Brand partnerships are what brings some of your favourite characters and products together. Jing, from the HoyoVerse global business development team, sat down with us to share what her job entails and the places and experiences she's had as a licensing manager.
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00:00Gaming and being a mother, it's not in conflict, you know.
00:04It's part of me and I happen to, you know, work in gaming as well.
00:08It just, I would say it probably, you know, makes my life a little bit more interesting.
00:30Hoyovers, we are an interactive entertainment brand and we aim to create and deliver,
00:37I would say, virtual interactive walls to fans globally.
00:41So, some of the games and products that we have include, of course, Genshin Impact,
00:46there's Honkai Star Rail, Honkai Impact 3rd, Tears of Temis.
00:50I'm Jing, I'm from the Hoyovers Global BD team,
00:53specifically dealing with licensing and brand partnerships.
00:56So, what I do specifically is for book publishing and I do collaborations for
01:03general merchandise.
01:05So, if you can think about like maybe plushies, collectibles, figurines, this kind of things.
01:10Yeah, so we do deal making with partners globally, partners like Pizza Hut.
01:17So, there were the Pizza Hut campaigns in Malaysia, in Indonesia.
01:21I think it was in Taiwan and Japan as well.
01:25Even closer was the Liho campaign that took place in Singapore and Malaysia.
01:30So, these are some of the partners that we work with in the region itself.
01:34We have a new game that's due to come out, it's Standard Zone Zero.
01:38So, Genshin Impact, it's an action adventure RPG, it's open world,
01:43there's a lot of open world exploration.
01:45Whereas for Honkai Star Rail, it's a turn-based, it's a space fantasy turn-based game.
01:51So, the game mechanics are very different entirely.
01:54And of course, we have ZZZ coming up.
01:55So, that one is an urban fantasy RPG game and even then the game combat itself,
02:03it's entirely different from the other two games.
02:06I feel the advantages of my job really would be the exposure I get to a lot of different markets.
02:14So, I mean, of course, on the business sense, it really means that I,
02:17you know, get to see a lot of different partners from different industries,
02:20from different countries and regions.
02:23This will, you know, give me necessary exposure to a lot of, you know,
02:27how business functions work differently.
02:30But of course, there's also, you know, I get to travel for work to Europe, to US.
02:36And it's actually really fun, you know, when you go to US conventions
02:40or like you go to Europe conventions and then the scale is very different.
02:47Some of the conventions are very massive, it's very big.
02:50And then the way they do things over there is very different.
02:54So, when you see it's like, oh, it's quite an eye-opening experience.
02:58And then, of course, it comes with like food over there.
03:00You get to, you know, explore a little bit, you know, about each and every place.
03:05Yeah, so that's what I really enjoy about the role.
03:08We meet people overseas and they will recognise us from the company swag,
03:12like, you know, jackets and t-shirts maybe.
03:15And there was one that happened in the US, in Las Vegas.
03:19I didn't know the person, but she just like spotted us from afar.
03:22So, they just ran over, oh, wow, you know, are you from Hoyoverse?
03:27And it's really nice when you meet and bond with people,
03:31you know, in a completely different place.
03:33I mean, it's always fun to meet people who know your game
03:37and are excited to talk to you about your games.
03:40The Hoyoverse community is made up of a lot of gamers,
03:46a lot of fans who really, really enjoy the game.
03:50They are very passionate about the game
03:52and they invest a lot of their time and, you know, heart into the game itself.
03:59It's not even just a general passion for the game.
04:03They did dive into, like, the game's lore, character lores,
04:07and some of them will pick up even, like, the smallest details.
04:12It makes all the work worthwhile, you know,
04:15because people are actually looking at it, you know,
04:19and the community, because they are so passionate about it,
04:21then they get very excited about it.
04:34I'm expecting a parcel today from one of my partners,
04:37so I'm going to collect it before I go in.
04:39Hello, morning!
04:41Can I get my parcel from you?
04:46Yeah, so when I'm expecting a parcel,
04:48I usually will just pick it up from the receptionist
04:51and, of course, go in for my usual routine,
04:53checking off my emails, and then I have the day's meetings.
04:57Then some days, if we have external meetings,
04:58that's when I will head out of office for those meetings.
05:02Today, we are heading into a meeting with my colleagues
05:05from the BD team as well.
05:06Not going to be very long, just a short one.
05:08Let's go.
05:12Hi!
05:14Thanks for waiting.
05:15How are you?
05:16Yeah, so I have my colleagues over here.
05:19This is Hamoudi.
05:20Yeah, he's overseeing all the IP licensing
05:24and brand partnership projects,
05:26and then I have Jalene over here,
05:27so she does, like, the brand partnerships
05:30for the BD team,
05:31and then I have my colleagues over here.
