Electronic Arts has had a rough year, but it’s ready to put the bad news behind it and move forward. At least, that’s the message from the last earnings call, where EA execs discussed plans to keep expenses down and concentrate on positioning the company for “market leadership for the rest of the decade,” as interim CEO Larry Probst described the effect of the next-gen console transition.
In order to reach that goal, though, Electronic Arts has a difficult marketing and PR challenge immediately ahead: The E3 show. This year’s E3 is going to be a difficult environment for any marketer, with new console hardware threatening to grab all the attention. What does EA need to accomplish at the show, and what should the strategy be? What will EA’s appearance at the show tell you about the company’s marketing strategy?
First of all, Electronic Arts wants the conversation at E3 to be all about the new games coming up. That means the search for a new CEO, the layoffs, reorganization and other pesky stories will be deflected or ignored. For one thing, all of that will be old news. EA has already reorganized; layoffs have already occurred. Whether or not EA has a new CEO by E3 really isn’t important, because the new CEO will not be bringing a new vision for EA. That much was clear from the earnings call; EA has tuned up its strategic vision a bit, and now it’s focused on execution.
Thus, EA’s presentations, its booth, marketing materials and PR efforts will be focused around the key products for the holiday season and beyond. EA has promised 11 new titles for console and PC, with 15 new mobile titles, between now and the end of FY 2014 (the end of March 2014). The prime titles are, of course, Battlefield 4, FIFA, and Madden, and The Sims 4. Expect the heaviest push at E3 to be behind Battlefield 4, as EA attempts to wrest market share away from Activision’s Call of Duty series. The Sims 4 will be important, but it’s not going to be a holiday launch.
The return of NBA Live could potentially be quite lucrative, if EA can take market share away from 2K Sport’s NBA 2K13. How confident is EA in NBA Live That will be shown to some extent by how strongly EA pushes the title at E3. Would EA rather devote attention to Need For Speed or NHL, or give NBA Live an extra boost How EA apportions its booth and media attention will show you what the company believes is strategically important.
EA’s big challenge is to stand out amongst the marketing efforts of others. Expect them to show off Battlefield 4 on next-gen consoles; EA may get special placement in either Sony or Microsoft’s presentations. You will probably see FIFA and Madden appearing on next-gen devices too. If EA is really going to want to lead the market on next-gen, this E3 is an important place for the company to show how its games will look and feel on next-gen hardware. Will Sony and Microsoft try to balance the attention given to EA and Activision? That will be very interesting to see.
One final thing to look for: Respawn Entertainment, which is the studio formed from the key employees of Infinity Ward after they split from Activision. EA signed a deal for the studio’s first title . . . which wasn’t mentioned in EA’s latest earnings call. Respawn will have a booth at E3, so it will be interesting to see what they show and how far along it is. Could this be another franchise that might compete with Activision?Where does it fit in with Battlefield 4? How will EA be marketing this product? All good questions waiting to be addressed at E3.
