{"id":373,"date":"2008-12-23T15:44:06","date_gmt":"2008-12-23T23:44:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chrisyi.com\/?p=373"},"modified":"2011-04-26T20:35:02","modified_gmt":"2011-04-27T04:35:02","slug":"how-ea-sports-turned-a-glitch-into-a-grace-by-walking-on-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jaeminyi.com\/how-ea-sports-turned-a-glitch-into-a-grace-by-walking-on-water\/","title":{"rendered":"How EA Sports turned a glitch into a grace (by walking on water)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nTiger gets ready to make a miracle happen.<\/small><\/p>\n

A few weeks ago I discussed the whole Bike Hero controversy<\/a> that left a lot of the Youtube crowd with a bad taste in their mouths. A lot of people felt that they were being manipulated by the ad agency, not respected. So I got to thinking, on the flip side, what brand’s have<\/em> been able to speak to the online community and successfully gain their respect?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first example that came to my mind was EA Sports<\/strong> with their video game Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Here’s the story: Last year, a few gamers found a glitch in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 that allowed you to actually walk on water, ala Jesus.\u00a0 They posted the video online<\/a> and the online game community started passing around and laughing at this “Jesus Shot”<\/p>\n

So glitch was found and exposed online.\u00a0 What did EA Sports decide to do?\u00a0 They could’ve A) ignored it, or B) admitted they made a minor mistake. Most companies would’ve just gone with A. But instead, EA Sports decided to turn this small embarassment into a big opportunity<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

They went with option C) Play along.<\/strong><\/p>\n

EA Sports ended up releasing this response video a few months ago (hmm, just in time for the release of PGA Tour 09…) and the online gaming community has been eating it up:<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

“It’s not a glitch.\u00a0 He’s just that good.”\u00a0 Tell me you watched that and didn’t smile.\u00a0 Not even the tiniest bit?\u00a0 I don’t believe you.<\/p>\n

The video’s racked up 2.5 million hits so far<\/strong> and with comments like, “Best fan response ever!”<\/em> and “Thumbs up for their advertising agency and for the fella in the marketing department who had the balls to approve it.”<\/em><\/p>\n

It’s not hard to see why the response has been so positive.\u00a0 EA Sports, this huge video game corporation, actually listened to their fans and responded with a clever video starring the real Tiger Woods himself?<\/strong> Wow, you’ve just won some points in my book.<\/p>\n

What EA Sports did different is that they actually interacted with their audience, instead of just talking at them<\/strong>.\u00a0 So many companies just treat the online community as a passive audience at which they can yell their message to.\u00a0 To them, the online audience only exists as a “view count” and as long as they get more views, that’s all that matters.<\/p>\n

EA Sports instead took the time to understand their fans and talk to them in their own language.\u00a0 They weren’t broadcasting a message, they were having a two-way dialogue.<\/strong> By speaking their consumers’ language and not just using them to get a higher view count, EA Sports bonded with their fans.\u00a0 They gained their respect.\u00a0 They built a relationship.<\/p>\n

And it really makes sense, doesn’t it?\u00a0 I mean, a successful brand is one where there’s mutual trust and respect<\/strong>, not unlike a succesful relationship.\u00a0 Who would you rather be friends with – the guy shouting at you from a distant podium, or the guy having an actual conversation with you in your living room?\u00a0 I know my answer, but hey, whatever floats your boat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tiger gets ready to make a miracle happen. A few weeks ago I discussed the whole Bike Hero controversy that left a lot of the Youtube crowd with a bad taste in their mouths. A lot of people felt that they were being manipulated by the ad agency, not respected. So I got to thinking,… Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p79mZF-61","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jaeminyi.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jaeminyi.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jaeminyi.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaeminyi.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaeminyi.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaeminyi.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jaeminyi.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaeminyi.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jaeminyi.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}