WORDS OF PR WISDOM


Having been in media and PR for more than 30 years, Stefano Petrullo knows a thing or two about how to help a game succeed. Richie Shoemaker pulls up a chair and takes notes


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tefano Petrullo probably doesn’t need much of an introduction, but the founder and director of Renaissance PR is going to get one anyway:


Starting out in the games industry as a young journalist in his native Italy in 1991, he worked on a succession of magazines – among them Zzap! and PC Zone – before starting his first PR agency in the early 2000’s. Realising that the gaming infrastructure was better


developed elsewhere, he used his status as a EU citizen to move to a welcoming UK in 2006, where he secured a comms role at Koch Media (now Plaion). From there he joined the Ubisoft PR team, working on titles such as Far Cry, Assassin’s Creed and The Crew. Then in 2015 he set up Renaissance, which will be celebrating eight years as one of the UK’s more prominent game PR agencies in April. Synonymous with Renaissance he may be, but it’s


Petrullo we’re interested in today, who reached out to us some months ago to pitch an idea that might


20 | MCV/DEVELOP March 2023


provide some insight into the secrets of PR, not in a preachy or textbook fashion, but in a way that reflected his unique experience of working in the industry since the age of 16. It’s an industry where much has changed, of course,


although if the pictures accompanying this feature are any indication, it’s perhaps the case that things haven’t changed enough. That’s not really his office, surely? “No!” Petrullo howls into his laptop camera, from a distinctly more modern location that clearly has electricity. “We did a Peaky Blinders VR event in London, at an experiential place in Camden where they have the actual sets and props from the show .” The photo was taken in Tom Shelby’s office – the


character played by Cillian Murphy – who, even to those unfamiliar with Peaky Blinders, doesn’t necessarily come across as someone naturally suited to a career in PR. Then again, Petrullo didn’t know whether he would be either.


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