The evolution of Tamatem has consisted of hard work, perseverance, unity, and lots of outside-the-box thinking across our teams. There’s no doubt that each team at Tamatem has gone through its own growth and development that has contributed immensely to our collective success. 

Throughout this ongoing series, we’ll explore the ins and outs of different teams at Tamatem. To give you a behind-the-scenes taste of each team’s secret sauce, we will feature awesome Tamatem team members who candidly share their insight and experience. 

As such, this article features Lamia Shreim; our all around remarkable Marketing Manager, passionate and driven team player, and highly valued Tamatem family member. Drawing from her impressive track record, Lamia shares the best practices and systems that shape her team. 

Inside Tamatem’s Marketing Team

At Tamatem, we take pride in our tried and true strategy of localizing mobile games for the MENA region. Successfully publishing a localized mobile game is a multi-dimensional process that is very much contingent on vigorous marketing and user acquisition strategies. 

Led by Lamia, the team ensures that Tamatem puts a strong leg forward when it comes to marketing our localized mobile games. Over the past 6 years, Lamia has spearheaded the growth and development of Tamatem’s world class marketing team. The team has gone from one person managing monetization and user acquisition, to over 20 talented team members who collectively make up a full-stack, superpowered, 360° marketing force. 

To give a quick look at Tamatem’s Marketing department from an operational standpoint, it’s important to note that the team is distributed across a range of sub departments, outlined as: 

• Data Analytics
• User Acquisition
• Influencer Marketing
• Social Media 
• Multimedia
• App Store Optimization
• Search Engine Optimization
• Growth Marketing

“Each division is unique in its own way, contributing to the overall success of the whole department. For example, Performance Marketing efforts focus on A/B testing to maximize ad monetization. Social Media Marketing ensures our strong presence across distributed channels. Data Analytics plays an unmatched role in compounding insights and building number-backed strategies”, shares Lamia.

Lamia reiterates that, while each of the sub departments has its own area of focus, the team, as a whole, operates with a tight-knit culture that places collective growth at the center. 

Company-Wide Collaboration

The Marketing team has a strong interdepartmental presence at Tamatem, crossing over to work with different teams to achieve different goals. “We maintain communication with pretty much every team at Tamatem, but we mainly cross over to work with Product, Design, Finance and Support”, says Lamia. 

“For example, the Marketing team works with the Product team to find qualified, high-conversion users for our games. The teams work together to analyze game metrics and ensure their health, in addition to enhancing user retention. Meanwhile, our work with the Design team consists of ensuring app-store optimization and effective in-game promotions that increase organic traffic and convert non-spenders to spenders.” 

The Marketing team’s collaboration with different departments across Tamatem’s ecosystem is testament to the importance of enabling teams to capitalize on each others’ strengths. Our philosophy is rooted in growing stronger and moving farther, together. 

Systems For Success & Best Practices

A key ingredient to the Marketing team’s secret sauce is systemized processes, both in the day-to-day and on the macro-level. In order to ensure that the team works at its optimum level, Lamia places overarching priority on making sure that the team is happy and motivated. As Marketing Manager at Tamatem, her systems for success include: 

• Daily morning meetings with the team to kickstart the day.
• Weekly 1-on-1 meetings to check in with team members individually. 
• A bi-weekly “game of the week” sync where the team plays, discusses and analyzes a trending mobile game in its entirety.
• Monthly brainstorming sessions where the team shares unfiltered new thoughts and ideas.
• Strategic monthly meetings to assess user acquisition campaigns and explore room for more scalability.
• Quarterly marketing strategy meetings that emphasize OKRs and touch on what can be done to optimize the team’s performance.
• Regularly-conducted surveys to gather constructive feedback from the team.

In order to make sure that the team is always on the same page, each task is documented and every project is tracked from start to finish. The team uses a handful of tools that make this possible, specifically Slack, Asana, Zoom, and Miro. 

Lamia gives us insight on what each tool is used for as follows:

• Slack: sharing quick updates, questions, concerns, new ideas and recaps of articles/webinars/reports/courses that are happening.
• Asana: organizing tasks, highlighting deadlines, outlining project progress and keeping track of what other team members are working on.
• Zoom: conducting meetings – it’s the tool that has brought everyone together during work-from-home.
• Miro: the gate-keeper that aligns all ideas gathered during brainstorming and retrospective meetings.

Managerial Insight 

As manager of Tamatem’s Marketing team, Lamia continuously hacks the challenges of a fast-paced environment while remaining empathetic and people-oriented in her role. “I strive to facilitate a dynamic and creative work environment that encourages the team to continuously engage in learning and development”. 

To outline the foundation behind Lamia’s managerial style, we asked for her non-negotiable team leadership elements that ensure success: 

• Building team trust: “I believe in trusting my team so that they are able to have trust in me too. This creates synergy that empowers each member of the team to make effective decisions, backed by confidence and courage.” 
• Clear communication: “‘Teamwork makes the dream work’ is our motto, and clear communication is a key aspect in achieving true teamwork. Being transparent and honest creates a productive and genuine work environment.”
• A collective team vision: “We focus on our values and objectives, on identifying our strengths and weaknesses while assessing potential opportunities and threats that could arise. Having a collective team vision rooted in our values and objectives is key to driving our growth in the right direction.” 
• Valuing individuality: “I am a firm believer that growth is achieved only when everyone around you is growing. With that said, facilitating an environment that celebrates creativity and individuality allows each team member to be open towards testing new, sometimes risky but rewarding ideas.”

Joining The Tamatem Team: Insider Tips

To wrap up, Lamia shares her insight on working at Tamatem, as well as what it takes to join the Tamatem team. 

“I enjoy everything about my role – from my job, to the company culture, to the overall company strategy. I’m so happy to have embarked on such a journey that combines the field of gaming with the field of marketing. Years on, I still continue to grow and develop every single day at Tamatem.”

Lamia gives her honest outlook when it comes to hiring at Tamatem and what attributes are valued most:

“I can honestly say that the interview stage tells me a lot about a candidate. Having passion for the position, for Tamatem, and for the industry as a whole, is key. Other than experience and skills, positive energy and being a team player are attributes we value here at Tamatem. Creativity and analytical skills are very important to us as well. My tip for anyone looking to join us in the future is to show us that you have passion.” 

The Tamatem family is always growing – we’re constantly on the lookout for passionate, talented individuals to join our team and take part in our growth as the biggest mobile game publisher in the MENA. Check out our Careers page to learn more about open positions!