The launch campaign for EA Sport’s FIFA 23 – the final version of its world-leading football game to be developed in harness with the game’s global governing body – featuring an unbeatable team of soccer superstars including Kylian Mbappé, Sam Kerr, Zinedine Zidane, Vinicius Junior, Virgil van Dijk, Jack Grealish and Chloe Kelly.
Created in partnership with long-time agency W+K Portland and with Blink directing duo Jungle (Vince Tigre and Marcus Cidreira), the full throttle, cinematic, match day launch film promotes the latest iteration of its market-leading FIFA video game franchise which equates soccer fandom with the love millions feel for the virtual pitch. The immersive and intimate film brings together real fans and famous footballers through live action sequences and universal football rituals that fans from all over the world can relate with.
The hero, two-minute spot, titled ‘FIFA 23: Official Launch Trailer – Matchday For The World’s Game’, was shot across five cities (Madrid, Paris, London, Manchester and Liverpool) during the summer and rolled out across EA owned and paid digital and social channels from 30 September and seeks to drive fans and gamers online to purchase and play at http://x.ea.com/74742
The ad’s song, ‘Burning’ by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, offers a rhythmic soundtrack to propel the story line.
“We shot over four whirlwind weeks during the summer,” says W+K Copywriter Jason Scott. “It was pretty intense. Sometimes the only way to know where we were on any given day was by the type of food we were eating. EA has introduced graphics which make the game look as real as live football. From the hair on players’ heads to the grass on the pitch, the realism is insane. And in pop culture, football teams like Manchester City, PSG, Sporting Lisbon and Valencia are signing gamers to play video games for their eSports teams, which draw huge crowds and sometimes fill stadiums. To us, it felt like the two worlds have finally become one. FIFA 23 is football. Football is FIFA 23. That was the spark behind the campaign. We worked with fans from each club to ensure the chanting was exactly as it would be in the stadium.”
“We set out to create a film which appeals to those who might not have played FIFA before, but love football,” added W+K Creative Director Sara Phillips. “We wanted them to get the same feelings of passion, tension, excitement and joy they might feel in a stadium watching their favourite team play.
The campaign was created for Electronic Arts Inc (EA) by agency W+K Portland and the client team included Senior Director and Head of Creative Paul Marr, VP of Brand David Jackson, Director of Strategy Ben Prout, Creative Director Khoi Phan, Senior Creative Alex Elms, Group Senior Producer Anthony Doyle, Senior Producers Andrew Gillooley and Reza Vajihollahi, Senior Manager of Brand Michael Bernardi, Director of Global Cinematics Mattias Lindahl, Lead Cinematic Technical Designer Jonas Gammelholm, Senior Producer Marianne O’Reilly, Production Coordinator Natassia Grieco, Lead Cinematic Artist Animator Skye White, Cinematic Artist Animators Julian Baquero and Ivonne Solther, Senior Cinematic Tech Designer Ashley Raj-Tye, Cinematic Tech Designer Fabio Santos and Senior Cinematic Artist, Lighter Rob Starr.
The creative agency team included ECDs Ana Balarin, Hermeti Balarin and John Petty III, Managing Director Jess Monsey, Creative Director Sara Phillips, Art Director Nate Nowinowski, Copywriter Jason Scott, Head of Production Orlee Tatarka, Executive Producer Nicole Kaptur, Lead Integrated Producer Danielle Magee, Associate Producer Chloe Jarnac, Group Brand Director Camille Cheeks-Lomax, Management Supervisor Jane Han, Brand Executives Demetrius Wallace and Hector Martinez, Creative Operations Klarika Huszar, Design Producer/Print Producer Jason Schwartz, Designer LaShun Tines, Group Strategy Director Nathan Goldberg, Group Media Director Alex Barwick, Head of Business Affairs Amber Lavender, Senior Business Affairs Manager Kacey Kelley, Business Affairs Manager Tristan Martin, Broadcast Traffic Joe Chaath and Senior Creative Social Strategist Janelle Wallace.
The team at production company Blink included Directors JUNGLE (Vince Tigre and Marcus Cidreira), Director Assistant Max McLachlan, Executive Producers Paul Weston and Patrick Craig, Producer Corin Taylor, Production Manager Sebastian Jowers, Production Assistant Harry Hardwick, Director of Photography Arnaud Portier, 2nd Unit Director of Photography JP Garcia, Production Designers Tristan Martin and Simon Davis, 1st ADs Ben Gill and Javier Zamarano, Director (London Pick Up) Bob Harlow, Producer (London/ Manchester Pick Up) Emily Atterton, Production Manager (Liverpool) Anna Jones, Production Manager (London) Rosie Marchant and Production Manager (Manchester) Beatrice Warren, plus 24/7’s Producer (Madrid) Mario Padilla and Producer (Paris) Angela Gomez-Alba.
The editorial company was Cut and Run, VFX and colour was handled by The Mill and sound design by 750mph.
Comment
Part of the wider trend for brand explorations on the intersection of gaming and real life, this will be the final campaign for the game running under the FIFA title as EA and the global football association bring an end to their 30-year partnership next year: a move which will see the game rebrand in 2023 as EA Sports FC.
The hero launch film followed on a week after a dual campaign with Apple TV+ which trailed the new iteration of the game and promoted Season 3 of soccer comedy drama ‘Ted Lasso’ by bringing the programme’s fictional AFC Richmond players into the playable world of FIFA 23.
It also follows on the footsteps of the game’s 2021 marketing which included the ‘Powered By Football’ online content series and ‘Hypermotion’, as well as ‘Long Live The Prince‘, ‘Boot Room‘, ‘Win As One‘, ‘Unify‘, ‘Next Gen‘ and ‘Ultimate Team‘ marketing initiatives for FIFA 21 and 20, focuses on next-gen HyperMotion gameplay technology available on PlayStation5, Xbox Series X|S, and Stadia and promotes the game’s availability worldwide on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC via the EA App, Origin and Steam, Stadia, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
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