episode 82 of the dsmsports podcast w/ kurt stadelman of ea sports

Snippets from Kurt Stadelman on the Snippets from Kurt Stadelman on the Digital and Social Media Sports PodcastDigital and Social Media Sports Podcast

Episode 82 featured Senior Social Media Manager for EA Sports,

Kurt Stadelman

What follows is a collection of snippets from the podcast. For the full episode, visit DSMSports.net

@njh287 DSMSports.net

http://www.dsmsports.net/


Kurt's career path

Attended UF and interned at EA for two summers (where his brother worked) in sports marketing and he led the EA social media channels (as just an intern!), getting some early social media experience

Back at UF, he also wrote for a sports blog called Cosby Sweaters, which became Next Impulse Media

“It was what I imagine the early days of Barstool [Sports] were probably like. It was very satirical...find anything that you could possibly find that you think could grab the attention of people [in sports]...And they let me run their social media accounts and launch their email newsletter...”



After graduating and spending a year abroad, Kurt found a job opening at EA Sports in Orlando and couldn't resist the opportunity

At UF → “I was having an identity crisis at college...I wasn't too laser-focused in my studies, I was ind of just generally studying business...[Kurt says he wishes had majored in PR because his projects looked cool and fun]...When I went out to San Francisco (with EA)...I started realizing, 'wow [social media] is something I could see myself doing...'”



Starting out EA Sports full-time

“I think we were considered PR at the time; very small team...There was only 4-5 of us, total, when I came on. I think the whole communications team, at the time, was no more than 20 at all of EA, globally...I think we're well over 200 people now.”



Objectives of his role with EA Sports social early on

“It was so early on (in social media)...[Kurt's boss came from the PR world, working specifically for an agency that worked with Gatorade, among others] – “He saw where everything was heading. He saw the value in driving brand voice...and engaging with as many fans one-to-one...and building as many of those relationships as possible, which not many people saw at the time...”

“When I first came on, they put me in charge of the Tiger Woods PGA accounts...We were just experimenting...it just evolved – they gave me NBA after that and Madden after that...And now moving into the EA Sports brand as a whole channel.”



On KPIs and success

“Back when I had just come on, we were in-tune with the metrics...We were looking at those numbers, but we were still trying to make sense of them. Obviously, we want to grow our channels, because then our message would be spread to a larger audience....We were messing around with 'how do we dip ourselves into the trends, the cultural trends that are happening on social media?' Which brands are still trying to do way more so than they probably should be doing these days...



The principles, mindset, and tactics of EA Sports inserting themselves into social media conversations

“A lot of it is trial by error and learning from what types o content we have posted in the past and seeing what performs and how they performs. Sometimes, your goal might be impressions if you're going for virality...other times, if you want to see how well your content is being received by fans, maybe engagements are something you look at...”

“I'll just use Madden (the game) as an example...With Madden, our underlying goal, while there is real-world news and games going on, is to legitimize Madden as an official voice of the NFL. It used to be that Madden as a fun video game that people knew it was a football game, but they didn't necessarily (associate) with...looking at Madden's channels every Sunday to see what is happening in the NFL...



“We have an advantage (in that) we have our own product that we can re-enact certain catches, plays...and we can evoke emotion from fans with our product. That's just capturing game footage of what's happening in real life – whether it's reacting to a big play and using a celebration GIF or posting a quick sizzle video of (a big match-up)...we have a sizzle going out or a clip of each team...

“It's just legitimizing (ourselves) as a voice of the NFL...And then you get into interacting with the teams, interacting with the league, and providing the teams Madden footage to use on their channels. And providing the NFL with 'six predictions that Madden 17 made this week...' All that stuff legitimizes us as a true voice of the NFL...”



EA Sports and partnerships

“Partnerships are huge in what I do, whether it's our league partnership, team partnership, or brand partnerships...Our partnership team understands that every partnership we make and maintain and abide by – we need to make sure that our brand voice still pulls through,m or it is a kind of a lost partnership. We have had such a long, ongoing partnership with the NFL, that I think we've done a good job of (having them) understand what we want out of certain situations and us understanding what they want...

