posted the video online<\/a> and the online game community started passing around and laughing at this “Jesus Shot”<\/p>\nSo 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>\nThey went with option C) Play along.<\/strong><\/p>\nEA 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>\nIt’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>\nWhat 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>\nEA 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>\nAnd 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}]}}