In our Campfire Stories, we spotlight Appi Campers and share their stories in their own words. In times like these where we are adapting to new circumstances every day, we invite you to get to know us and lean on our community- the app marketing experts and your camp friends- as we continue to grow, step forward, and learn together as a community.

Siberia Su's Campfire Story

Siberia Su is currently the Head of Growth at Jump Ramp Games – a MobiltyWare company. Prior to this, Siberia managed million dollar budgets at companies such as DraftKings and Jam City, and was a Marketing Director at startups such as Journy and Braavo. Siberia is a multi-dimensional marketing leader who has a passion for leading data-driven teams to drive growth for companies she works for.

Learn more about Siberia Su.

Thriving In your Growth Marketing Environment

My career in digital marketing started back in LA back around 2012. I had great opportunities to work for 2 leading tech startups - Spokeo and Jam City - from 2012 to 2015.  In Dec 2015 a WPP company called me for an opportunity to work for their agency Xaxis in NYC and that is how I started my marketing journey on the East Coast.

A few months after my move to the city, I started to notice the differences between the east and west coast when it comes to the definition of growth marketing. Being close to the Silicon Valley, west coasts’ tech companies especially gaming studios usually are equipped with strong data-driven app marketing infrastructures. This allows the local UA teams to perform very sophisticated testing around audience segmentation and A/B testing and offers more opportunities to scale UA efforts primarily focused on apps.   On the contrary, the east coast has traditionally been a market for big consumer brands and agencies. Since 2015, a lot of the brands started to transition into mobile and this has been a trend up until today. Even though the consumer brand relationship has shifted largely into mobile first, the definition of growth marketing in most companies here goes far beyond just app marketing.

Challenges and Opportunities

While the west coast offers a strong big-data environment for growth marketers to hone their technical skill sets, there are also numerous advantages in developing your career in New York.

Being the economic and cultural centers of various industries, New York City provides extensive opportunities for speed networking and great platforms to build leadership skills. Most consumer brands here own brand equities with strong brand presence both online and offline. This offers opportunities for growth marketers like me to truly experiment and see the impact of multi-channel marketing efforts.

Being a Pandemic Pioneer

2020 has been a difficult year for many of us. I am grateful for still being able to stay in the growth industry and working with great professionals in this hard time. No matter where you live, it is also important to focus on your personal growth, and sometimes this means responding directly to what is happening in your environment. When the COVID-19 pandemic started, New York became the epicenter early on. Hearing about the PPE shortages New York hospitals were facing gave me the idea to create a PPE marketplace and donation platform to help those in need. With the support of my network and friends, we created MRACLE2020, a non-profit platform that facilitates donations and transactions and helps healthcare institutions in need during the COVID-19 pandemic. A lot of individuals were feeling low and depressed, and I wanted MRACLE2020 to be an entity that could bring hope to people.

Owning Your Environment 

I cannot say that I will not ever move back to California, but the deciding factor of where I live is based on the experiences and what I am looking to achieve both personally and professionally. New York attracts certain types of personalities and ambitious young professionals while Los Angeles can be more peaceful and a better place to build.

I have learned that I can enjoy life wherever if I fully embrace my environment. Once you own both the challenges and the advantages to look at things more holistically, you can thrive in any environment you choose.