“When I moved into PR there were no comms
professionals in Italy. I essentially had to grow not knowing the rules of the game.” Then, when he arrived in the UK five years later, he was at an added disadvantage by not having any contacts. “I’d just started from scratch again in a foreign country. I had a great boss at Koch Media and there were great people in UK PR, but I had to build myself up my way, by seeing what worked in PR and what didn’t. I’ve been trying to swim and not sink for 30 years.”
“THE BEST WAY TO CLEAR THE AIR IS TO TALK WITH PEOPLE” Coming from games journalism, as many PR professionals often do, Petrullo has experienced blacklisting from both sides of the media divide. Consequently, as a strategy for dealing with a publication that may be overly-harsh or persistent in its criticism, it’s not one that he sees any benefit to. “More than losing coverage, you lose control
of the messaging,” he says, recalling an episode when he was at Ubisoft and
Videogamer.com seemed to load its coverage of Ubisoft’s games with unnecessary criticism. Rather than put the site on the naughty step, Petrullo took the initiative and took the editor out for lunch. Very quickly the two parties came to an understanding that whatever issues
Videogame.com had, it was simply a difference of opinion, which as a former journalist Petrullo was entirely understanding of. He left the meeting with the situation resolved and
Videogamer.com later became a close ally. “When you start seeing negativity, you might
start to think that a media outlet hates you, but that is never the case,” muses Petrullo, suggesting that rather than holding back on developer access or code, to open a dialogue and get straight to the heart of the matter. “Then you’ll understand that most opinions are entirely reasonable. It’s all part of building and maintaining trust - which is one of the most important resources in PR.” But are there any instances where blacklisting
is justified? “I can’t think of an example where it’s been an
advantage,” says Petrullo, recalling an instance where an outlet had been blacklisted by a publisher and was thus exempt from abiding by any embargo. The game was then released early by mistake and the site was able to purchase a
March 2023 MCV/DEVELOP | 21
copy and review it before anyone else. “Everyone that was under embargo called the publisher and I swear to god I was so happy that I was not its PR manager.” He adds with a chuckle, “It was a good review, actually.”
“YOU NEED COVERAGE MORE THAN COVERAGE NEEDS YOU” Petrullo suggests that everyone working in PR should have stuck to their monitor a Post-it Note that simply says ‘I need the coverage’. “It’s sad,” he says, “but the people that create the
content don’t need me. But, at the end of the day, if I’m promoting a game, I need them.” It’s a balance of power between PR and media
that has certainly shifted, for while the number of outlets has exploded over the last 20 years – all eager for PR attention of one form or another – the number of games being released on a weekly basis is equally voluminous.
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