Asia 2015Video Coverage

Newton Grant: Driven to Help Others Achieve Their Objectives | Casual Connect Video

September 5, 2015 — by Casey Rock

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Asia 2015Video Coverage

Newton Grant: Driven to Help Others Achieve Their Objectives | Casual Connect Video

September 5, 2015 — by Casey Rock

'Hearing out the ideas of others and then layering the best ideas goes a long way…' – Newton GrantClick To Tweet

Newton Grant, VP and account director at Defy Media, examined the tastes and motivations of the 13-24-year-old demographic, including why YouTube personalities appeal to youth, among other trends at his Casual Connect Asia 2015 lecture. So why this age range? Newton explains, “Often times the research that had been done on this age block has treated 18-34-year-olds as a singular monolithic block and as we know the tastes of an 18 year old aren’t the same as the tastes of a 34 year-old but in addition to that, the tastes and interests of 13 to 17-year-olds were often ignored. So we wanted to return our research lens to that particular block and expanding it a little bit to 13 to 24-year-olds because we believe that is what will be driving the future of media consumption in the United States”. For a look at the data and insights, taken from the latest Acumen Report by Defy, see the video below.


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Newton Grant
Newton Grant is the Vice President of Defy Media

Newton Grant has his eyes on the prize. As a former military man, Newton has been conditioned to focus on whatever his objective is and execute a plan on how to best achieve it — selecting only the ideas that really matter to the end goal. This makes him an ideal person to have in the ring when it comes to promoting games.

Defy Media

As vice president of Defy Media, Newton’s main objective is to capture the attention of target audiences and get them interested in their partners’ games. He primarily works with video game studios and publishers who seek to promote games in the U.S. market in fun and entertaining ways.

This is one the best parts of his job — working with a passionate group of professionals “whether at gaming publishers, studios, agencies, or here at my office, with whom I share many hobbies and interests.”

To achieve this, he stays close to evolving trends, especially the media habits of 13- to 34-year-olds in the United States, and works in sync with talented editors and on-screen personalities at Defy Media to come up with interesting ideas to capture the attention of the audience they are going after.

“Hearing out the ideas of others and then layering the best ideas with each other goes a long way in answering a partner’s questions and achieving their objective,” he says. This is one the best parts of his job — working with a passionate group of professionals “whether at gaming publishers, studios, agencies, or here at my office, with whom I share many hobbies and interests.”




Military to Media

It was Newton’s love of gaming, coupled with his drive to help others achieve their objectives, that inspired him to pursue his current career. But Newton first got his start in gaming when he was at the U.S. Military Academy, where he joined the Wargaming Club.




Newton Grant displays his Captain America paraphernalia
Newton Grant displays his Captain America paraphernalia

There he met Alexander Macris, who went on to found Themis Media, the parent company of the multi-Webby Award-winning game media website, The Escapist. After Newton left the military, Alex reached out and asked him to join the growing game media company — which Newton accepted. Eventually, Themis Media was acquired by Defy Media, and Newton transitioned into his current role.

Throughout his career he’s had the honor of helping many publishers promote their games, including giants like Ubisoft — which he worked with to promote Assassin’s Creed 3, Assassin’s Creed 4, and Watch Dogs — and he loves getting to see all the great games produced.

Constant change

Newton has seen some big changes during his time in the gaming industry. He notes that, in terms of marketing, trends have changed from being very website-driven to now being very YouTube and social media-driven — these being the major places where gamers are now found in huge numbers.




“Being able to entertain them on these platforms is key to getting them to pay attention to a publisher’s messaging for an upcoming video game,” he says. “I am fortunate enough to work with a solid group of professionals that help me stay on top of the evolving tastes of the target gaming audience, so when the time comes to create and execute on a plan, we can deliver solid results.”

“I am fortunate enough to work with a solid group of professionals that help me stay on top of the evolving tastes of the target gaming audience, so when the time comes to create and execute on a plan, we can deliver solid results.”

Newton believes this type of trend will continue until the only games that will be noticed are the ones that provide entertainment value outside of the game itself — whether that’s in the form of videos done in collaboration with YouTube stars, offering live experiences for people to talk about on social media, or something else. “Given all the great games out there, with more being released every day, it will be the game companies that master the ability to provide their audience with entertainment value outside of the great gameplay that will succeed.”

One thing that won’t change, however, is the dedication of Newton and Defy Media to marketing games in innovative and successful ways. As Newton says, “I don’t want to take my eye off the ball.”

 




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Casey Rock

Casey Rock

Casey Rock is a staff writer for Gamesauce. Casey loves rock climbing, hiking and the live indie music scene. He also streams games under the moniker The Clumsy Gamer. You can catch him on twitter @caserocko.

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