EA Sports Madden 23 NFL

John Madden and Background

John Madden was one of the best known personalities in the NFL, Madden lent his name to the computer game John Madden Football that expanded to the subsequent Madden NFL series. Madden started out as a football player in high school, then after suffering a knee injury he still carried on in his sporting journey as a coach, followed by becoming an absolute sensation as one of the best commentators in the NFL. Unfortunately on 28/12/2021, John Madden passed away, however, his memory will forever be continued with his business name, fans and those who were around him.

EA and NFL have struck an agreement that will make EA the sole creator of NFL on simulation games. Madden NFL continues to deepen the love of the game with fans, players, and viewers. It’s teaching viewers how to improve at the game, while deepening engagement with Madden’s most loyal fanbase.

The Brief

Magellan were approached by EA to design luxury video packaging for the new Madden23 NFL game that would be sent out to Influencers/Journalists.

It was important to commemorate John Madden in a unique way whilst promoting the new game so this was an extremely essential factor during the design process. 

The custom video box would contain a video and branded merchandise, with printing dedicated to John Madden.

The Box

We manufactured this video box as a 3 board case and tray, one being the lower piece, two being the spine and three being the top. The actual box is made from grey board that is covered in the designed paper, covering the edges so there's no need for black board like we used for the shelf. The box is printed with full CMYK all over with an anti-scuff matt lamination finish to stop the box from getting marked. 

Inside we cut to size and placed AstroTurf to give a more authentic and unique design. Football games are, depending on the stadium, on either real or artificial grass so having that in there really tied the whole design together. When seeing this box, your mind is instantly drawn to the company, sport and all of the memories that come with them. 

The Video

On the inside lid of the box is a mounted custom made 7” screen which contains 4 long videos about 15 minutes, going through lots of interviews and talking about John and the game. They also speak about how clever the game is, all the new movements that play within the new game and all to do with the graphics. 

The screen has been custom made to fit inside the box and there is a charging port on the side to recharge it if ever it loses battery. 

There is also a light sensor so when you open and close the box it would trigger the video to play/turn on and off.

The Shelf And Printing

Inside of the video box there is a full CYMK colour printed John Madden signed tribute shelf. This is such a nice touch as it not only makes the whole inside of the box look sleek as it hides the merchandise, but it is a full dedication to John himself and thanks him for all the hard work he’s done. 

It is a rigid board hinged shelf made with black line board so we could just die cut round the edges as the edges would be black to match everything else. To be able to lift it up we cut a corner out, sometimes we will put a thumb cut in the bottom middle but we did it in the corner so that it didn't interfere with the graphics.

A shelf is a nice way to make your box look more refined when first opening and hides the items that would be displayed at the bottom of the box.

The Finer Details

If you lifted the shelf up, there would be custom merchandise being displayed. The first thing you would come across is a printed post card full of information about the product and John Madden.

In this picture the games and t-shirt are just our examples. In the boxes that were actually sent out were EA Madden23 NFL branded t-shirts and two different formatted Madden NFL 23 games. However, in the picture you can see some amazing JBL headphones that were customised. We removed the headphones from its standard packaging, manufactured some resin domes and attached them onto the earpieces of each one to give it a bit more of a branding area. 

A nice touch is also having the ribbon attached to the inside of the box on the side to hold the box open and keep it structured. Using a ribbon is more unique and makes the box look more luxury.