From sweet tears of victory to bitter tears of defeat – that’s the taste of football life.
At least that’s the thinking behind the latest campaign from EA Sport to mark the end of the season and celebrate its flagship FIFA 15 game.
The campaign is led by an online film fronted by Barcelona super star Lionel Messi who body is CGI’d into a strange machine that turns those tears of joy and despair into chocolate bars of ‘Sweet Victory’ and ‘Bitter Defeat’.
This eclectic moving and spinning Wonka-esque mechanical contraption (complete with conveyor belt and distillation pots) includes in-game footage and aims to bring the ‘Bitter/Sweet’ taste of football to life.
The campaign has been developed with agency W+K Amsterdam and the creative team linked up with engineers and industrial designers to bring the idea to life as a real ‘10-meter long installation’
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This imaginative creative takes a more visually eclectic approach than most sports game campaigns which tend to focus on in-game footage and emphasise graphics.
Most campaigns in this space tend to prioritise highlighting key selling points and functionality rather than intimate emotion.
‘Football is bitter-sweet. One moment you are crying the sweet tears of victory, and the next, you are crying the bitter tears of defeat,’ says W+K Amsterdam creative director David Smith.
‘So what better way to show the emotion of football than to make a chocolate bar from the tears of Lionel Messi? A man who feels football more than any other man in the world.’
The EA team on the project included SVP global marketing Todd Sitrin, VP global marketing Jamie McKinlay, VP Advertising & Design Dana Marineau, director of creative strategy Dustin Shekell, creative strategists Mark Evans and Anne Fournais, plus campaign manager Clement Berta and senior global product marketing ,manager Matt McKie.
While at W+K the executive creative directors were Mark Bernath and Eric Quennoy, the creative directors were David Smith and Alvaro Sotomayor, art direction was by Max Gebhardt, copywriting by Max Arlestig, broadcast team members were Joe Togneri and Elissa Singstock, the associate producers were Beau Brouwer and Judd Carraway, planning was by Ben Armistead and the account directors were Kirk Johnsen, Nick Campion and Kerstin Haag.
Film production was by Imperial Woodpecker, editing by Whitehouse Post, post by MPC and music by Massive Music.
The campaign comes with a specific promotion: play the best of EA on Xbox One for $4.99 a month – now including FIFA 15 (members can play as much as they want).
Links:
EA Access Twitter:
http://www.twitter.com/eaaccess
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EA Access YouTube:
http://www.youtube,com/eaaccess
W+K Amsterdam Website:
