XXL SLAM RIDES 0-60 ANTENNA

SLAM Facebook SLAM Twitter SLAM Tumblr SLAM Newsletter RSS

WNBA CEO Resigns, Leaving Future in Doubt

Friday, December 10th, 2010 at 11:52 am | no responses 0 Like

Joakim Noah Doesn’t Believe Phil Jackson Is Retiring

NBA Jam Gets SocialEA Sports markets its new Jam using social media.

by Kyle Stack / @KyleStack

The year 2010 has been a memorable year for basketball fans in so many ways. The Los Angeles Lakers andBoston Celtics staged a classic seven-game Finals. The Team USA men’s squad won gold medal at the WorldChampionships for the first time since 1994. LeBron took his talents to South Beach. And for video game fans,EA Sports’ NBA Jam made its long-awaited sequel.

The game’s first launch in 1993 captured the imagination of anyone who played it. Legendary quotes like“Boomshakalaka!” and “He’s On Fire!” — made famous by NBA Jam’s original voice, Tim Kitzrow — becameentrenched in basketball lexicon forever.

As popular as the original NBA Jam was — the arcadeversion generated more than $1 billion, and the home editionsold more than 6 million copies — EA Sports faced achallenge in re-introducing the game.

“We were trying to hit two demographics [in marketing thegame],” said Jeff Sharma, marketing product manager forNBA Jam. “Those who grew up playing Jam and the newgeneration who didn’t grow up having a chance to play thegame.”

Social media served as an optimal platform for hitting bothdemographics, specifically with the newer generation. Theyused Facebook to promote a campaign in which fans could submit their favorite “Jamism” saying — “Themonster jam!” is another older one — into a bracket tournament of 64. Over 3,000 entries were received, andKitzrow recorded the 64 which were selected, so that voters could hear each of them before choosing theirpreferred line. The top four made their way into the game. That was just the beginning of EA’s dip into socialmedia.

They ran a Twitter campaign in which they had a promoted Twitter trend, on November 18. Fans againsubmitted their favorite Jamisms, and Kitzrow recorded the top ones that were selected. His lines wererecorded over video clips of the game, which EA re-tweeted back to users, with links to the clips on YouTube.They made 188 videos, which garnered over 160,000 views and over 66.3 million impressions.

“The fact that many people can see your brand and have an opportunity to interact with it is invaluable,”Sharma said.

And to extend their reach with a younger crowd, EA Sports lined up several young NBA stars to promote thegame on various platforms. Kevin Durant, Tyreke Evans, Stephen Curry and Brandon Jennings promoted thegame through their Twitter accounts. EA liked that each player brought name recognition and regular socialmedia interaction to the table. Then there was the big man.

Video: JaValeMcGee Dunkfrom FT-LineFAIL!

37

More Videos »

News & Rumors Latest Posts

7

1

7

2

10

1

Photos Wallpapers

GilbertArenas: ‘IKnow My TimeHere is Over’

Read More »

Joakim Noah Doesn’t Believe Phil Jackson IsRetiring

Ron Artest: ‘I Can’t Really Understand theTriangle Offense’

Jared Sullinger Sets Record With 40 Points

Miami Heat the Best Team According to MarkCuban

Lakers to Meet Up With Barack Obama NextWeek

NBA SCORES STATS SCHEDULE TEAMS PLAYERS NCAA SCORES

SEARCH

More News & Rumors »

Home News & Rumors NBA Blogs Media Kicks College & HS Other Ballers Magazine

Subscribe

SLAM ONLINE | » NBA Jam Gets Social http://www.slamonline.com/online/nba/2010/12/nba-jam-gets-s...

1 of 3 12/10/10 12:06 PM

Dwight Howard has a presence and charisma that few other athletes possess. So, EA featured him in aFacebook video in which he played a Jam on an arcade system against fans on a street in New York City.Howard’s interaction with fans was everything EA hoped it would be. “In terms of a human embodiment of aJam character, he’s it,” Sharma said. Bigger than life, huge personality, tons of fun. Him working with the gamemade a lot of sense.”

