Pablo Calvo currently works for King, a leading game developer responsible for blockbuster titles including the Candy Crush Saga which remains one of the most popular and commercially successful mobile games on the market. Pablo is Performance Marketing and Senior ASO (App Store Optimization) Strategist and has worked on the Candy Crush franchise, PES, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links, 8 Ball Pool and World of Warcraft. We asked Pablo some key questions about getting into the games sector.

Explain your role like I'm 5 years old

We use scientific method to find the best optimisation for our games' store pages. This results in more efficient campaigns, improving conversion (people who looked at one of our ad creatives and install the game). This scientific method includes testing (which is called A/B Testing, where we put different store variants against each other to know which is more appealing to our players) and then run an analysis on the data we gathered through the aforementioned testing.

Take us through your average day at work

To find the best performing creatives, we have to brief assets that we will eventually test against one another. I also create and support localised store listings for our games, as people from Europe might prefer a different approach compared to someone in Asia or USA. There are a lot of meetings each day as we as a company believe in a full-funnel approach where every team has to own their channels and deliver a best-in-class performance.

What was your educational and career journey into your current role?

I have always been a massive fan of data, so I focused on STEM pretty early in my career. Fortunately, Digital Marketing relies heavily on hard data nowadays, so I can mix and match my STEM education with my Digital Marketing degree to put both of them in the best use! I can also code in Python (for the Data Science part of my job) and am fluent in SQL (another key language for data analysis). 

What do you love most about your role?

The data analysis bit. I must confess, I am not the most creative guy on the planet, but I surely enjoy finding the right conclusions from different tests using hard numbers!

What's the hardest thing about your role?

Managing so many different tests at the same time requires massive organisational skills. Also, it’s paramount to understand that every project has different needs.

What key skills should people work on to do your role one day?

Data analysis and using empirical evidence to make decisions is pretty difficult to achieve, as it takes away personal opinions - opinions we all have! Finding the best performing

What advice would you give to your younger self looking to get started in the industry?

Focus on the data, learn to code while you are young, and be passionate! While hard skills like coding or data analysis are very useful, greatness in our industry comes from discipline, dedication and a remarkable passion for games.