A celebrity-fronted marketing campaign promoting the latest iteration of Electronic Arts (EA) flagship Madden NFL 22 game introduces viewers, gamers and football fans to ‘Madden Land’.
The ‘Madden NFL 22 promotes the game’s new features and Dynamic Gameday Technology which uses AI to enhance gameplay via crowd animations, sideline views and player reactions.
The ‘Welcome To Madden Land’ campaign spans TV, digital and social spots which present the grand opening of a fictional, rollercoaster and amusement park ride world of ‘Madden Land’.
The hero spot features a strong line up of NFL super stars – including Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes, Jalen Ramsey and Fox Sports’ Erin Andrews, Kenny Mayne and Curt Menefee – and viewers see the players emerge from amusement rides to join their teammates on the football field alongside commentary from the Fox Sports’ team. At the end of the lead ad, Brady cuts the red tape and proclaims ‘Welcome to Madden Land’ as Mahomes appears flying a plane carrying a Madden sign while shouting ‘It’s game time baby”.
Explore Madden Land! The only place to experience the ups, downs, twists & turns of NFL gameday #Madden22 is available now https://t.co/xXITyuRBvc pic.twitter.com/28fnjiStQ3
— Madden NFL 22 (@EAMaddenNFL) August 20, 2021
ESPN is the main media partner for the campaign, while all the players who appear in the spot are also amplifying the campaign.
“We’re so excited for players to get into ‘Madden NFL 22’ to experience the rollercoaster of emotions and fun of NFL gameday, which is brought to life in our new ‘Welcome to Madden Land’ video,” said EA Sports Executive VP and Group General Manager Cam Weber.
As per usual, the Madden campaign rolls out a few weeks ahead of the start of the new NFL season (which kicks off on 9 September), but unlike previous year’s, the latest initiative has been conceived, created and executed in-house. This is the first campaign from the Redwood City (California) based video game giant: it was developed and written in-house and then produced with Los Angeles-based Superprime and Director James Gray.
“Moving the concept in-house empowered our entire team to be a part of the creative process, building a seamlessly integrated campaign from top to bottom,” said EA Sports Creative Director Josh Klein.
EA’s internal creative team which worked on the campaign included enior Creative Director Paul Marr, Video Creative Director Josh Kline, Senior Art Director Jordan Bromberg and Senior Copywriter Jared Liebmann.
Comment:
The strategic move to take the annual ‘Madden NFL’ campaign in-house is part of an ongoing do-your-own marketing trend – especially amongst creative companies and technology brands.
For the past three years it was the New York City-based creative agency Johannes Leonardo who had created the ‘Madden NFL’ campaigns. Indeed, last year, for the 2021 iteration of the game, Johannes Leonardo and Madden moved away from the usual flashy launch campaign and instead focused on real-time response content.
The latest work is reported to be EA’s biggest campaign of the year and it follows on from previous promotional initiatives for the game such as the multi-phase ‘Madden 20 > Gamers & Players’ and ‘Madden 20 > Bring It On’.
Like most other gaming companies, EA benefited from the pandemic as so many people stayed home and were able to play more with fewer rival, competitive entertainment offerings.
In the financial quarter ending 30 June, the company reported $1.55bn – up from $1.46bn in the year-ago quarter.
“Our new launches, leading games, and live services all had an outstanding quarter,” added EA Sports Chief Executive Andrew Wilson. “With our expanding EA Sports portfolio, more amazing experiences in ‘Apex Legends,’ the groundbreaking new ‘Battlefield 2042,’ and our leading live services, including mobile, we’re set to deliver more great games and content to players this year.”
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