EA also veered slightly off the social media path in order to highlight the comedic aspect of Jam. They went tothe website FunnyorDie.com to post a video in which an uncle competes against his nephew in various videogames. He loses every one they play until the uncle gets to rekindle his old Jam magic on the title’s newedition. “We felt like Jam has this spirit of humor involved in it,” Sharma noted. With its approximately 1.7million Twitter followers, 600,000 Facebook fans and youthful fan base, the website gave EA Sports value onan off-beat platform for a video game.

Uncle Boomshakalaka! - watch more funny videosThere’s still more to come. Sharma hinted there will be social media promotions in 2011, as well as additionalunlockable characters. Among those who have been unveiled are eight notable politicians: Senator JohnMcCain and his former Presidential campaign running mate Sarah Palin, former President George Bush andhis Vice President Dick Cheney, former President Bill Clinton, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Vice PresidentJoe Biden and President Barack Obama.

It’s not likely that the basketball-loving President will get to play the game, though. “We’ve thought about that,but we haven’t explored our options beyond that,” Sharma said. “[But] we made sure he shoots left-handed inthe game.”

Allen Iverson Amare Stoudemire Atlanta Hawks

Boston Celtics Carmelo Anthony

Charlotte Bobcats Chicago Bulls Chris Bosh

Cleveland Cavaliers Dallas MavericksDenver Nuggets Derrick Rose Detroit PistonsDwight Howard Dwyane Wade Free AgencyGolden State Warriors Houston Rockets Kevin

Durant Kevin Garnett Kobe BryantLeBron James Los Angeles Clippers

Los Angeles LakersMemphis Grizzlies Miami Heat Michael Jordan

Milwaukee Bucks New Jersey Nets New Orleans

Hornets New York Knicks Nike Oklahoma City

Thunder Orlando Magic Pau Gasol Philadelphia76ers Phoenix Suns Portland Trail BlazersRecruiting Sacramento Kings San Antonio SpursShaquille O'Neal Toronto Raptors Utah JazzWashington Wizards

Add a Comment Invite a friend Share RSS

You might be interested inDean Oliver on Quantitative Analysis

Video: Cavs’ Assistant Tells LeBron to ‘Shut the F*** Up’

Knicks Still Going at Chris Paul or Deron Williams

Garnett Considers Noah a ‘Nobody’

Study: NBA Refs Influenced By Race?

Video: Derrick Rose Crosses Tyreke Evans

Tags: Dwight Howard Facebook video, EA Sports, FunnyorDie.com, NBA JAM

10

Photos: JohnLegendJohn Wall’snot theaverage rookie.

More fromPhotos »

SLAM ONLINE | » NBA Jam Gets Social http://www.slamonline.com/online/nba/2010/12/nba-jam-gets-s...

2 of 3 12/10/10 12:06 PM

Comments

Kyle Stack Name (required)

kyle.stack@gmail.com Mail (will not be

published) (required)

http://www.kylestack.com Website

Submit Comment

The comments section is a place to further discuss the topics in this post. Commenters who

seek to accomplish any of the following may be banned:

- Personally attack other commenters.

- Make derogatory comments regarding race, ethnicity, language, gender, sexual

orientation or religion.

- Troll, or comment with the intention of creating problems. Trolling includes, but isn't

limited to, baiting people to flame at you, encouraging people to leave the site,

spamming and using alternate IDs.

SLAMONLINE.COM

News & Rumors

NBA

NBA by Team

Blogs

Media

Kicks

College & HS

Other Ballers

The Links

The Wire

Contact Info

Advertise

Privacy Statement

Terms of Use

© 2010 Source Interlink Magazines, LLC, All rights reserved.

On Sale Now

Subscribe

Get Back Issues

Customer Service

SLAM ONLINE | » NBA Jam Gets Social http://www.slamonline.com/online/nba/2010/12/nba-jam-gets-s...

3 of 3 12/10/10 12:06 PM