Notorious for infusing originality into everything she does, Emily-Nicole (Micki) Pease ’22 wanted to build on her undergraduate business degree by choosing a graduate program that would let her flex her creative muscles: She loved to write, she’d been a practicing artist for as long as she could remember, and she enjoyed playing video games with her friends.
“I wanted to bridge the gap between business and creativity, build connections in both worlds, and get more hands-on,” she explains. “I chose the MS in Leadership for Creative Enterprises (MSLCE) program because I wanted to learn more about what was going on in the space and how other people with similar experiences were leveraging their skills to work in creative spaces. I wanted to see where I belonged in that network.”
And that’s exactly what the MSLCE program allowed her to do. The Organizational Processes in Creative Enterprises course helped her connect the dots on how business and creative work together to create multi-dimensional strategies. Adjunct Lecturer Laverne McKinnon taught her the power of pitching and persuasion and helped her connect with people who had similar interests. As she made her way through her courses, Pease credits her professors for helping her carve out a more specific career path.
As part of a transmedia project, where Pease studied the concept of sharing a single story or experience across multiple platforms and formats, she wrote about League of Legends—a popular video game that broadened its storytelling efforts through a digital card game called Legends of Runeterra and an animated TV series titled Arcane.
As she explored the way narratives can transform to reach different audiences and enrich experiences, she realized this format resonated with her. “It made me realize that gaming is such an expansive media format,” she explains. “It goes beyond 12-year-olds playing Fortnite in their parents’ basements. It’s a mainstream entertainment outlet that so many people relate to. For me, gaming had been a hobby. But the MSLCE program challenged me to see it as an art form and an industry. That’s when I realized I could turn this passion into a career.”
While she was interning at an experiential agency, she told some of her colleagues about the research and work she was doing about transmedia storytelling, and they took an immediate interest in it and wanted to hear more. She was quickly dubbed the agency’s “gaming guru” and started helping with pitches and talking to clients that wanted to reach gaming audiences.
After earning an MSLCE in 2022, she joined Kargo, an agency for the world’s leading brands, where she learned more about the intricacies of pitching and building sellable campaigns. About 18 months later, Enthusiast Gaming reached out. After discovering her profile on LinkedIn, the company asked if she was interested in helping lead creative strategy for brands that want to connect with gamers. The team thought her degree and internship experience made her the perfect candidate.
Today, she’s one of the company’s creative strategists, working with brands that range from clothing companies to telecommunication providers. She shapes marketing campaigns that integrate products and influencer and livestream support with gaming. Every day brings something different to the table, and every client has unique goals and objectives.
She says the MSLCE program gave her the confidence she needed to hit the ground running in this fast-paced industry. With the knowledge she built at Northwestern, she wasn’t afraid to sit alongside more experienced professionals to brainstorm, suggest ideas, and explain how things work in other creative industries and organizations.
Whether she’s analyzing how people respond to game updates or reviewing cultural critiques about Arcane, she finds herself relying on the synthesis and market research she did during the program.
“The things I was doing and talking about in class are all things I do for work now,” she says. “All the skills I used in that program are 100% applicable to what I do. My business degree alone wouldn’t have prepared me for this. With that degree, I felt like a little fish in a very, very big pond. MSLCE empowered me to think differently about what I can bring to the table.”
While she spends her time today developing pitches, coming up with creative designs, and building presentation decks, she envisions one day sitting on the other side of the table, working for a gaming-endemic brand to build out its marketing strategy.
“I’d love to build my own creative agency and lead a team of strategists who publish their own think pieces and become cultural interpreters and synthesizers for other brands.”
3 Tips to Start a Career in the Gaming Industry
Interested in working in the gaming industry? Emily-Nicole (Micki) Pease ’22 shares three pieces of advice that helped her get started.
- Network, network, network. “The gaming industry was built on friends getting together and organizing small events. Then it blew up. Be vigilant and stay connected. Gaming lives and breathes on X and TikTok. You never who or what will give you an opportunity. Follow the heads of e-sports teams and gaming divisions to keep up with what they’re doing.”
- Talk about what you think. “Have your own opinions on what’s happening in the industry. It wasn’t until I was sharing and publishing my own opinions did anyone see value in what I had to offer. Keep your finger on the pulse point and talk about what you see.”
- Get your hands dirty. “MSLCE is really big on getting active, trying new things, and taking initiative. That’s where people gain the most value from this program. Instead of thinking, ‘What does this program have to offer me?’, try thinking, ‘What do I have to offer this program and my cohort? How can I make the most of this experience?’ ”
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