EA Turns Tiger Woods Into Jesus
26 August 2008
No CommentSounds like sacrilege? Maybe it does, but I’m not religious and I loved this video by EA to promote their latest installment of the Tiger Woods franchise.
The video was inspired by another video which was uploaded to Youtube by Levinator25. He uploaded a sequence of the game during which Tiger Woods hits a shot whilst standing on water. He thought he’d found a glitch in the game which, in fairness, it probably was. But according to EA he’s just that good!
Rather than ignoring this person and fixing this bug EA realised there was much more mileage in this idea. So they went with it and turned it into an advert for the new version of the game.
The whole thing is just perfect. It starts with the fact such a large company has been able to listen to their community and spot this video. And the way they’ve taken it to the next level and turned it into an ad is just genius. It’s gotten them some 1,2 million views on Youtube alone so far.
Joseph Jaffe asks some interesting questions about the EA video over at his blog, such as the reward Levinator25 received from EA for providing them with not only this idea, but also the first part of their advert. If they have used it without consent it could lead to an interesting discussion with a large brand on the other side of the fence for a change.
Thankfully, more and more brands are starting to see the power of the consumer. Some of them are using user generated content as inspiration, like EA has done in the video below - others go the whole 9 yards and ask the consumer to produce their adverts for them.
Whilst to some that may sound like taking advantage of the consumer, but if it’s done right it can do wonderful things for both the company and consumer.
Take the Doritos example from above, where the winner had his advert shown on ITV1 and got £20,000 in prize money. Whilst that makes it an extremely cheap and lucrative exercise for Doritos, the guy was hardly left in the cold with a bag of peanuts! Crowdsourcing at its very best.
And then there is Apple. They saw a home made video about the iPhone which was posted on Youtube. Rather than sending the men in black round his house for a stern talking to and a C&D letter, they bought the video and he was asked to fly to Los Angeles to redo his video in a professional studio. The video aired during the 2007 World Series.
This shows how helpful listening and talk with, rather than to, your customers can help your company. It goes far beyond the adverts its delivered these companies. It stimulates people to engage with your brand. And by showing them you are listening to them their loyalty to your brand will increase. People love telling stories and what better story to tell then a company which has involved you in creating their latest ad. Stories spread fast, especially on the internet. You better make sure it’s a good one.
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