Marketing a Videogame as a Virtual NBA Experience

SAN FRANCISCO As technology renders all types of videogames more lifelike, sports games based on actual athletes and teams are especially impacted by the changes.Sports videogames, such as this year's NBA 2K8, are becoming so realistic that watching a real-life game and playing in a virtual contest are remarkably similar—except that in the virtual game, fans can score points.To take advantage of that new sense of realism, game marketers are facing the challenge of how to promote their products less as digital software with techie features and sophisticated capabilities, and more as experiential simulations of real-life events. It is a shift also faced by many marketers of mainstream technology-oriented products—computers, TVs and PDAs—which are downplaying the bells and whistles and focusing on the heightened user experience.Based on independent research that shows sports fans consider videogames equal in excitement to physical games, 2K Sports decided to rethink its features-oriented marketing strategy for the Sept. 28 launch of its latest game, NBA 2K8. The company opted to emphasize the passion of the sport and deemphasize the coolness of the technology in ads that blur the line between what is real and what is part of the videogame.2K Sports outsells industry leader Electronic Arts in the basketball category, with last year's game NBA 2K7 ranking as the No. 1 seller for the Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox 360 consoles, according to market researcher NPD.To get its strategy right, 2K Sports hired star gamers to help develop the new game and boost the brand's marketing profile among followers through word of mouth. Last summer, three 17- to 19-year-old guys well known in the world of NBA videogame tournaments worked at the Novato, Calif., offices of 2K Sports for two weeks, playing preview versions, creating fan clips using videogame footage and providing feedback about the marketing and music selection for the upcoming launch, said Tim Rosa, 2K's director of brand marketing. The stint also gave the trio bragging rights among their gaming pals, which helped drive buzz for the launch, he said.One key insight was that the target audience wants to be treated as fans first and gamers second. "The game's core customer is a 17-year-old male who is tech savvy and spends as much or more time online as watching TV," said Jason Zada, partner and ecd of EVB, the company's marketing agency. "But he cares more about his favorite basketball players and competing with others than he does about the product," Zada said.These sports fans notice and appreciate insider nuances in videogames, including video athletes who have the mannerisms and signature moves of real-life players, such as Kobe Bryant's fadeaway. As a result, game footage in the ads and online video presents these nuances to prove to fans "that this is the closest their games have ever come to reality," said David DePaulis, 2K senior marketing manager. "The more you know the players, the more you'll get out of" the marketing imagery, he said.And then there are the NBA athletes themselves. Consumer research included asking five sports agents to share preview copies of the game with their combined 40-50 basketball player clients and gather feedback. The input from athletes convinced the company that even for real-life players, the game provides a satisfying simulation of their on-court experience, said Rosa. In fact, 2K said the game has grown so popular among NBA athletes that during a Sept. 20 promotional media tour in New York, sponsoring player Chris Paul of the New Orleans Hornets got a text message from Cleveland Cavaliers' star LeBron James asking how the final version of the new game looked.In studying their audience's reaction to the games and the ads, both Rosa and DePaulis said they were surprised to discover how emotional gamers are: they even responded to the music soundtrack. "There are also certain moments in a game, like when an athlete does something amazing or when the two best players go head-to-head, that encapsulate that emotion," Rosa said. Real fans live for those "epic" encounters, so the marketing had to show that a simulation also offers those kinds of moments, he said. "It is when a fan wants to clench his fist, raise it in the air and yell, 'Hell, yeah!' We tried to incorporate those moments in an over-arching, emotionally charged message," said Rosa.Research also showed gamers are increasingly social and experimental. Seventy percent of NBA 2K users play the game online with other players and most of the time the players are sitting side by side, rather than at separate locations, said DePaulis. The number of 18-24 year-old players who participate in NBA videogame tournaments is also steadily increasing each year, with "tens of thousands" of gamers playing last year for the chance to win tickets to the NBA All-Star Game, he said.Watching the star gamers play and experiment with the preview game and marketing showed the company how much its target audience wanted to discover the features of the game for themselves and enjoyed seeking additional information from friends or online. "We realized we didn't need to explain a lot about the game to them in the ads," said Rosa. A Campaign of Epic MomentsWorking with EVB, the company unveiled a TV, print, online and event-marketing campaign that mixes the simulated version of the game with scenes of action from real NBA contests. For example, a commercial juxtaposes shots of actual NBA fans cheering for their teams and realistic TV-control-booth scenes with videogame footage. The clip shows excited young fans watching a televised game that turns out to be a videogame simulation that culminates in Paul sinking the winning shot. The tagline is, "It's like that." The spot is running on network, sports and youth-skewed cable channels.The online component was designed to generate viral buzz. Six Web films show extraordinary or epic events that could happen in the upcoming season, such as the resurgence of the Boston Celtics or Kobe Bryant breaking Wilt Chamberlain's scoring record. The films are available on a microsite (www.seewhatitslike.com) and are designed to be downloaded, shared and discussed—creating conversation and buzz around the Web. The microsite also allows users to send their friends recorded messages from Paul, challenging them to play the videogame and giving users a way to set up times and platforms for future matches. Print ads, running through December in sports, music and gaming magazines, use images from actual NBA games. All TV, print and online ads are designed to drive consumers to the microsite, said Zada. Spending for the effort is $5-10 million, per sources.The campaign closes with the national Bounce Tour, a 2K Sports-sponsored music tour later this year featuring hip-hop artists whose music is heard in the new videogame.Interest in all videogames seems to be growing beyond hardcore gamers as the virtual competitions become more lifelike. In August, U.S. sales of videogame software and hardware rose 42 percent, compared to August 2006, according to NPD. The top-selling game was a sports title—Electronic Arts' Madden NFL 08 for the Xbox 360—that sold 897,000 units, per NPD.

Brand Marketing

Marketing a Videogame as a Virtual NBA Experience

Joan Voight

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

Joan Voight