Outspent by at least 3-1, EA’s Madden had lost its own-able space in the world of competitive games.EA needed to reignite their core audience’s love for their game and redefine their position in a fast-moving category to bring in new millennial gamers. Through our research, we uncovered that our audience didn’t love Madden because of the things that happened in the game, but because of the camaraderie that came with the people playing it with them.
Leveraging this insight, we reinvented the Madden brand by tapping into the their share of culture. We took the competitive, trash-talking spirit of our target and fused it with the worlds of football, gaming and pop-culture to develop the Giferator— a personalized content engine that turned on-game action into shareable ads and influencer activations. We converted trash talk, game footage, and live NFL data into witty social currency that stayed ahead of fast-moving consumer trends.
The Giferator flooded social feeds and second screens in real-time and in moments that were most impactful to our audience.
Results:
Most profitable year in franchise’s 26-year history (+81% increase in profitability)
Madden became the 2nd-highest selling video game of the year
Giferator achieved meme status and won 10 Cannes Lions
5 million copies sold in first 4 months of campaign
YOY sales up 10%
+16% increase pre-orders (despite industry sales down 11% & media budget down 21%)
16.5% increase in net revenue YOY