Meet the Zarzis - Q&A With Rodrigo

Rodrigo Mejía Fernández is the first member of the team that you’re going to get to meet in our brand-new Q&A series, Meet the Zarzis. Rodrigo, who’s our Senior Marketing Manager, is based in Barcelona and is an expert in his field. Enjoy this insightful Q&A:

 

  1. Tell me how you got started in your marketing career.

I actually started out as a graphic design major, because I love art and design. Thing is, though, I sound found out that I wasn’t as skilled at design as I first thought! Seeing as I’m also drawn to business, I thought I would give marketing a try – to learn and work in the business side of things.

 

  1. What makes you passionate about this kind of work?

 

The most exciting thing about being a marketer is having the scope and necessity to think out of the box to do the best-possible job. Out-of-the-box thinking leads to the creation of really cool creatives that generate tangible results. I get a kick out of seeing creatives with high IPMs (Installs per Mille – the number of times an app or game is installed per thousand impressions) outperforming those of our competitors! This is something that makes me feel proud.

 

  1. How has your skillset grown within the company?

 

The management at Zarzilla Games believes in its staff members having autonomy and the freedom to make decisions. I definitely feel that I’ve grown as a marketer because I’ve been allowed to make decisions, both on a business strategic and creative level, on behalf of the business. Having such trust afforded to me has allowed me to get better at what I do.

 

  1. What emerging marketing trends should everyone have their eyes on? 

 

I’m a firm believer that TikTok is influencing the digital marketing sphere as a whole. In other words, everything that is being done in digital marketing at the moment is increasingly tapping into humor, focusing more on relating to people, and generally making things more fun.

 

  1. What makes Zarzilla Games a great place to work? 

 

Zarzilla is full of young, dynamic, very interesting and highly-skilled people. Working with such awesome creative minds definitely makes working here a lot of fun. The team spirit is also very strong here – we’re all pulling the same rope all of the time, ensuring we’re heading in a unified direction with our individual projects.

 

  1. What do you consider to be your core strengths?

 

I would say that I’m very good at adapting to sudden and substantial change, as well as being an an excellent problem-solver.

 

  1. What motivates you to succeed?

 

I’m motivated by identifying concrete potential in apps and games, because that makes me want to work harder to see them succeed. I would also say that I’m motivated to do even better when I see my work overperforming in terms of creative performance. I particularly enjoy beating our competitors with our Facebook ads!

 

  1. What publications and blogs do you read?

 

There are four that I read religiously, namely Business of Apps, which is a superb resource for anyone who works with apps for living, Venturebeat, which is great for keeping an eye on what’s happening in the transformative technology sector, Seth Godin’s blog because of his eye-opening insights, and Mobile Heroes for its amazing contributors.  

 

  1. Who's your favorite marketer and why? 

 

Seth Godin, the ex-dotcom business executive who was once Yahoo’s President of Direct Marketing, is by far my favorite marketer because he is an old-school marketer who has been active since the late 1980s. In addition to his brilliant insights from classical marketing theory, he’s also very adept at new-school marketing, making him a great all-rounder to follow.

 

  1. In your own words, what's the goal of marketing?

 

For me, the goal of marketing is simple – to add concrete value to solid projects or businesses that have the right amount of potential to become something big.