“There are a ton of guidelines that came with partnering with the NFL, a ton of restrictions...It used to be a highly governed partnership, and now we have a great understanding of each other and what kind if content we're able to put out there and how we can support each other on social.”



Helpful Tool: Google Photos app – for GIFs, videos, albums, cloud-sharing, and more



What a game day is like for him and the Madden team

“With the job comes very unorthodox hours. Every Monday night, every Thursday night, and all day every Sunday, I'm in front of my laptop and in front of NFL Red Zone...A lot of it is planning in our newsroom meetings every week, a few times each week. We have a content guy, we have a capture guy (recording content in Madden), and then it's me. We map out the story lines in each game, the key players to hone in on that'll generate the most excitement...the players we think that will perform well...and a lot of it is capturing reactions – if the coaches look upset, that can turn into a humorous tweet with a GIF...



“A lot o it is capturing beforehand as much as we possibly can,but obviously you can't prepare for the unexpected...We try to be as nimble as possible (and) if we can't do it in the moment, we try to react and come up with something the next morning. But come playoffs and Super Bowl, those times we have a full-on war room and we're there and we have a capture setup and I'm right next to them, and we're watching these games and constantly throwing out new ideas...capturing content and figuring out the best way to position it...Those are probably the most exciting times of my job...”



The intended audience of EA Sports and Madden social media

“We do a lot of audience analysis and we break down our audience into 3 sectors – we call them cohort 1, cohort 2, and cohort 3. Cohort 1 is the core gamers, super-engaged in our games, buy the game every year, (and) are active in our ultimate team modes. Just hardcore gamers.



“Cohort 2 – they're gamers, they might not have bought Madden this year. We would call them lapsed gamers, Madden players. Maybe we would try to target them to (show them why this year's Madden game is great and different). And then cohort 3 is just the mass sports fans that know hat Madden is or have heard of it or played it growing up...[Kurt puts himself in cohort 3!]

“We create content aimed at each cohort. We'll go into creating a trailer specifically for cohort 3, and then we'll do another for cohort 1, for cohort 2. We'll do our targeting when we do paid media...we'll target these audiences with promoted posts, containing those targeted pieces of content. There is a lot of science behind it, a lot of studying our team does...

“That goes all the way to our organic social posting...[and Kurt's team will be charged to create content designed to affect the targeted cohort]



Using in-game data

“We track everything. We know what teams are the most popular, how many games are played, hoe many wins with each team. Everything that happens in our games, we can track and we use that data, and react to that data, almost weekly, daily.”



Content and cohort targeting

[Using FIFA and Madden as example]

“Across sports titles, it's pretty uniform there. If we want to target a cohort 1, which is hardcore gamers, the trailer that we'll use will probably have a focus on the new FIFA Ultimate Team promotion that we have coming up, as opposed to – if you try to target the casual gamer with something like that, they'll be like 'What the Hell is a FIFA (or Madden) ultimate team?...'”



The platforms that work the best for EA Sports

“A all of these platforms constantly change...it kind of shifts our strategy. We were seeing amazing results on Snapchat, and we still are...we did some amazing stuff around super Bowl last year. We partnered with Snapchat for our Super Bowl party and got DJ Khaled to host, and we did a global live story...



“It really depends on our strategy going in. Super Bowl last year – we had that Snapchat aspect around our cultural event, our Super Bowl party. That was kind of in the streets, mixing it up with DJ Khaled and all these celebrities, and that is what Snapchat is great for, and Instagram.

On Twitter, our main focus was driving views of our Super Bowl prediction video, and we got the chance to partner with Twitter, and allowed us to do a trial run o their conversational video cards (now open to everybody)...and we did that and we allowed people to make their own prediction...and the video was just a preview of our full Super Bowl prediction video and they would choose which team they thought would win and the whole thing would be wrapped up by the hash tag #MyMaddenPrediction, and it would all be driving back to our final Super Bowl prediction video. Those numbers were incredible. It was kind of a best-in-class example, even on Twitter's side...



