From SEGA to Pocket Gems: Julie Dragland’s decade-long journey forging industry partnerships

Mobile advertising company Liftoff has invited inspirational women working on some of the biggest mobile games to discuss their achievements, challenges, and future aspirations. This time, the focus is on Julie Dragland, Director of Partnerships & Business Development at Pocket Gems.

Having worked in the video game industry for over 15 years, you’d assume that Julie Dragland had always planned to work with all things interactive – but that’s far from the truth. She initially pursued a legal career but took a temporary admin job to fill her spare time while weighing her options for law school. That position, by a twist of fate, was at SEGA. And after stepping into the home of one of gaming’s most iconic characters, it’s no wonder she chose to pivot at Sonic-like speed towards the mobile industry.

Dragland has always been a people person, which opened opportunities to ascend the ranks in HR. Eventually, she was offered the chance to move from her admin role to marketing PC and console titles, spreading the word about blockbuster hits such as Alien: Isolation. As her game marketing experience grew, so did the popularity of mobile games. Within a few years, Dragland transitioned to specialising in SEGA’s mobile portfolio, where she also used her communication talents to forge productive relationships with global partners.

After a decade at SEGA, Dragland wanted to start thinking about the bigger picture, but at a smaller level. Somewhere she’d have more freedom to let her expertise flourish and execute new ideas. That led her to the mobile game studio Pocket Gems. While Pocket Gems is no small fish – its games, including hits like Episode and War Dragons, have been downloaded over 500 million times – it offered the startup mentality that Dragland was looking for to take her skills to the next level.

Enhancing the player experience at Pocket Gems

Fast-forward to today and Dragland has been the Director of Partnerships & Business Development at Pocket Gems for nearly five years. In her role, she works closely with Pocket Gems’ platform partners, such as the App Store and Play Store teams, as well as its monetisation partners – including ad networks, mediation platforms, and other third-party providers. Dragland focuses on finding the right projects and partnerships to enhance the player experience while supporting the studio’s engagement targets.

“There’s never a dull moment, and I appreciate the opportunity to work closely with people who view the industry from different perspectives as it helps me better understand how things operate and where our priorities should lie,” Dragland says. “We’ve always taken a light touch approach to advertising. Prioritising the player’s experience and maintaining that balance is something I enjoy. It’s all about making sure the ads contribute positively without disrupting the game, and keeping that player-first mindset is key.”

According to Dragland, simply listening to people is one of the best ways to forge successful partnerships. People you’re connecting with for the first time usually tell you in some shape or form what’s important to them and what they’re trying to achieve. So, see if you can find common ground and identify a way to help each other succeed. She also stressed the importance of maintaining your relationships. Dragland has worked in games for years and has seen few people leave the industry. There’s every chance someone you briefly met could sit across the table from you in the future.

Partnerships and Pocket Gems’ portfolio

Building partnerships is an integral part of running a mobile game studio. Still, it’s essential for Pocket Gems due to the nature of its biggest and longest-running title, Episode. Now in its tenth year, Episode is a mobile interactive storytelling platform with over 150,000 stories players can enter, many of which are built through the game’s expansive user-generated content (UGC) systems. Episode has over 25 million registered creator accounts, with these players writing, coding, and dreaming up their stories to share with the broader community.

Episode’s vast and ever-growing library of stories also supports Dragland’s collaboration with platform partners, with special event shelves and in-game celebrations directly aligning with key themes and initiatives that platforms are committed to promoting throughout the year. But what excites Dragland most about Episode is that its audience and creators are primarily women, which, after coming from a more traditional gaming environment, makes working on it particularly meaningful for her.

“I’ve met several of our creators, and I love seeing firsthand how the games we’ve developed have changed people’s lives,” Dragland says. “Some of our creators have gone on to build careers as TV writers, and others have made writing for the community a full-time job. It takes me back to earlier in my career when I was promoting Alien: Isolation at PAX in Seattle. I remember fans waiting hours and hours. You could see they were so deeply excited about what they were about to play. It’s rewarding being part of something like that.”

A decade of evolution in mobile marketing

Having spent so many years working on games, Dragland has also seen the industry undergo immense change. Earlier in her career, mobile games were still in their infancy, and there was a general uncertainty about how to market them. Questions loomed about how marketing strategies should differ from those used for console games, and developers and marketers alike grappled with the nuances of an up-and-coming platform.

Of course, that’s now a thing of the past—with mobile far exceeding the scale of the console and market. But now there are new challenges, from the changes brought about by Apple’s ATT and Google’s Privacy Sandbox to the seeming emergence of new app stores. But according to Dragland, it’s all part of the experience.

“This industry is forever shifting,” Dragland says. “Making sure that we are always adapting to these changes is probably the most difficult thing about working in gaming. Thankfully, that challenge is softened by how welcoming we are as an industry. Particularly on the ad monetisation front, one thing that I’ve really appreciated is the community of network partners and other publishers that have come together to help navigate the ongoing changes by sharing knowledge and expertise.”

Where does Dragland expect the mobile market to go next? She’s noted that more and more titles in the wider market have begun to look further afield—whether through multi-platform options via crossplay or by branching into other forms of media. She anticipates that the number of titles heading in this direction will continue growing, creating a more expansive ecosystem for players and developers alike.