For America’s best-selling football video game in its 26th year, the stakes were high for attracting a new generation of digital natives with outsized expectations for fan experiences.

To promote the launch of Madden NFL 15 with young audiences around the world, EA SPORTS capitalized on the fierce interactive football rivalries among friends, developing the Madden NFL 15 GIFERATOR – a social-driven, real-time NFL GIF-generator, powered by trash talk, and built around the shared sports-watching experience carved out by digital natives.

With nearly 80% of consumers watching TV with a mobile device in hand for instant sharing, EA SPORTS partnered with Google “Art, Copy & Code” to develop an online GIF-creation tool loaded with thousands of headlines and player animations for fans to taunt and tease each other during live games. PR brought the GIFERATOR onto the media and social field and fueled excitement just as the NFL season was kicking off and right after Madden NFL 15 came to market. Our social game plan shared content across channels where digital natives live day in and out.

PR drew 150+ stories accounting for 443 million+ impressions; brought in 1.4 million+ unique visitors -- 200,000+ the first day -- to EA SPORTS’ website; and prompted 400,000+ fan-generated GIFS. #MADDENGIFERATOR reached 22 million users.

By inserting the digital game into the real-world season, we brought a new generation to the franchise, helping outperform sales of previous editions and making Madden NFL 15 the second largest-selling video game in North America.

EA SPORTS created a PR playbook to drive media and social attention to the release of the Madden Season video, positioning it as an original music video and an absurdly funny “Made-for-YouTube” spot. Comedian Kevin Hart and actor Dave Franco spoof what it’s like to engage in a full-on Madden Season rivalry, and with purposefully random chaos incorporated, the video was, as Yahoo! exclaimed on its homepage, “a must-see.”

Amplified on Twitter and Facebook through #MaddenSeason, the video – also shortened for an ad -- was the springboard for earned media outreach to sports, gaming, entertainment/music, ad/marketing and mass-consumer press. EA SPORTS sought coverage beyond sports and gaming, and PR made that happen with Madden Season, achieving coverage on E! Online, Entertainment Weekly, Celebuzz, The Insider and more. The team also focused on business and advertising trade publications like Adweek, Fast Company and MediaPost, offering interviews with EA SPORTS executives.

In its first 24 hours, the video amassed 1.7 million+ organic views, hitting 11 million+ views in 48 hours, and 21 million+ by the August 26 launch.

#MaddenSeason trended #2 on Twitter and #1 on Facebook.

Website page views reached 300K (+392% year-over-year); unique page views reached 255K (+344%); average time on the site was up 67% year-over-year.

Earned coverage ran across sports, video game, entertainment/music, ad/marketing and consumer media with 60+ unique stories on release-day alone, kicking off a whole season of social engagement. The campaign took on a life of its own, with fans creating their own content, waging Twitter wars, and pranking each other before big match ups.

Game sales spiked 12.28% year-over-year, and Madden NFL 15 became the second-largest selling video game in North America, outperforming previous editions.

Year-over-year game penetration among younger men increased four percent and campaign reach with this group jumped 12 percentage points.