Visa Gets Placement in Madden NFL 08
Visa is enhancing its pro football profile in a major video game play through an embedded presence in Electronic Art’s “Madden NFL 08,” set to go on sale Aug. 13.
As a National Football League sponsor for the past 12 years, Visa sees its Madden ploy as a way to create another NFL tie through the immensely popular game. Visa sees it as a way to “extend our NFL marketing and put our product in front of a new audience,” said Andrew Cohen, Visa group director.
The Madden audience, primarily 18 to 35 year olds, represents a slightly younger demographic than the overall NFL fan base, he said.
In the Madden game’s “Front Office” mode, players fantasizing the role of team owners will have an option to designate Visa as their stadium sponsor, enabling financial benefits for their virtual team.
Along with the presence in the game, Visa will have strong point of sale presence in 4,000 GameStop video game stores, where it’s running a Super Bowl sweepstakes for those who buy the new Madden game with their Visa cards.
Two free trips to Super Bowl XLII will be awarded by Visa: One from among fanatics who pre-order the game between July 1 and Aug. 14, and another to Visa customers who buy the game between Aug. 14 and Sept. 30.
Visa will also be sponsoring a Maddenoliday game release event in New York City’s Times Square on Aug. 13 and 14. It will have signage at that event and in the Times Square Toys ‘R Us, which will open midnight for initial sales of the game. The first 100 takers will be admitted to a VIP party at the ESPN Zone after midnight, with a chance to mingle with NFL players.
The Madden play is Visa’s third video gaming venture. It previously sponsored Ubisoft’s “CSI 3” and an Olympics Championship game on NBC’s site tied to the Torino winter games in 2006.
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