Dive Brief:
- Lowe’s is building deeper ties to the world of video games through a new pact with EA Sports, the publisher of popular annual franchises including EA Sports FC, Madden NFL and College Football, according to a press release.
- The partnership, which features custom in-game integrations, aims to boost the home improvement retailer’s overall brand and MyLowe’s Rewards loyalty program. An existing NFL sponsor, Lowe’s will also tour an in-person Madden gaming experience timed to pro football season in the fall.
- Lowe’s is positioning the EA deal as an extension of its broader sports marketing strategy, but with a particular focus on digitally savvy young consumers. The company has started to reverse slumping sales but the home improvement category faces challenges amid a mounting trade war.
Dive Insight:
The new deal with EA Sports, a subdivision of publishing giant Electronic Arts, significantly expands Lowe’s bets on video games as an important media channel. The home improvement chain has long made traditional sports a piece of its marketing strategy and sees blockbuster annual franchises like Madden NFL as an important bridge to audiences whose consumption habits skew more digital.
Typical to video games partnerships, the tie-up is rooted in a need to reach Gen Z and young millennial shoppers who have made the hobby into a powerhouse of mainstream entertainment. Those cohorts are perceived as particularly fickle when it comes to brand loyalty, and Lowe’s is putting a spotlight on its MyLowe’s Rewards platform through the EA Sports franchises.
"Integrating Lowe’s within EA Sports titles gives us an innovative way to engage with sports fans who are important to our brand,” said Jen Wilson, senior vice president and chief marketing officer at Lowe’s, in a statement. “We are constantly looking for new pathways to bring more consumers into our loyalty ecosystem by connecting with their passions. This is such an immersive and unexpected way to introduce ourselves to the next generation of home improvers.”
Lowe’s will appear in distinct ways tailored to each of the EA Sports games. In College Football 26, set to release later this year, Lowe’s will show up during an in-game broadcast overlay called Stadium Pulse. The placement showcases swelling crowd excitement as the player improves their game on the field, which Lowe’s hopes will draw “meaningful parallels to the passion homeowners feel when enhancing their own spaces,” the release said. EA Sports FC and Madden NFL will dole out Lowe’s rewards through their Ultimate Team challenges features, though details in the announcement were scarce.
In addition, Lowe’s will kick off a touring game experience centered on Madden once the NFL season gets underway in earnest, with more information coming in late summer. The company is the Official Home Improvement Partner of the league and has previously leveraged the relationship to reach groups like DIYers.
Lowe’s has ramped up other digital programs of late, launching an artificial intelligence-powered assistant called Mylow in March and broadening its capabilities on the Apple Vision Pro mixed-reality headset. The company topped analyst expectations on earnings and revenue in Q4 and expressed confidence that it would break from a period of declining growth this year, per a February earnings report. However, retailers across the board are wrestling with how President Donald Trump’s tariff agenda could affect their businesses, with the prospect of further price hikes a potential deterrent to consumers who are already strapped for cash.
