The gaming and digital content landscape is undergoing unprecedented growth, with mobile gaming projected to reach $270 billion by 2032. At the forefront of this transformation is Claire Weston, Chief Marketing Officer at Coda, a leader in delivering innovative commerce solutions to gaming and digital content publishers worldwide. With nearly two decades of experience in tech and gaming giants like LinkedIn and Meta, Claire brings unmatched expertise to her role, driving Coda’s shift toward immersive customer experiences and strategic growth. In this interview, Claire shares her vision for the future of gaming monetization, insights on building inclusive teams, and how Coda is shaping the industry through its groundbreaking solutions.
Mobile gaming is projected to grow to $270 billion by 2032. How do you see this growth influencing marketing strategies in the gaming and digital content space, and what role does Coda’s Merchant of Record and out-of-app monetization solutions play in shaping this transformation?
The mobile gaming industry has grown at a phenomenal pace over the past decade. With gaming giants expanding into mobile and a surge of innovative independent developers, the competitive landscape has become both rich and diverse. To stand out, game publishers need a deep understanding of their audience, recognizing the unique nuances within different segments. Success demands more than a one-size-fits-all approach—marketing strategies must be hyper-relevant, meeting gamers where they are and connecting with them across the platforms and channels they already engage with. Relying on strategies that work for other products or categories simply won’t cut it.
Gamers today expect flexibility in how they pay and are constantly on the hunt for better value. This means publishers need to go beyond traditional in-app purchases to explore out-of-app solutions, including direct-to-consumer (D2C) offerings. Publishers must also embrace localized approaches, tailoring both marketing, payment options and loyalty programs to resonate with diverse global audiences.
Coda addresses these challenges by removing the complexities of monetizing and growing in multiple markets. As a Merchant of Record (MoR), Coda manages tax, compliance, and regulatory requirements across multiple markets, freeing publishers from the operational burdens of global commerce. Our out-of-app monetization solutions unlock new revenue streams by reaching players outside traditional app stores, while access to over 400 localized payment methods—including e-wallets and carrier billing—ensures players can pay in ways that feel easy and familiar. These solutions not only deepen the connection with customers but also provide valuable insights into customer preferences and behaviors, enabling smarter decisions about products, pricing, and strategies.
In this fast-evolving industry, Coda’s solutions empower publishers to connect meaningfully with players, grow their revenue, and deliver exceptional gaming experiences tailored for today’s dynamic market.
You’ve emphasized a shift from brand-centered marketing to immersive customer experiences. Could you share specific examples of how Coda is implementing this approach, and what benefits it has brought to your partners and users?
The shift from brand-centric to customer-centric marketing is more than a trend; it’s a necessity, especially in mobile gaming. Players today demand seamless, personalized experiences that go beyond the game itself and extend across every interaction they have with a publisher. According to a study by Kantar in 2023, 41% of surveyed gamers explore additional information before downloading a new game, often across multiple channels. This underscores the importance of creating holistic marketing strategies that meet players wherever they engage. In a landscape where differentiation is critical, a superior player experience—shaped by deep insights and a focus on personalization—is the key to building long-term loyalty and advocacy.
Data and analytics play a pivotal role in making this shift possible. Understanding player preferences, behaviors, and pain points allows publishers to craft marketing initiatives that are not only engaging but also highly relevant. At Coda, we use data-driven insights to help our partners create immersive, tailored experiences that resonate with their audiences and drive meaningful results.
For instance, our partnership with Electronic Arts (EA), a global leader in interactive entertainment, led to the development of the EA SPORTS FC™ Mobile Webstore. This custom platform, available in 60 markets, provides players with a more rewarding and localized way to purchase in-game content. By analyzing player preferences and payment behaviors, we helped EA create a user-friendly experience that enhances engagement and deepens their connection with their players.
The benefits of this approach are clear: better insights into player preferences inform smarter marketing strategies, localization improves user satisfaction, and immersive customer experiences build stronger brand loyalty. At Coda, we’re committed to helping publishers leverage data and innovation to deliver exceptional player experiences and achieve long-term growth.
The shift from brand-centric to customer-centric marketing is not new, but in mobile gaming, it is absolutely critical. We’re seeing a shift towards a more holistic and personalized approach.
With nearly two decades of experience across leading tech companies and as a mentor at Mentor Walks, how do you balance driving innovation in a competitive industry while fostering inclusivity and supporting emerging talent?
Driving innovation while fostering inclusivity is crucial for business success and needs to be pursued together. They are not mutually exclusive, but rather, mutually beneficial. My experience building and leading global and regional teams has reinforced the importance of diverse perspectives in driving creativity and building products that resonate with a broad audience.