“Right now, the FIFA guys are crushing it on Instagram, and they're seeing some amazing results on Instagram...I think it just varies and depends on what your strategy is, how well you execute on that strategy, and how well you tailor your strategy to each platform...

“There is one place I'd like to see us go harder on and that's Instagram Stories. Just such an awesome opportunity for brands right now, especially that they allow you to swipe up for more now and link to other accounts...and (you're) able to upload your own content...Everything about it is perfect for brands, and I think the way that they surface the accounts that you watch the most, I think it's really important for brands to throw something up there. Obviously, you want to keep quality in mind, but if you can throw something up there consistently, daily, and people watch it, then you'll be surfaced to the top of the feed of everyone that follows you...”



Twitch and Esports for EA Sports

“We recently created a competitive gaming division for all of EA. Peter Moore, who was our COO, took over the competitive gaming division. He's an amazingly talented, super-smart guy...For somebody of his stature to jump on board into competitive gaming, that really says a lot about where we think it's going ,how much we're investing into it...



“We just hosted the Madden Classic out in Burbank, California, and the finals were broadcast on NFL Network. We had the Madden Bowl last year...was on (an ESPN network)...And, with Twitch...we have (twitch.tv/easports and twitch.tv/maddennfl)...these guys at our competitive gaming division are doing an awesome job in enlisting our 'gamechangers,'...they;re influencers in the community, so they're YouTubers or they're Twitch guys who have large followings of their own. And they actually stream on our Twitch accounts all throughout the day, every day. And we have a full programming list you can see and choose what you want to tune into. And then we stream these tournaments and events also on these channels.

“And some of the numbers, like the concurrent views, are starting to become pretty impressive, and it's only going to climb significantly here in the next few years...



On NFL players interacting with EA Sports and Madden NFL properties about their player ratings and other content

“I'm constantly interacting with players. The players love to talk about their ratings, and to complain about their ratings. You ask any player in the NFL and they'll tell you their Madden rating isn't high enough...

“They're always hitting up our DM's...saying 'how do I get my rating up?...

“I do have one example – it's Odell Beckham Jr. He's my guy, I've worked with him a lot (and) he's great. He constantly texts me, like 'how do I get my speed [rating] up? Let me talk to the ratings guy.' I got his speed up when we were doing initial ratings at the start of this year. I talked to our ratings guy and I said 'Odell will not stop texting me, you have to just bump him up a little bit. He's threatening to get his agent to remove him from the game!' Which, he couldn't do, because he;s signed with the NFLPA.



“It's great. Odell loves to complain about his rating to me. At fist, I thought he was kind of playing around, but he's serious. He really thinks he is the fastest guy in the NFL. A month or so ago, he Face-Timed me while I was at work and [asked to talk to the ratings guy]...and they just chopped it up back and forth for 30 minutes, and he was just bartering with him trying to get this rating up.

“And it ended with Odell agreeing to run a 40 at the end of the season...He said he would run a 40 and he guarantees he would get sub-4.3 and the ratings guy said, if he did that, he would make him a 96 speed, which is fastest in the game.”



Share-able Stat: 440,000 – the # of total downloads of the Cleveland Cavaliers mobile app



The most popular piece of content that Kurt has produced/help produce during his time at EA Sports

“The most popular piece of content I personally put out would probably be the tweet at the Seahawks when they were asking what Marshawn Lynch had to do get a better trucking rating. And I replied with 'One of these would probably help' and it was just a screen – the Madden play select screen and all four of the plays were halfback dive, because it was still fresh in everybody's mind that they didn't run the ball in the Super Bowl on the goal line [and] threw an interception instead. That one went super-viral...

“Their social media team...was really cool with it, actually, and we went back & forth a few times and kind of kept the conversation going throughout that week. That actually turned into a partnership between the Seahawks and us on social...They decided to reveal their uniforms using Madden assets the whole next season.”



Kurt's favorite video game growing up and the first sports video game he loved

Favorite video game growing: James Bond 007 Golden Eye

Favorite sports game: FIFA



The most important guiding principle for Kurt in running social media for EA Sports

“Think like your audience...When you're thinking about what you're going to put out there, I was always think about 'If I were a fan about to see this, how would I react?' Because I am just a fan. I follow all these other brands on social and all these teams, and I react to them just how people react to our content. So always think 'how are they going to take this?' before thinking about how it satisfies your business needs.”


