Gaming fans sample EA Sports Madden NFL 13 game on the second day of the E3 video game extravaganza in Los Angeles on June 6, 2012. (credit: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images)
CLEVELAND (CBS Cleveland) — President Obama wants gamers in battleground states to vote early while they’re playing Madden football.
According to Ad Week, the Obama campaign had teamed up with Electronic Arts again to run ads on their video games in hotly-contested states leading up to Election Day. The campaign first did this in 2008.
“It was made clear in the last election that reaching consumers through video games makes a significant impact, so it’s no surprise to see this tactic used once again in such a competitive election,” Dave Madden, EA’s senior vice president of global media solutions, told ad week.
According to a survey conducted by EA over the 2008 video game ad campaign, the company found that 50 percent of those were more likely to vote for Obama seeing him in in-game ads.
“The video game industry has gone through significant change since the last election, especially with the popularity of online, mobile and social games, and we’ve seen an expansion of our audience as a result,” Madden explained to Ad Week. “Video games actively and emotionally engaged consumers in a way that no other medium really can and that translates into a big opportunity for political candidates.”
The ads are set to run across multiple video games, including Madden, Battleship, Tetris and Pogo.com.
The San Francisco Business Times reports the ads will run in Ohio, Nevada, Virginia, Iowa and New Hampshire.
