Tag: second screen

EA SPORTS: Madden NFL 15 GIFERATOR

To launch their new game Madden NFL 15, EA Sports wanted to connect with young, football-obsessed fans and grow its association with the real world NFL. Since the average football fan was watching the game with their smartphone in hand, EA teamed up with Google to allow sport fans to provoke rivals from the comfort of their own sofa and bring trash talk into the 21st century.

Using pioneering technology, live NFL data was fused with Madden 15 game footage to generate GIF highlights for every single game. All of this was delivered via real-time ads across sports websites and apps. As a result there was an ever growing collection of GIFs that football fans could simply take, edit and share to shove in the face of their rivals.

How the GIFERATOR works

The mechanic is a real-time trigger loop. As live NFL moments happen, a data signal maps those moments to a library of Madden NFL 15 visuals, headlines, and team-specific ingredients. The system then assembles a ready-to-share GIF that matches what fans are watching, right when the emotion spike is highest.

In sports marketing, second-screen behavior turns live moments into shareable social currency.

Why it lands

The creative idea is not “GIFs”. It is timing plus relevance. Because the asset shows up while the emotion spike is still live, it feels native to the fan conversation instead of delayed brand content. When fans are already checking stats, group chats, and social feeds mid-game, you meet them where their thumbs already are. The format just happens to be the internet’s fastest unit of trash talk.

Extractable takeaway: If you can translate a live moment into a personalized, ready-to-share asset within the same minute, you convert attention into participation, and participation into distribution.

Where the real value sits

The real question is how to make a boxed game feel as live, social, and rivalry-ready as the sport it simulates.

This is also a credibility move. By fusing live NFL action with Madden footage, the game positions itself as culturally current, not just a boxed product. It borrows the emotional heat of real games and channels it into the Madden universe, play after play.

What second-screen marketers should steal

  • Build a trigger map: define which live signals create which assets, and keep the mapping simple enough to scale all season.
  • Design for viewer control: let people tweak copy or choose variants, so the output feels like “mine”, not “an ad”.
  • Win the second screen: deliver creative where fans already browse during live events, not only on your owned channels.
  • Make rivalry the editor: structure content around opponents, not around generic brand lines, so sharing feels inevitable.
  • Ship a content engine, not a one-off: the compounding library is the advantage, because it stays fresh week after week.

A few fast answers before you act

What is the Madden GIFERATOR?

It is a real-time GIF creation system that generates Madden NFL 15-themed GIFs that match what is happening in live NFL games, designed for instant sharing and trash talk.

Why does “real-time” matter here?

Because it catches fans during peak emotion. The closer the asset appears to the live moment, the more it feels like part of the conversation instead of an interruption.

What is the core pattern to reuse?

Use live signals to automatically assemble relevant, lightweight assets, then distribute them on the channels people naturally use while watching.

Is this mainly a social campaign or an ad campaign?

Both. The distribution is described as real-time advertising across sports sites and apps, while the product experience is built for fans to edit and share the output socially.

What is the biggest execution risk?

Relevance drift. If the mapping from live moments to generated assets feels off, or if the output arrives too late, it stops feeling “in the game” and becomes just another banner.

O2: Be More Dog

A cat decides it has had enough of being indifferent. It chases, leaps, splashes, and generally behaves like a dog. O2 UK uses that simple flip to ask people to do the same with technology. Less “meh”. More curious.

With VCCP and the Moving Picture Company, the campaign extends beyond the TV spot into a participation layer. That participation layer means the idea does not stop at the film but gives people something to do and share. On visiting www.bemoredog.com, people are greeted by a cat that acts more like a dog, then pulled into interactive play through a dual-screen HTML5 Frisbee game and a set of customisable cat videos designed for sharing.

How the integration is designed

The mechanism is a clean handoff. TV creates the character and the phrase. Mobile turns into the controller for a dual-screen game. Social carries the customisable video layer so people can pull friends into the same joke and the same attitude shift.

In UK consumer telecoms, where functional claims blur quickly, a memorable behavioural metaphor can do more positioning work than another round of feature talk.

Why it lands

It works because it uses a familiar truth. The cat-to-dog flip works because it turns an abstract behaviour change into a visual joke people understand in seconds. Cats look cool and detached. Dogs look curious and all-in. That contrast is instantly readable, and it translates directly into what O2 wants from people. Try the new thing. Explore. Stop acting like technology is background noise.

Extractable takeaway: If you want people to reframe a category, give them a single, sticky metaphor and one simple interaction that lets them experience the new attitude, not just hear about it.