Snippets from Kurt Stadelman on the Snippets from Kurt Stadelman on the Digital and Social Media Sports PodcastDigital and Social Media Sports PodcastWhich NFL player and which non-NFL athlete commands the most consistent

engagement for EA Sports social media

Most active/engaged NFL player: Antonio Brown → “He's awesome. He's super-sharp, when it comes to social. He has a team that does some of his social for him, but he's super-active, as well, himself.”

Consistently viral player → “Any Cowboys player. Because their fan base is just crazy and massive. If we say anything about Dak or Zeke this year, it's got some legs to it every time.”

Non-NFL athlete: “Dale Earnhardt Jr. is a huge Madden player. Big Redskins fans and he's in a legitimate league with a bunch of other guys; some of his NASCAR buddies and some just random dues that had no idea they were in a league with Dale Earnhardt Jr. for three years...He's always talking about this Redskins and his league, and it's kinda cool.”



How crazy are EA Sports FIFA social media properties and how is their team different?

“It's ridiculous how large the FIFA following is, and how engaged their fan base is. They've done a great job of making the majority of their fan base that cohort 1, super hardcore-engaged into their ultimate team mode-type of players. The numbers, the followings they have on their social media accounts is amazing...The FIFA channels are the largest EA accounts we have, which is ridiculous...

“Their team is bigger in the sense that they have a bunch of international territory teams...But their North American team is, more or less, the same size as ours.”



The best game Kurt attended while he was at University of Florida

[Kurt struggles with this one]

“While I was there it was probably LSU. We beat the living dickens out of LSU in a night game in the Swamp in 2007. It was a spanking and LSU came in there (for a top five match-up) and we beat them 48-10 or something ridiculous...That was one of the loudest times I've been in The Swamp.”



The pro sports team with the best social media presence and why

“When I was really in-tune with the NBA...there are a few NBA teams that just crush it...

[Kurt mentions the Sixers and LA Kings]

“I am just so laser-focused on the NFL now – I think the Cowboys do n awesome job. I might be biased, because I know their team pretty well. But I think the Cowboys do a rally good job. They've branched out into doing their own in-studio show, using their actual social team. And they do a lot of cool behind-the-scenes stuff...”



Kurt's favorite game system on which to play EA Sports games. And do they get to play at work?

“I would say Xbox One. I like...how you can access all the Netlixx and everything else on there...And, yes, we are able to play ato work. Everyone who wants a console at their desk gets a console at their desk...

“At our office, five of six floors are all development and developers; they have to have dev kits at their desk, because they're constantly working on the game and testing the game...Our marketing team all has consoles at their desks. I don't have one at my desk, I will just go over to someone else's if I ever feel like it, which is really rare. You would think it's a huge distraction, but I very rarely see any of my coworkers while at work...''



Kurt's pick for the Super Bowl and College Football Playoff National Champion

Super Bowl → Cowboys

College Football Playoff National Champion → Alabama



Kurt's Social Media All-Star to Follow

Alex Cervasio (@cvas) – “He's just super-knowledgeable about all things social, all things digital. The kid is a genius and he's a pretty witty sports fan. Super-opinionated and that's the kind of person you want to follow...they always entertain you with some ridiculous statement that they have to throw out there. You can learn a lot from the guy. I've been lucky enough to call him a best friend...Whenever he starts talking, I just go sponge mode and try to learn, because the guy's depth of knowledge on all aspects is incredible. And he's a good dude.”



Where to find Kurt and EA Sports on digital/social media

Kurt is @KurtStadelman on Twitter and Instagram and Snapchat @coachbert

EA Sports brand channels are @EASports on all channels and @EASportsInsider on Intstagram and follow @EAMaddenNFL on all channels



Thanks very much to Kurt Stadelman for sharing his experience, knowledge, and stories with us on the Digital and Social Media Sports Podcast!

For more, visit www.dsmsports.net and follow me, Neil Horowitz, on Twitter @njh287


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