Social Media Extends 'Madden' Campaign

Redwood City, Calif. — For the 24th edition of its "Madden" video-game franchise, Electronic Arts focused heavily on social media to generate excitement. It worked, as "Madden NFL 13" set an opening-day sales record for the franchise and reportedly saw an 8% lift in the first week of sales compared to last year.Communication for "Madden NFL 13" began weeks after the Super Bowl in February 2012 when the EA Sports team took to Twitter and Facebook to talk about voting for a player to grace the cover. That conversation eventually rolled into stores on a standee at Best Buy requesting votes.Christopher Erb, vice president of brand marketing at EA Sports, says social media helps extend the marketing campaign. The conversation starts earlier and eventually empowers other campaign elements like TV, retail and licensing partnerships, in-store displays, and a dynamic video on packaging.Erb says this is a "bigger" campaign than before. "It's the way we're engaging on new platforms. It's not just about TV and digital. It's what we're doing on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook." The same ads are not repurposed; instead, EA Sports ran one cohesive campaign for both the Aug. 28 launch and the 2012 holiday season.In the social space, the key is giving brand loyalists a microphone to speak about what can be improved or to share enthusiasm. In the week before launch, Erb says the game was mentioned on Twitter every six seconds, essentially building a direct-to-consumer relationship. Celebrities received VIP kits that included games to give away on their Facebook pages. Lil' Wayne has 40 million Facebook followers, and Erb says the rapper generated 250,000 "Likes" and 6,000 shares in the first 20 minutes.With promotional partners, the key is content. "We're giving away content to make your experience better with 'Madden'," he says.Partnerships include a bonus content giveaway with PepsiCo/Frito-Lay's Doritos at Walmart. An on-pack offer awards consumers an exclusive "Madden Ultimate Team" card pack. A Doritos play at Kroger includes in-store displays and tearpads that promote $5-off the purchase of "Madden NFL 13" at EA Sports' Origin.com.EA Sports also ran exclusive pre-order offers with GameStop, Walmart, Best Buy, Amazon.com and Origin.com. A video series with GameStop called "Madden Mondays" featured posts for seven weeks about various topics in the game based on consumer queries.Procter & Gamble branded bottles of Head & Shoulders with "Madden NFL 13" and a code to download free music from artists featured in the video game at Easportsmusic.com.A promotion with Visa offered 20% off the game bought at Origin.com, and there was a big holiday media push around it, says Erb. Bridgestone ran an online sweepstakes with EA Sports with a chance to win a trip to the Super Bowl, copies of the game and Xbox 360 consoles. Papa John's pizza awarded Papa Rewards members with a $5 coupon to be used at Origin.com. Finally, Time Warner's Sports Illustrated delivered a free copy of the game with a subscription. The supporting TV campaign featured actor Paul Rudd playing the game against NFL linebacker Ray Lewis.In stores, packages of the game included a SnapTag code from Denver-based SpyderLynk that could be scanned with the SnapTag Reader app on mobile phones. The code linked to a video clip promoting the game. Erb says the tag worked as a way "to show our wares" in the aisle. There's no dependence on word of mouth; an undecided gamer can see for himself right there, he says.Erb adds that the tag is dynamic and can be continually refreshed. "Before the season starts, we can make it very feature heavy. Then, if some crazy cool game happens [in the NFL], we can customize video to lay into it, saying, 'Hey, your Saints missed the field goal last night and you lost to the Packers. 'Madden' will give you the ability to change that play.'"Erb says the tag was refreshed for the holidays, because it's a different shopper, a gift-giving mom, as opposed to the hard-core gamer at launch. Erb says the average age of an EA Sports gamer is 27 years old, which is younger than the average age of a video gamer by three years. However, in reality, he says the audience is more like ages 14 to 54. "There are over 80 million sports fans. Sixty million of them play video games."Beyond "Madden," EA Sports will continue to focus on social media. "We have 25 million people across all social feeds, EA Sports, FIFA [soccer], 'Madden,' NCAA. What we do is a constant dialogue," Erb says.

Social Media Extends 'Madden' Campaign

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