Electronic Arts appoints ex-BMG marketer as European sales chief

Video games giant Electronic Arts has appointed Jan Bolz to the newly created position of vice-president for sales and marketing in Europe.

Bolz, who was previously vice-president for sales and marketing at BMG Records, will report to Gerhard Florin, senior vice-president and managing director of EA Europe.

A company spokesman says that Bolz’s job description will be to use “consistently brilliant marketing” to help EA break the $1bn (&£600m) turnover mark in Europe. Specifically, Bolz will be asked to expand key EA games franchises such as Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and James Bond.

His first task will be to oversee the European launch of FIFA Football 2004 later this month. The game will be backed by EA’s largest European marketing push, with TV, print, radio and outdoor advertising breaking in the next few weeks. The TV campaign will feature football stars including Thierry Henry and Ronaldinho (MW August 21).

EA has reshuffled its marketing department over the past few months. Marketing director for northern Europe Jon Rissik was promoted to director of worldwide marketing and operations. He was replaced by Roy Meredith, previously UK studio marketing director (MW July 24).