Becca Henry – Womenize! – Inspiring Stories
Womenize! – Inspiring Stories is our weekly series featuring inspirational individuals from games and tech. For this edition, we collaborated with ESBD – eSport-Bund Deutschland e.V. and talked to Becca Henry, Head of Brand & Communications at G2 Esports. She speaks about how her passion for music and gaming shaped her authentic, creative approach to esports communications, emphasizing honesty, education, inclusivity, and mentorship while inspiring the next generation in the industry. Read more about Becca here:
Hi Becca! Your academic background is rooted in music, yet you’ve built a successful career in esports communications. How has your education in music influenced your approach to developing communication strategies in the gaming industry, and what unique perspectives do you bring from that experience?
My two biggest passions in life are music and gaming. When I was in high school attempting to figure out my future, the thought of working in the games industry (let alone esports) felt impossible, and for music, traditional career paths were performing or teaching and my passion was always in music production and composition. I have always loved performing (and I still do on the rare occasion when I can), but I always knew in my heart I didn’t want to be a full-time performer. In 2007 when I was thinking about university, I almost went into Chemistry because I was really good at the subject and it was considered a great career path. It was only when I was writing my application to study Chemistry that I broke down and realised it was not what I wanted to do.
I eventually went against my academic background and pressure from mentors around me to study music, because it’s what I was truly passionate about and I decided to take a chance on my future based on that. Studying music was the best thing I could have ever done. It allowed me to unlock my creative potential and I spent that time harnessing my writing skills that have been paramount to the career I have today.
I graduated in 2011 after completing a masters because, who guessed it, I really insanely enjoyed my time in higher education. At this time however, my career options were still quite limited – many roles available today did not exist to me. I was constantly faced with the challenge of ‘can you do what you love or should you just take a safer job’? The thing that I kept coming back to is that my time in education, studying something I was so deeply passionate about, only fueled my desire to do more of what I loved, and I decided to not accept anything less.
When I reflect on how my career started, the biggest takeaway I have is that I followed a passion that helped me to evolve as a person. I was able to learn the things I loved doing and hone a world of skills that I still use to this day. Yes I’m no longer involved in music, but I’m able to transform my deep obsession and passion for music into my love for gaming, and that translates into a love for creativity that goes hand-in-hand with everything I do. I’m a musician that loves all types of music, but I’m also a gamer that loves so many different parts of gaming, especially when it comes to esports. Having such a deep passion and understanding has enabled me to create communications strategies and campaigns that I can be proud of as an active member of the community. My goal is, and always has been, to inspire and excite my peers in the gaming community authentically.
In your current and previous roles, you’ve emphasized honesty, education, and awareness in your communication approach. Can you share a specific campaign or initiative where these values made a significant impact, and how do you balance maintaining authenticity while continuously innovating in a rapidly evolving industry?
Communications and PR is often viewed as the corporate machine that puts out fires in a crisis and blocks people from sharing the truth. While there certainly are PRs and firms that exist for those reasons, I have always believed that authenticity is the most powerful PR strategy you can have. Fans/players are smart, and they know when you’re trying to hide something or divert their attention, so a message that doesn’t land properly will only damage trust in you and your brand (and rebuilding trust is an even harder challenge).
It’s not always easy or possible to be completely transparent and honest with your community, but in these moments, the key thing is to always remain human. There have been many times throughout my career when I’ve been faced with a difficult challenge, a potentially angry community and a leadership team looking for the right direction. My approach is always to think about how I want people to feel when receiving information, and how I would react if I was the fan in the situation. I want fans to feel respected, valued and informed, while understanding we might not be able to share every detail. In most situations, saying something is better than nothing, and that something should be empathetic, caring, and rooted in your core values as a company. It’s also important to prepare for impact in these situations – one caring statement isn’t going to change everything, but consistently taking this approach with your community will build trust over time, and they will see and appreciate the humans behind the organization.
When it comes to education, this is a challenge I really love taking on because I’m able to share something I’m really passionate about with a new audience that potentially has no clue what I’m talking about. One topic I have always enjoyed is teaching non-endemic and mainstream media about esports. It’s less of a need these days, but back when I was working at Riot, esports was still a relatively new phenomenon at this scale, especially in Europe, and the way it was covered in mainstream media always felt so out of touch and just wrong, or the focus was solely about the spectacle of big crowds and big prizepools. The LoL World Championship was held in Europe for the first time in 2015 (I’m not counting the first one in 2011 at Dreamhack), and ahead of the tournament that went to France, UK, Belgium, and Germany, I spent months meeting with prominent mainstream media in all the key cities to onboard them and help them understand this crazy new world of esports. I wanted them to really understand what we were doing and how it was so much more than just watching people play video games for money. All the plans I put in place paid off, and we really started to see a positive trend in the way media approached esports for the better. It was just so wonderful to see League fans proud of the accurate and authentic news coverage on TV, in newspapers, in sports magazines, something they could point to their parents and say – hey this is the thing I’m into and it’s really awesome, and I played a part in that happening.
I also believe you can’t impact change in a community unless you have enough voices and role models actively raising awareness, discussing issues, and sharing how they want things to change for the better. This is how I have always felt around women in esports, and have always done the most I can to keep the conversation going, and to keep proving to aspiring women that they very much have a place in this industry. When I was at Misfits, I launched the Women of MGG, which was a platform that combined a collective of women executives to promote inclusivity both internally and externally, mentorship, and a space for women to feel supported and inspired. Now, at G2, I have the privilege of working with the best women’s teams in the world and to help tell their stories. Also, through the work G2 does with the Mastercard Gamer Academy, I’ve been able to mentor insanely talented people on how to start a career in esports. Women’s competition has come a long way in 10 years, more women are working in esports, but there’s still so much more that needs to change, so we need to keep talking, sharing and inspiring everyone around us.
With over a decade of experience in the industry, you’ve undoubtedly encountered many challenges and successes. What advice would you give to aspiring talents looking to enter esports communications, and how do you see the role of mentorship in fostering the next generation of leaders in this field?
Be the biggest possible sponge you can and soak up all the knowledge and learnings you can from others around you. Ask people for advice or feedback, and be open and curious to what they have to say. Most people are happy to share their knowledge and learnings, you just have to get past the hurdle of asking. Mentorship is important for this reason, I really find so much value in all aspects of mentorship, whether I’m coaching someone and sharing my experiences, or working with an incredible leader that inspires me to think outside the box, it’s time that’s dedicated to personal growth and has helped me massively throughout my career.
Another recommendation is to never stop running, jumping, dancing, flying – if you sit down and get comfortable, then you could lose your spark and stop innovating. This industry is so fast paced that sometimes what worked a year ago (or even a month ago) might be outdated. It’s important to keep learning, keep being inspired and creative, and keep being the biggest fan of what you do. If you’re still completely in love with what you’re doing then it will shine in your work.