Redefining how digital promotions work

In the fall of 2009, EA approached OpenRoad with a new project based on a marketing partnership with EA and Dr Pepper. This new promotion would allow consumers to take coupon codes from Dr Pepper bottles and fountain drinks and redeem them for digital goods – add ons for their players inside EA games. Launch titles would include Spore, SIMS 3, Mass Effect 2, Battlefield Heroes and more.

One of the biggest challenges on this project was coordinating between all the team members. With many different parties involved – Dr Pepper, EA, two visual design agencies, a branding firm, a coupon redemption and support team as well as the internal game teams at EA, ensuring cross-team communication and coordination was a major challenge. To increase the complexity, the project was under a very tight timeline, with a fixed launch date tied to the release of 500 million coupon codes at Dr Pepper retail outlets throughout the USA.

To mitigate risk, the project was developed using the SCRUM methodology, with regular releases every two weeks focusing on high risk integration areas first. Combined with a few late nights, the site was launched on time and on budget. The promotion was very successful and is regarded as one of EA’s most successful partnerships both internally and by the industry (http://paidcontent.org/article/419-why-the-future-of-game-related-advertising-looks-like-eas-dr.-pepper-de/) and (http://www.insidesocialgames.com/2010/01/11/dr-pepper-runs-offline-promotions-for-virtual-goods-in-electronic-arts-games/)

The project won a Bronze 2010 Horizon Interactive Award in the Integrated Marketing category.