Building PlayStation’s Global Partner Marketing

Function for Japan, China, and Korea 

2019-PRESENT

Architected PlayStation’s first dedicated global partner marketing function for Japan, China and Korea based publishers — turning fragmented support into a scalable growth capability.


First Dedicated

Japan / China / Korea function

10

Direct reports across tenure

40+

Publisher relationships owned

6x

PlayStation revenue growth since 2019

Context

The Mandate

In 2019, PlayStation established the Global Partner Marketing organization. I was appointed to lead global oversight for publishers headquartered in Japan, China, and Korea. The challenge was to support fundamentally different portfolio realities through one global operating model.

Cultural HQ Differences

  • Japan: Deepen established publisher relationships and align long-running franchise workflows with current platform priorities.

  • China & Korea: Build repeatable console-marketing partnerships with publishers entering or expanding on PlayStation.

Strategic Pillars

The Gap

By 2019, rapidly expanding publisher pipelines outpaced traditional 1:1 management. Without a unified operational framework, scaling headcount yielded linear effort rather than scalable commercial impact.

The Vision

I built the function across two fronts.

  • Internally: moved the team from single-owner relationships to a portfolio model, with standardized skillsets so any account could be picked up by any manager.

  • Externally: ran structured, in-person discovery to surface gaps — then documented and validated what we learned before it became process.

PILLAR A: Build common standard & complementary expertise

Shared methods and backup coverage reduced key-person dependency without erasing account expertise

PILLAR B: Allocate resources by portfolio value

A prioritization framework matched effort to strategic value, partner need, and team capacity

PILLAR C: Institutionalize knowledge for continuity

Converted tribal knowledge into living publisher documentation

Pillars in Action


Documentation and quarterly Korea/China publisher visits replaced ad hoc, one-off coordination with a repeatable process - improved partner health scores, reduced repeat questions, and increased marketing support.

New hire documentation increased efficiency & scalability.

Lead/support assignments and tiered service levels matched effort to strategic value, contractual need, and team capacity.

Role & Results

Business Impact

Leadership Scope

  • Set the function’s direction, annual priorities, and resource allocation.

  • Served as the senior escalation point for complex decisions while keeping day-to-day ownership of direct reports.

  • Increased workload capacity for partnerships while preserving portfolio-wide coverage.

  • By 2022, trained team to handle more than 75% of day-to-day activity, freeing myself and leadership for higher-value decisions.

Organizational Legacy

  • Championed four team-member promotions while expanding ownership across markets and partnership scale

  • Created reusable playbooks and templates that reduced dependance on one-off coordination

Next
Next

Transforming split releases into global simultaneous launches