This Sunday, the NFL playoffs will witness a unique attraction as Blizzard introduces a World of Warcraft-themed venue for fans tailgating at the game between the New England Patriots and the Houston Texans.
The attraction, named the World of Warcraft: Welcome Home Pre-Game Tavern, aims to promote the upcoming Midnight expansion for the game. Visitors will have the chance to enjoy drinks, watch live World of Warcraft streams, and meet cosplayers and influencers, with orc cosplayers making an appearance inside the stadium during the match.
The Midnight expansion, launching on March 2, will add much-requested player housing to the game and revamp the longstanding Blood Elf zones. Blizzard has teamed up with real estate company Zillow to enhance this promotional effort, as reported by Sports Business Journal.
The Welcome Home Pre-Game Tavern will be located outside of Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts. According to Blizzard's CMO, Monica Austin, the tavern has been in the works at their headquarters in Anaheim, California, and the decision to host the event in Foxboro was made recently, choosing it over Denver where another Divisional round game will occur.
Austin explained the reasoning behind such a marketing campaign, revealing that extensive research indicates that both active and lapsed World of Warcraft players are also avid sports watchers, with the NFL being one of the most popular sports among them. "We've done a tremendous amount of deep dives to understand who our players are, and our players are over-indexed in watching sports," she stated. "We know our players are there. We know they're watching. This is a strategic way that we want to use to reach them."
As excitement builds ahead of the Midnight expansion, fans can look forward to new areas, dungeons, and raids alongside the much-anticipated player housing feature.
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