The Super Bowl XLIV is scheduled to begin on February 7, 2010. The event is expected to have 100 million football fans glued to their televisions. This gives EA the opportunity to bestow upon the multitude of viewers its very first Super Bowl commercial. The company is set to broadcast its hell-raising 30-second spot dubbed as ‘Hell Awaits…’ during the fourth quarter of Super Bowl XLIV which will be aired on CBS this Sunday.
EA is prepared to instill the fear into the viewers by taking them to the nine punishing circles of Hell namely lust, greed, heresy, fraud, limbo, gluttony, anger, treachery and violence. The company plans to introduce the game to around 100 million viewers which are noted to be within the 18-34 year old male demographic. EA also joins the likes of perennial advertisers Mazda and Anheuser-Busch. These companies will also be accompanied by Time Warner cable channel TruTV, Kia Motors and Sprint Nextel’s Boost Mobile who are all newcomers to the Super Bowl advertising terrain.
“Even within the spectrum of live sports events, the Super Bowl stands apart, almost as a national holiday. The Super Bowl is a bull’s-eye in terms of cross-over to our core demographic and the reach is outstanding. Not only does it draw 100M viewers, but most people watch the Super Bowl live, a rarity in the world of DVRs. While digital outreach to Facebook, Twitter, and online bloggers is a core part of our marketing strategy, we felt that advertising during the Super Bowl is an excellent way to introduce this new game to a massive cross-section of people who are likely already familiar with the “Divine Comedy. Inspired by a classic, but perfect for today’s action gamer. This is entertainment at its best,” explained Frank Gibeau, president at EA.
This isn’t the company’s first marketing endeavor to promote their upcoming action title Dante’s Inferno. EA has earlier utilized digital media, social networking and bloggers in order to bring to the forefront the title’s tagline ‘Go to Hell’ via many interesting programs. Some of these include the ‘Go to Hell’ Facebook App, a Special Edition Book, Animated DVD Feature, Comic Book, Collectible Action Figure, Dante’s Nine Circles Hit the Blogosphere and Hidden Messages.
Gamers and football fans can look forward to seeing Dante’s Inferno commercial hit CBS this Sunday during the Super Bowl. They can also expect the game to enter into stores two days later on February 9, 2010.