05:34So she does, like, the brand partnerships,
05:36the non-endemic brand partnerships,
05:38so you see, like, the QSR collaborations,
05:40health and beauty, etc.
05:42Okay, shall we start?
05:56Okay, so you guys can see,
05:57these are some of the things that I work with
05:59on a daily basis.
06:00We have our official first-party merchandise,
06:04you know, figurines, badges.
06:06It's a small collection here.
06:07We do have a lot more.
06:09There's apparel, homeware, housewares.
06:12Then, of course, we have the licensed products as well.
06:17Not only these, we have a lot more.
06:19So there's, like, figurines.
06:20We have plushies.
06:22There are collaboration merchandise as well.
06:24And yeah, I have some, like, product prototypes
06:29that I can show you guys.
06:31So this one is basically, like, paper samples.
06:34It's a white dummy of a book.
06:38So you can see, you know,
06:39usually we receive these
06:40and then you can touch the book itself.
06:42You see exactly the number of pages,
06:45the thickness of the paper,
06:46thickness of the cover itself.
06:49And then in this case,
06:50you can see we have the pull-out poster here,
06:52which is important
06:54because, you know, we have a pull-out poster
06:56in the design of the book.
06:58Yeah, so combine the...
07:00If you combine the designs with the prototypes,
07:03that's where you get the end product.
07:07So you can see how the prototypes
07:09actually have, you know,
07:10all the essence, you know, of the final product.
07:14So we can check for quality.
07:16We can check for the design.
07:17You know, make sure there's no mistakes in it.
07:24For people who have not studied gaming,
07:27you know, they didn't take up
07:28any game-related, you know, courses in university,
07:32there are still a lot of opportunities
07:34to, you know, get into gaming.
07:36I have friends and family
07:37sometimes, you know, at gatherings
07:39and they'll ask,
07:40oh, where are you now?
07:41You know, where are you working?
07:42So of course, I'll tell them,
07:43oh, I'm in Hoyouverse
07:44or I'm in a gaming company.
07:46Then their first reaction is always,
07:48oh, you're in gaming?
07:49Oh, I didn't know you do coding
07:51or like, oh, I didn't know you can draw.
07:53They don't really understand that,
07:54you know, there's a lot of other opportunities
07:57in the gaming industry
07:58that's not related directly
08:00to the development of the game
08:02or to like, you know, drawing,
08:04creation of the characters, designs.
08:07So there are a lot of other functions
08:10within the gaming ecosystem,
08:13you know, that really contributes
08:14to the overall game publishing and operations.
08:17So some examples would be,
08:20say, marketing roles.
08:21You know, you still need to market the game.
08:23You need to market the characters, etc.
08:26So marketing is relevant.
08:28There's PR.
08:29You have maybe beta testing,
08:32you know, people who play the game
08:35in simplistic terms.
08:36Yeah, so there's a lot of all these other roles
08:38that's not directly related
08:40to the actual creation of the game,
08:42but are still very critical.
08:44So I think like for most people in Singapore,
08:46they don't realize that,
08:47you know, there's all of these,
08:49you know, that takes place.
08:50And yeah, I feel it's worth
08:53actually really looking into it
08:54because, you know,
08:55there are opportunities around.
08:58Moments like I would say in recent years,
09:00challenging,
09:01but very happy situation for me.
09:04It's the same.
09:05It happened at the same time
09:06was when I became a mom.
09:07So, you know, there's all the joy
09:09that comes with, you know,
09:10becoming a mother.
09:11But there's also all the worries,
09:13you know, you worry about your kid.
09:15But at the same time,
09:16you have to balance it with my child,
09:18my family and work life.
09:19Gaming and being a mother,
09:21it's not in conflict,
09:24you know, it's part of me.
09:26And I happen to, you know,
09:27work in gaming as well.
09:28It just, I would say it probably,
09:31you know, makes my life
09:33a little bit more interesting.
09:34So I don't think I will like
09:36separate gaming from my,
09:38you know, kid altogether.
09:40You can see over here,
09:41I'm playing Genshin right now.
09:42So sometimes during lunch or break times,
09:45I will, you know,
09:47take a break from work
09:48and then, you know,
09:48play some of our games.
09:50It's a very good way to de-stress.
09:53It's a way of relaxation for me.
09:55And because we have a lot of in-game events,
09:57they are, you know,
09:58short enough to play during lunchtime.
10:00And then I also have colleagues
10:02who do the same.
10:02Then sometimes we will gather around
10:04and, you know, exchange information
10:06on how to build our characters and teams.
10:08When it comes to work,
10:09you really got to focus and,
10:11you know, give your best effort at work.
10:17Don't, you know,
10:18don't do things halfway through
10:20because, you know,
10:21no matter what you do,
10:23there are implications.
10:24It will affect other people as well.
10:26So definitely when it comes to work,
10:29you know, do what you can
10:31and take ownership of,
10:33you know, what you do.