the company's new senior vice president of videogames. Gerscovich now joins the team to manage its worldwide marketing, promotions and public relations strategies for self-published titles, as well as overseeing partner marketing.
"In my new role, I'll be leading the Paramount Digital Entertainment global marketing team as we capitalise on current and emerging opportunities in the videogame space," said Gerscovich.
"Through our marketing strategies, we'll be reaching out to both dedicated and casual players around the world. Our campaigns will focus on introducing our interactive entertainment experiences based on new films and classic properties from the extensive Paramount library."
Prior to joining Paramount, Gerscovich served as senior director of global brand marketing at Vivendi Games, and as director of marketing and promotions at Fox Interactive.
John Kavanagh said of his experience: "Ivo's expertise in developing successful integrated marketing launch strategies, his leadership skills and positive history of collaborating with studio and brand partners make him the ideal executive to lead our global digital entertainment marketing team.
"The depth of Ivo's experience, relationships and knowledge of the industry will be a valuable asset as Paramount continues to grow and expand its games business."
The Viacom-owned Paramount announced plans to increase its presence in the games market last year. Viacom already licences many of its properties to publishers such as Activision and Ubisoft, while another of its businesses, MTV, has had publishing success with Rock Band. Currently Paramount has only confirmed it will be publishing games based on its own licences, and hasn't commented on whether it has pans to follow in the footsteps of Warner Bros and expand into other third-party developed titles.