Madden NFL 12 got off to a fantastic start, selling 1.4 million copies in its first week. While there were clearly concerns that EA could lose substantial revenue due to a prolonged NFL lockout, the publisher mitigated the problem by bumping up its marketing spend. In fact, IndustryGamers was told in a recent post-mortem interview that it was the biggest spend ever on Madden.
We've heard that EA easily spent "tens of millions" on the campaign. Anthony Stevenson, Director of Marketing, told us, "I don't want to give the exact number, but we did decide to spend even more this year than we ever have before, because of the NFL lockout. We invested in the belief that there was going to be a season, even though nobody knew for sure.
"We have a TV budget in partnership with various companies like Wal-Mart and others. We were surprised that nobody was really that concerned about spending on Madden. They believed in Madden, and believed there would be a season. A large part of the increase in our spending was our partners stepping up and helping out. Madden is typically in the top 2 [best-selling games of the year]; we contended it would be top 10 if not top 5, even if there was no season. They [our retail partners] rely on Madden to be a big seller for them, so they would go with it."
Be sure to check out the full interview with Stevenson for much more behind-the-scenes information on how EA propelled Madden NFL 12 forward despite the lockout concerns.