What O2 is really trying to shift

This is brand positioning dressed as entertainment. The real question is how to make curiosity about new technology feel socially easy and emotionally attractive, not technically demanding. O2 is steering perception toward optimism and exploration, and using connected play to make “embracing the new” feel easy, not technical. In context, the timing also supports a broader push into newer network experiences, including 4G-era behaviour change.

What brand teams can steal from Be More Dog

  • Use one character as the bridge. The cat carries TV, site, game and shareables without needing extra explanation.
  • Make mobile do a job. Second-screen control is more convincing than a generic “download our app” prompt.
  • Build sharing into the format. Customisable videos give people a reason to tag or send, not just watch.
  • Keep the interaction lightweight. Quick play beats complicated onboarding when the goal is broad participation.

A few fast answers before you act

What is “Be More Dog”?

It is an O2 UK brand campaign that uses a cat acting like a dog as a metaphor for being more curious and enthusiastic about new technology, supported by second-screen and shareable digital experiences.

What is the core digital mechanic?

A dual-screen HTML5 Frisbee game that uses a phone as the controller, plus customisable cat videos designed for social sharing.

Why does the cat versus dog metaphor work so well?

It compresses a complex ask into a simple behavioural contrast people instantly understand, then turns that contrast into a repeatable line and a repeatable action.

What makes this an integrated campaign rather than “TV plus a website”?

The channels do different jobs that depend on each other. TV creates meaning. Mobile enables interaction. Social distributes personalised variants that pull others back into the idea.

What is the biggest way this pattern fails?

If the digital layer feels bolted on. The interaction has to express the same promise as the film, otherwise it becomes a novelty that does not move perception.

Foxtel: The Alert Shirt

In September 2012, London fashion house CuteCircuit launched a wearable, sharable, programmable tshirt. Then in 2013, Durex Australia unveiled their wearable electronic underwear that allowed touch to be transferred over the internet. Now joining this growing trend of wearable electronic clothing is the Alert Shirt from Australian telecommunications company Foxtel.

Loyal Foxtel customers can use this special shirt to experience in real time some of the physical sensations their favorite players have on the field, including:

  • Pressure: A thumping heartbeat
  • Impact: The shock of a big hit
  • Adrenalin: An intense rush of blood
  • Exhaustion: Lungs burning with effort
  • Despair: A sudden sinking feeling

The data is transmitted via Bluetooth from smartphone app, and the shirt is powered by a lithium polymer cell battery.

From second-screen to second-skin

The mechanism is a clean translation layer. Live game moments are captured as data, the app receives them, and the shirt turns those signals into physical feedback. The experience is not about watching harder. It is about feeling the sport in parallel with the broadcast.

In subscription sports media, the strategic job is retention. The best fan experiences make the service feel like access to something you cannot get anywhere else.

Why it lands

This idea works because it turns fandom into a bodily cue, not just a viewing habit. It also frames “technology” as something you wear once, then forget. When it is working, the interface disappears and the sensation becomes the message.

Extractable takeaway: If you want to deepen engagement, do not add more features to the screen. Translate key moments into a new sensory channel that runs alongside the core experience, and make activation as close to effortless as possible.

What Foxtel is really testing

Beyond the spectacle, this is a trial of emotional stickiness. By emotional stickiness, the point is simple: give fans a stronger felt reason to come back for the live broadcast. The real question is whether that added intensity is strong enough to make Foxtel feel like the only place to experience the match properly. If the shirt can make a live match feel more intense at home, it creates a reason to watch live, to watch longer, and to choose the broadcast that supports the experience.

What sports broadcasters can steal from this

  • Design the sensation vocabulary. Map data to feelings in a way users can understand instantly.
  • Make the phone a bridge, not the destination. Use the app to pair and translate, then let the wearable carry the moment.
  • Keep the promise specific. Heartbeat, hit, exhaustion. Concrete signals beat vague “immersive” claims.
  • Build for live viewing. The value rises when timing is tight and the feedback feels synchronous.

A few fast answers before you act

What is the Foxtel Alert Shirt?

It is a connected shirt that receives live match signals via a Bluetooth smartphone app and converts them into physical sensations so fans can feel key moments in real time.

What problem does it solve for a broadcaster?

It makes the broadcast feel exclusive and more emotionally intense, which can support loyalty and repeat live viewing.

Why use physical sensations instead of more on-screen stats?

Because sensations do not compete with the main viewing experience. They add a parallel layer without asking the fan to look away.

What makes this kind of wearable feel credible?

Clear mappings between events and sensations, low setup friction, and tight timing so feedback feels connected to the moment.

How can another brand apply the pattern?

Choose a live experience with high emotion, capture a small set of meaningful signals, then translate them into a simple, repeatable sensory vocabulary.