The new EA CFB 25 video game has officially released to the general public as of Friday morning and FAU has been capitalizing on the promotional aspect of having their school in the hands of over a million users.
FAU was quick to embrace the game on a local level, hosting an on campus release party on Tuesday which was well attended, featuring a line wrapping around the front of the Student Union. The school had FAU players in attendance to play the game against fans, while also giving away free FAU themed covers of the game to the first 100 fans in attendance, and one lucky winner received a copy of the game.
The crowd in attendance was a welcomed, and somewhat expected sight for FAU Athletic director Brian White, who grew up playing the EA College football video game series and wanted to make sure when implementing FAU into the newest rendition of the series that they highlighted important aspects that make FAU what it is, specifically stadium features.
“A big draw for FAU, for not just athletics recruitment, but academic recruitment as well is our location. We have a beautiful stadium, beautiful campus, and everyone knows 1.8 miles to the beach. Paradise, you can see it all in the game, people playing this game worldwide, I can’t image that they wouldn’t want to come to school at FAU,” White said in an interview at the release party on Tuesday.
FAU has recently accepted their largest freshman class ever in consecutive years, and with no plans on stopping growth, the EA CFB 25 video game is a new outlet of promotion to reach wide scale audiences to grow both the athletic fan base and school as a whole.
Federico Maranges, FAU’s highest rated offensive player in the game, was also in attendance at the release party and mentioned that it was a dream come true to be a part of the game in his last season and he hopes that the game can help promote the Owls to people on a broader platform.
“The more people that know about FAU, the better and like you said if there’s a kid from Iowa that just sees FAU, they’re going to be able to see the stadium, they can read 1.8 miles from the beach and they’re going to be like ‘why not go to a school that’s 1.8 miles from the beach that you haven’t even heard of because you’re from Iowa’. How the game has been set up and programmed, they’ve put in all the special features, it definitely promotes the school even more than by the players, it promotes the school in total,” Maranges said.
The Owls have been full steam ahead in promoting the game since that release party, gifting a pair of season tickets to Justin Bodfield, an MBA student at FAU who was the first person to take FAU to a national championship in the game, and the Social Media team also released a highlight tape of their players in the game.
As of the games official release on Friday, it’s clear that FAU has been able to reap the benefits of their promotion, as per google trends, FAU football saw their highest search rate in over 90 days and received peak searches at 4 PM on Monday, the games early release, and 12 AM Friday night, which was the game’s official release.
Although to some, it may just be a video game, to others it is much more and FAU understands that and has been able to effectively promote their program through it. The game has been officially released for less than 48 hours, but FAU has wasted no time promoting the school through the game, both on a local and National level.
People have been known to let their fandoms that they grow up with influence their collegiate decisions, so it’s not too far fetched to say in a couple of years that people’s virtual fandoms won’t impact it as well, and if that ends up being the case, FAU may very well be at the top of a few college lists because of their display in the game.
