Case Study

EA SPORTS Maui Invitational


Challenge

Ask any basketball fan what happened on December 23, 1982, and they’ll recall the history of the EA SPORTS Maui Invitational—when little-known Chaminade University of Honolulu upset top-ranked Virginia, led by all-American Ralph Sampson, by a score 77-72 during a Hawaiian layover for Virginia’s squad.

Hailed by the national media as “the biggest upset in the history of college basketball,” the win put Chaminade on the map nationwide. And 2 years later, in 1984, it led to the creation of the Maui Classic—today’s EA SPORTS Maui Invitational.

EA SPORTS and KemperLesnik have long partnered to produce the Maui Invitational. The event generates buzz for the release of EA’s annual NCAA March Madness video game by leveraging involvement with a premier sporting event, its surrounding entities, and its key players.

Action

KemperLesnik has provided a creative, strategic marketing and PR vehicle through which EA can achieve its visibility, brand-awareness, and sponsorship goals.

Year after year, we implement a consistent strategy to support our client’s objectives: we deliver the brand to households nationwide via ESPN telecasts as well as print, online, and broadcast media coverage; we facilitate exposure to NCAA teams and personnel, sports-industry reps, and gaming lifestyle figures; and we create relationship-building opportunities with EA’s target market.

Results

Each year, the results are dramatic.

The most recent campaign produced nearly 3,100 pages of coverage nationwide and more than 235 million impressions. All 12 games were televised on ESPN networks, yielding coverage on more than 1,000 broadcast programs and making 181 million impressions.

Associated Press college basketball editor Jim O’Connell calls the EA SPORTS Maui Invitational “the best in-season tournament in the country—the standard by which all others are compared.”