At Coda, we prioritize creating an inclusive work environment where every voice is heard. My mentorship work with Mentor Walks, particularly focusing on supporting women in tech, is deeply personal to me. I believe in paying it forward and empowering the next generation of leaders to break down barriers and shape a more inclusive and innovative future for our industry.
Having held leadership roles at companies like LinkedIn and Meta, what lessons have you brought to your role at Coda, particularly in aligning product, partnerships, and marketing strategies to achieve business growth?
Trust fuels innovation. Business growth and success comes from effective collaboration across internal teams and external partners. This can only be achieved when there is a healthy environment where there is psychological safety that failure is not feared but valued as an essential part of learning and growth.
An empowered team will drive business growth, as leaders, it’s our responsibility to foster an environment where empowered ideas are recognized and rewarded, encouraging teams to experiment boldly and learn from every outcome, whether a success or a setback. By embracing a culture of innovation and adaptability, we can drive business growth and stay ahead of the curve.
The tech industry is constantly evolving, and being adaptable is critical to staying ahead. I always maintain a mindset that enables us to refine goals, readjust objectives, and realign our paths. When our product, engineering, and marketing teams come together to align on strategies, I try to make sure that everyone is not resistant to change, but view challenges as opportunities for innovation. This allows us to pivot quickly and effectively when needed, ensuring that our products resonate with our target audience.
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As a female leader in a rapidly evolving and competitive tech landscape, what challenges have you faced, and what advice would you give to aspiring women professionals looking to build successful careers in technology and gaming?
The tech and gaming industries are seeing more women stepping into pivotal roles, but there’s still work to be done. While awareness around gender diversity is growing, representation in technical and leadership positions remains limited. Within Southeast Asia, only about 20 – 30% of tech roles are held by women, and among senior leadership positions, women only account for a mere 8%.
- Relationships Matter: Build relationships inside your company, across functions, levels and geographies. Remember that leading through influence is key to building your reputation.
- Learn to listen: Active listening is an art, and one that I rarely see done well, even in the most senior business settings. Really listening to business challenges facing your team, your clients, will enable you to continuously learn, and then craft products, campaigns, and solutions that will meet needs and result in shared success.
- Get a mentor and/or a coach: All of us have blindspots, but if you spend your career on the defensive you could lose out on tough feedback that could help you evolve and grow out of limiting patterns of behavior. A good coach will work with you on growth areas and support you with constructive feedback to sharpen you as a professional. Self awareness goes hand in hand with professional growth.
- Focus on solutions: Women can be hyper critical, experts at spotting a problem from a mile away. An important lever toward becoming more strategic is solutions oriented thinking. You don’t have to land on the exact right answer to every problem, but when you raise a challenge, come with 2-3 possible solutions. The same advice goes for giving feedback. Learn how to give critical feedback that is focused on solutions and encourages positive outcomes.
Coda recently announced its brand refresh. Could you share insights into how this will impact the gaming and digital content industries?
- Coda is laser focused on partner success. Our aim is to drive global growth for our partners. This means removing the stress from expanding their paying audiences across multiple markets. We have the strategies and solutions to solve for their pain points.
- We’ve always been dedicated to delivering the best experiences to our partners and consumers. We have the strategies and solutions to solve for their pain points. But what we hadn’t done very well is showcase this. We recognized that over the years, the Coda brand itself had not been properly defined, designed and communicated. We needed to address this as a company to better serve our partners.
- We launched the refreshed Coda brand for the following reasons:
- Shifts in market expectations | The expectations of what a global B2B2C business looks like has changed significantly in recent years and finding the right balance between relevancy and trusted expertise is crucial to our future growth
- We’re so much more than payments | More than just dropping ‘payments’ from the name, we need to actively change the market perception of what people think we do – we need to define what that is in a clear, distinctive and memorable way.
- Defining the role of our parent brand | Addressing the imbalance between our sub brand, Codashop and our parent brand is a crucial step in us being able to effectively communicate our breadth of expertise and solutions
- Reinforce our global credentials | Whilst we’re HQ’ed in Singapore, our focus and presence extends beyond the SEA. Having a brand that can hold its own across the globe will help us hold our own with our global partners
- Future growth in mind | ‘Payments’ is limiting, but growth is endless. Repositioning ourselves at strategic monetization partners that deliver growth outcomes gives us permission to reflect this in our content and in new products and solutions
- A focus on partners (not gamers) | It goes without saying but our partners are central to our business and so having a brand that breeds confidence to this primary audience is crucial to our success
- Our refreshed brand on 21 November, retiring the ‘Payments’ in ‘Coda Payments’. We’re now just ‘Coda’ and our new website is at coda.co. We have a rich, dynamic new visual and verbal identity founded on the concept of being the best commerce partner for global growth. This is just the start, we’re all very excited to bring it to life in the coming year and beyond.
