2013 Winners & Shortlists

The Brief

EA’s FIFA 2012 went Arabic, and that led them to surpass all sales predictions and held the title for multiple months. So the launch of FIFA 2013 became a victim of its predecessor’s success, how do we make it BIGGER? Through our ethnographic research, we learnt that serious gaming worlds were bigger and impactful vs. the fun filled social gaming (e.g. Farmville) where the focus was on interactivity. And they were also played as such - amplified experiences through larger screens, more tactile joysticks and superior sound. EA wanted to capture these set of “Serious Gamers”.

Describe how the promotion developed from concept to implementation

EA wanted the “BIG” for its launch, so did the Gamers for whom that serious gaming was all about “Immersive Scale” i.e. Bigger screens, amplified sound and more tactile equipment. So we gave EA and the Gamer both “the BIG”.

Describe the success of the promotion with both client and consumer including some quantifiable results

Did they fight for the big prize! We had a sold-out venue with a total of 2,000 gamers for the battle. The real impact was that we DOUBLED our sales, breaking all records. Genuine amateur blogger videos of the finals got 80,000 views (and rising) in just 3 days of the activity! And Google search volumes for FIFA 2013 went up by 150% post the event, highest for EA in the region.

Explain why the method of promotion was most relevant to the product or service

We organized a FIFA 2013 tournament where the Gamers battled it out - but with a twist. As the ultimate prize, the finals were to be played on the BIGGEST IMAX screen in the Middle East and Africa at Meydan in Dubai. The massive 30 X 40 feet screen of immersive scale! We used sports and event magazines, display banners on gaming community websites, posters at universities and gaming parlours, Facebook and Twitter updates to target our “Serious gamers” encouraging their participation.