EA Launches Biggest Ad Campaign for The Sims Franchise

Electronic Arts is banking on the success of The Sims franchise to carry over into its third installment of the game. The company is launching the largest retail campaign in the company's history.

Gearing up for The Sims 3's release on June 2, EA is making a major push to convert non-Sims players into addicted Sims fans. Most of the marketing effort will be online. There are three facets to EA's strategy.

The first is a free trial from the official website at Sims3.com. The trial's goal is to allow non-Sim players to get a feel for how the game works.

The second option is SimFriend, which allows users to find one of 120 Sim pen pals. The Sim will send you an email based on his personality traits.

The final strategy is called SimSidekick. The image of the Sim will follow you around the Internet with sites like MTV.com, Twitter and YouTube prompting a specific action from the sidekick. The hovering image is much like when Skittles turned its home page over to Twitter and Facebook.