EA Resets Brand Architecture To Transcend Game Title Identities

Brandweek, May 1, 2000 by Todd Wasserman

Computer gamer Electronic Arts will reorganize its dozen sub-brands under three headings--EA Sports, EA Games and EA.com--and introduce a modified logo in an attempt to raise brand awareness in a category traditionally dominated by titles and platforms.

The new logo designs, via Pittard Sullivan, Culver City, Calif., will be consistent across all of EA's titles and online efforts. Though the redesigned packaging will hit Japan this month, it won't show up in the U.S. until this fall.

EA, based in Redwood City Calif., won't launch a specific brand advertising campaign to support the new architecture, but the rebranding will be prominently on display in its fall TV and print campaign, which is expected to be in last year's $10 million range, and in an EA.com campaign in early 2001 whose budget has not yet been determined.

EA is the world's largest computer games publisher, but the company's brand awareness trails that of Sony Computer Entertainment of America and Nintendo, which make both the game platforms and their own software for those platforms, said EA president/COO John Riccitiello.

He said gaming needs strong brands because the quality of titles often varies. "Buying games is a game in itself," said Riccitiello. "Sometimes it's a great product, sometimes it sucks. Over time, a brand is nothing more than a promise of quality."

Hence, EA's logo, slightly redesigned to make it more legible, will be prominently displayed in the packaging and in the games themselves, Current games feature the EA logo and title logos before the game. But astute gainers know how to bypass the logos and "weave" directly into the game. EA, however, will make sure that when gainers weave they'll still see the EA logo three or four times. Displaying the logo during game play is key to EA's strategy The company estimates that since 2.5 players play each EA title about 50 times, that's 125 impressions per unit even if the logo is shown only once.