Darth Hater

Interview: Market Men Leo Olebe and Rob Cowles

Celebration V supplied us with a great deal of insight into the creative minds behind Star Wars: The Old Republic. We talked with writers Drew Karpyshyn and Hall Hood about creating stories and concept artists Clint Young and Arnie Jorgensen about crafting visuals, adding a great deal to our understanding of the minds behind the game. As our final interview from Florida, we sat down with marketing specialists Leo Olebe from BioWare and Rob Cowles from LucasArts to learn a little more about Friday updates, media assets, community input, and herding cats.

Interview

Today we are joined by members of the marketing teams for LucasArts and BioWare. Would you please give us a brief introduction?

Rob: I'm Rob Cowles. Senior Product Marketing Manager at LucasArts.

Leo: I'm Leo Olebe, Director of Marketing at BioWare.

Let's start with Rob. For the fans out there that don't know much about what you do, can you give us a behind the scenes look at the life of Rob Cowles?

Rob: The best job description that comes to mind is a master cat herder. That is what I do day in and day out; I herd the kittens. Every day is interesting and very unique, to put it simply we're always working on the updates. This is a constant and will continue to be that way even after launch. I think of myself as the glue that brings together the feedback from our legal, production, licensing, and marketing teams. At the very base level that sums up the thing that I do and I am lucky to work with such a talented team of people. We have a great creative services team with Steve Ervin and Roger Evoy, and we have an excellent P.R. manager in Adam Kahn. Also, as tough as they are, I love working with Anne Marie Hawkins and the legal team. And, of course, our production team members Jake Neri and Tim Timmerman.

On top of that, because this is Star Wars, I am working with Random House on getting books like Fatal Alliance published and with Dark Horse on the new Blood of the Empire comic. Also, there are some other licensees that are yet to be announced and some pretty cool new opportunities. We also have some statues with Gentle Giant, and most likely some more collectibles on the way. My days can be described as incredibly diverse, long but ultimately fulfilling. Whenever they push that send button on the update everyone breathes a sigh of relief, particularly after a week like this. That to me is a good week.

So there is a big red button?

Rob: Yes, one button that commands everything. If you ever got the opportunity to use that button, you could see behind everything.

So it's like there is a Sith power meter that controls "how much do we want to reveal" on the big red button?

Rob: Yes, and it's always my job to make sure that meter is as low as possible. Leo is always more of the light side, he says, "No, a little more" and I'm always, "No, a little less. So Leo and I are like the struggle between the light and the dark side of the Force, my registered user name is actually Darth Rob.

And now for the life and times of Leo.

Leo: The trials and tribulations, the good news is that I don't actually do anything. I just sit around and say, "Yo Sean, what are you doing," and "Deborah, how's it going? You guys got it all taken care of?"

Rob: He has minions.

Leo: I will start off with an old school, 1980's rap shout-out to the people on my team. There's a P.R. team that works with E.A. on my team. We also have Sean Dahlberg and Alyson Bridge who work on stuff for us. You guys know a lot of these folks on the boards; we're all very open about who we are and what we do. There is Deborah Shin who does a lot of the work with Rob when it comes to getting things approved. We also have Rob Chesney, Robin, and Brian who do amazing work in compiling all the screenshots and videos for us. And then we have our web producer Eric Moser and web designer Alyssa Gobelle. This is one those things where you know you're going to forget somebody...

We're still waiting on interviews from some of those guys...

Leo: We gotta line 'em all up! Bring everybody out!

When it comes down to it, my job is to work with the both the web community and the P.R, marketing, and research teams to make sure that everybody who is super awesome at their jobs, which is what they are, has what they need to get the job done. I also chime in with a lot of ideas on the brand vision, where our goals are, and what our overall strategy is.

This could be a preachy moment but what I always tell my team, and Rob has probably heard me say before, is that it's all about the blocking and tackling. If you would like to do great marketing have a great community, and great P.R., than you need to get the basics right. For Bioware and LucasArts, that means having a great understanding of the message that you're trying to deliver with emphasis on quality, and being completely honest with your consumers. And at the end of the day, I really feel that's what I do -- make room for other people to do great work. The more I can get out of their way the better.