Update 09/05: Ranieri Gaming hires PR veteran Mark Allen to head UK arm

Ranieri Agency, which has previously focused on consumer technology and lifestyle PR, has recently announced that it’s launching an independent, gaming-focused PR agency which will cover the whole of Europe: Ranieri Gaming.

The new agency will be headquartered in Germany and will have teams based in Munich and Krefeld in Germany, as well as in both London and Paris. It will have a 10-strong team at launch but is still looking to recruit, especially in the areas of digital PR/marketing.

Heading up the agency in the UK is Mark Allen, a PR veteran with stints at Eidos, Activision, Sony, 505 Games and more, before spending the last nine years as head of PR for Western Europe & North America at Kalypso Media. He takes on the role of director of games, UK. He can be contacted on marka@ranieri.agency.

“I’m thrilled to be joining Ranieri Gaming at such an exciting time in the company’s growth” commented Mark Allen on his new appointment. “After 20 years of in-house PR experience and a deep understanding of the ever-changing gaming landscape, I’m excited to begin a new chapter in my career and bring my expertise to the team”

Leading the agency is Georg Reckenthäler, who was once PR director at THQ for the German-speaking countries, and more recently founded and run Wildcard Communications. Reckenthäler will take the role of director games international and strategy, and will report to Pietro Ranieri, founder and GM of the Ranieri Agency.

“We are delighted to welcome Mark to the Ranieri Gaming team” said Georg Reckenthäler, Director of Games International & Strategy, Ranieri Gaming. “His industry knowledge and years of PR experience not only strengthens our talented gaming team but also supports the strategic expansion of our pan-European portfolio of clients”

Looking further afield, the German arm will be run by Michael Trier as director games, Germany. Trier spent 15 years at games magazine GameStar as editor-in-chief, director of content services and chief editor of hardware.

The parent agency has been working on gaming projects for some time, though without its own home, brand and independence, Reckenthäler explains: “The video games unit has already been working with high profile gaming clients since 2018. We have been busy planning and implementing highly engaging campaigns for our partners, one example being a successful micro-influencers concept for Tencent in the US, and we have taken over the PR lead for World of Tanks Mercenaries throughout Europe.

The newly-expanded and branded agency feels that many international campaigns fail to deliver the right tone across multiple countries and target groups.

“This is either due to poorly coordinated, small- scale agency patchworks or central press release services that don’t consider local audiences or market trends,” says Trier, explaining today’s communication challenges.

“On the other hand, the established big or internationally positioned agencies often don’t hit the correct tonality or target groups in the respective countries. They often don’t have the necessary network of contacts across the entire media and influencer spectrum to successfully communicate products, brands and corporate messages from the video games sector effectively and comprehensively.”

“We have proven in our previous work that we are in a position to successfully do this. With a new focus and the resources we now have at our disposal, we’re in the best possible position to create and deliver impactful campaigns for our partners”.