With Madden NFL turning 25, we wanted to embrace the Madden legacy and generate excitement for the 2013 season. We developed a campaign that claimed the Madden game was the original catalyst behind the hottest rivalry in the league– Colin Kaepernick vs. Russell Wilson – and took advantage of an upcoming football game in which the two were playing against each other. We developed a TV spot that aired prior to the game, with the two players betting that whomever lost to the other would shave an eyebrow.
The story blew up on the Web and social media, as well as on TV programs like Sports Center, Pardon the Interruption, and NFL Sunday GameDay.
Immediately after the televised game, another spot aired showing the losing quarterback – an unfortunate Kaepernick – shaving his eyebrow. By running the second spot that same night and the following morning, football fans that tuned in to see game highlights and score recaps witnessed the loser make good on his bet.
The campaign, responsive to the results of the real-time football game, went viral and generated a total of 54.4 million earned media impressions (approximately twice the number of people who watched the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics) and 28 million social media impressions, with organic search for Madden terms tripling the day that the ads broke.