Need For Speed: The Run – What’s a Spokesmodel?

This morning I got a press release from EA promoting their latest competition; the chance for two female gamers from the UK and Ireland to win a job as spokesperson on Need for Speed: The Run. It is nice to see that EA are thinking about their female fans, even though I’m not personally a supporter of positive discrimination.

Hot cars, exotic travel and Need for Speed, the world’s top racing video game – are you up for the ultimate job? Beginning today, EA and Need for Speed is conducting the 2011 ‘Need for Speed European Spokesmodel Search’. This continent wide search is set to discover two women with boundless energy, an outgoing personality and an edgy style fused with a passion for cars and gaming.
EA UKPR Press Release, 4th July 2011

I facetiously tweeted out the following:

Other people on Twitter also mocked their use of the word “spokesmodel“. Some debated the validity of a female-only competition while others simply entered the competition. I personally didn’t think much of it; Games Company Wants Attractive PR Staff is hardly groundbreaking news and the fact they were looking for gamers was a big plus in my book.

I glanced through the terms and conditions and noticed a few things.

“To enter upload a photograph of yourself to ukspokesmodel.needforspeed.com along with 200 words explaining why you should be chosen to represent Need for Speed.”

Okay, promoting yourself in 200 words is par for the course. Photo requirement for a job? That gels with my model comment – distasteful but whatever.

Each entrant will also need to answer two (2) questions relating to cars and gaming.

Good stuff, you want people to prove they are interested in the product. But hang on, those questions are on the public entry page and the answers aren’t difficult to find. I couldn’t care less about motorsports, I can still tell you that Lamborghini are based in Italy and it’s easy to get Autolog from a quick Google.

You must be at least 5 ft 2inches tall and a maximum of 18 stone in weight to meet the safety requirements for the live track day.

Weight requirements. Omg they’re only taking HAWT models, WTFBBQ? But actually… taking the extremes there would give you a short fat woman with a BMI of 43 – clinically obese. Even if you took a particularly tall women at 6′ 6″, she’d still be on the upper end of overweight. These really are safety requirements.

The top twenty (20) will be chosen on a number of factors; the number of cumulative shares of profiles e.g. the most number of Tweets on Twitter, Facebook and social network recommendations, your written submission and your answers to the two (2) questions. The written submission wil be judged by a panel of EA judges on originality, creativity and legibility.

Cumulative shares of profiles? Oh god, a popularity contest. *sigh* Okay, I get that there needs to be some reason to get the community engaged and spreading the word about your competition. I was more annoyed about this earlier today when the website seemed to be broken. It was asking us to vote for the women only on the basis of their large portrait and not their given reason for why they should be picked. Obivously, that sort of competition would have been fucking atrocious. Happily, this is not the case and we now get to read why each competitor thinks they’re the best person for the job.

On top of the popularity component, the top twenty entrants will be tested on their NFS gaming skills and their real-life driving ability. Athough the two knowledge questions in the form feel like a token effort, EA are making sure that these “spokemodels” are more than hired booth babes – hopefully even true car lovers who enjoy racing games. Use of the word “spokesmodel” does make it clear that physical appearance will be a factor. However, it’s not the be all and end all of the decision-making process and that’s really all we can ask from a marketing effort. If you want a professional marketer’s take on this, check out Joe Dale’s feature on Death by Robots.

Bravo, EA, for actually treating your female fans like people. It’s a refreshing change for the industry. Between this and the recent announcement that Mass Effect 3 will showcase female Shepard in a trailer, I hope it signals a new direction for your marketing. Frankly, last year’s focus on White Male Hero was getting dull.

If you’re female, over 18, based in the UK or Ireland and like cars and racing games then enter the Spokesmodel competition on the Need for Speed site, where the closing date for entries is Monday 25th July 2011 at 23:59 GMT. The competition also runs in France, Germany, Norway and Russia.

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