From Music to Games, Bec Waddy has stamped herself as one of the top entertainment PRs in the country.
The Bethesda ANZ PR Manager just took out the MCV Pacific award for PR Campaign of the Year with survival horror title The Evil Within, however her path from music into games was born from a chance encounter.
After completing a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Sydney, Waddy spent several years in the music scene. In addition to the Days Like This festival she worked on major recording artist and bands Sydney live shows including the likes of Katy Perry, Supergrass, Calvin Harris, Lupe Fiasco and dozens more. Waddy would make the switch to gaming in 2010, the circumstances of the move, were anything but usual. Bec tells MCV Pacific, “It all came about by chance really. There was a coffee that took place between a veteran games writer and a veteran games marketer who was setting up his Sydney office for a specialist games and entertainment agency. They both loved music, my name came up and it all happened from there. But the reality is that I’ve worked my backside off to make that count, I don’t take any of this for granted.” The marketer was Simon Alty and this emerging boutique agency would become known to the industry as One To Another.
She joined the agency as PR and Marketing manager, looking predominately after a gaming and technology client base. Within a year Bec became Head of Media and Communications, helping to significantly grow the team and client base over the coming years, with the firm taking out Agency of the Year at the inaugural MCV Pacific Awards in May of 2013.
During her time at One To Another, Waddy headed up Bethesda’s ANZ PR, working across a stack of AAA brands and campaigns, such as Fallout: New Vegas, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, RAGE and Dishonored. A notable activation being ‘A night with id Software’ where Studio Director, Tim Willits, spoke with community, media and industry at the Sydney Opera House in 2011. Bec was also involved in communications strategy and execution for other major clients and brands such as Disney, Marvel, Wizards of the Coast, NCSoft, Turtle Beach, and more.
Bec's personal highlight from these years was, “not campaign-related actually, it was probably when I realised I’d earned enough gold in Skyrim to purchase and fully furnish Proudspire manor in Solitude. You’ve got to have goals!”
In late 2013, Waddy was offered and was thrilled to accept the role of PR Manager in Australia and New Zealand for Bethesda, being brought across to help setup the ZeniMax Australia office in Sydney.
Since becoming part of the Bethesda family (officially), Bec launched The Elder Scrolls Online, Wolfenstein: The New Order and The Evil Within. She tells us, “Playing my small part in three brand new and incredibly talented development studios releasing their first games into the wild, makes for a pretty special first year at Bethesda.”(ZeniMax Online Studios, MachineGames and Tango Gameworks.)
Bec has been highly commended for her work over the last five years. In addition to featuring in both the 2012 and 2013 MCV Pacific 30 Under Thirty, she won Highly Commended at the Optus IT Journalism awards (‘The Lizzies’) for being the highest scoring in-house PR professional in the Best Media Relations Category. Waddy has been a finalist in this category the last three years, and is up for the award again tonight at the 2015 awards.
Speaking of her role and time in the industry, Bec tells MCV Pacific, "PR is a small and often misunderstood cog in a very large wheel, but it's an important one . In short, we help consumers and the community learn more about the games our studios are making so they can decide whether or not it's for them. At the end of the day they are the reason we are all here and lucky enough to work in this amazing space."
“I’ve had five glorious years in this industry and I’ve been fortunate to work with some of the best people in the business from development, publishing and distribution to education and media. This is where I’ve met some of the most intelligent, creative, hardworking and frankly, impressive women in my career. I’m just grateful to be in a position where I’m listed alongside them and even more grateful to call many of them my friends. It’s pretty awesome.”
Bec has played a major part in establishing Bethesda’s presence in Australia and New Zealand over the years and looks towards an exciting 2015, next up is the launch of The Elder Scrolls Online on console and the publisher's first-ever E3 Showcase in June.