UTA Names Activision Blizzard Executive Eugene Wu as Head of Esports Brand Partnerships

United Talent Agency on Wednesday named Activision Blizzard executive Eugene Wu as a brand partnerships executive in the company’s esports division, a move that further builds out the relatively new division of UTA that was established roughly two years ago. In his new role, Wu will report to UTA’s head of its esports department, Damon Lau. Wu worked at Activision for roughly three years and spent nine months as the gaming company’s senior manager of global brand partnerships and marketing. Wu led the development of marketing and branding strategies for many of Activision’s key gaming franchises, including “Call of Duty,” “Tony Hawk Pro Skater,” “Crash Bandicoot” and “Spyro.” He also was responsible for launching the “Call of Duty: Black Ops 4” reveal campaign, which featured hats sponsored by the New Era Cap Company and James Harden and garnered over 50 million ad impressions, according to Activision. In his new role at UTA, Wu will continue courting brands and work to pair big-name companies with some of UTA’s gaming talent, which includes streaming stars like Nicholas “NickMercs” Kolcheff, Rachel “Valkyrae” Hofstetter and Imane “Pokimane” Anys, who was awarded Twitch Streamer of the Year by the live-streaming company in 2018. Kolcheff signed a multi-year deal to broadcast exclusively on Twitch last September, and UTA helped broker the deal. Prior to entering the gaming industry, Wu worked in financial technology and was a manager at investing startup Acorns. He also worked at live events behemoth AEG, where he served as manager of premium sales and partnerships for over two years and held a position in its fan development department. UTA’s Lau told Variety at the time of UTA’s announcement to create a dedicated arm to represent esports talent that the company was eager to after seeing how much money the industry was generating through streaming and events (both live and virtual). “We’ve seen an incredible client crossover with other departments,” Lau told Variety. “Moving forward, we will capitalize on opportunities in the fast-growing global esports economy… which is forecasted to reach $3.2 billion by 2022.”