• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, May 3, 2009

Brands looking to cozy up to football fans at the start of the 2009 season might want to consider Quick Hit Football 2009, created by a company with a similar name.

Quick Hit has been developing an advertising-supported free-to-play, browser-based massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) set to debut to the public on Sept. 9, the beginning of the 2009 NFL season. Family and friends have been testing the game, which will roll into beta midsummer.

Brand sponsorships, search, email marketing, analytics and micro transactions will drive revenue. The game targets sports fans, casual gamers and fantasy players with the option to either default to a specific team or build their own.

Gamers can design football teams, from customizing individual positions such as running backs, fullbacks and guards to designing uniforms. They create avatars and decide the players' strengths and weaknesses, as well as recruit players and coaches and call plays on game day. Each game will run between 15 and 20 minutes.

Taking a page from the National Football League handbook, Quick Hit plans to generate revenue through sponsorships where brands such as Gatorade and Ford will have an option to sponsor a bowl game or event.

"We are in early and late-stage discussions with several sponsors and we're looking to do unique things with them," said Scott Philp, CMO, Quick Hit, Foxboro, Mass. "We found a way to take traditional IAB units and bake them into the game, so they don't feel like they're popping out at you."

Philp said there's nothing to announce today, but Quick Hit continues to talk with possible companies such as Yahoo, ESPN and others to co-brand the site. Ex-Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Bill Cowher has been signed as the voice for the site.

The game also offers brands 15-to-30 second Flash ads that run between quarters, and micro-transactions such as football stats on game players generated from the site's backend analytics.

Scouting reports generated from data collected on passing and running yards, touchdowns, first downs and every play called will produce graphs, charts and stats that players can buy. The information is tied to the person playing the game. Some reports are offered for a fee, while others will become available for free.

The plan will include targeted email campaigns based on six categories of players such as dormant players who have signed up, active players, and active players who have credit cards on file. Philp's goal is to get every player to the next level. "To the inactive player who put down his credit card, the message is: 'Hey, here's your first free gift,'" he said. "You just need to break down the messaging in short, uncomplicated emails."  

Quick Hit eventually will become available through Apple's iPhone also, and will offer an application programming interface (API) to integrate with Facebook and other social communities. A search feature will allow players to find friends and stats.

Articles and blogs will tie the virtual world with reality based on stories about players and games. A post of the site talks about famous players from video games and the real-world teams that might want to draft them. It drove 6,000 people to the site in one day, Philp said.

Quick Hit has secured $13 million in funding from New Enterprise Associates, Valhalla Partners, and TriplePoint Capital.