It’s a brand new period for generations of soccer and gaming followers. Final 12 months, writer EA Sports activities break up with FIFA, soccer’s world governing physique, ending a three-decade licensing deal. The breakup signifies that one of the vital common and enduring gaming franchises can not name itself FIFA and has been renamed to EA Sports activities FC as of this 12 months.
For EA, this presents a major advertising problem—for whereas the title FIFA is ubiquitous, gamers could also be much less aware of the writer’s title. Now, EA has unveiled its new id to followers and is making an attempt to cement its place within the cloth of soccer because it enters a vital interval for the model.
“We felt an immense accountability to successfully rebrand one of many largest properties in sports activities leisure—no imply feat,” David Jackson, vice-president of brand name at EA Sports activities FC, informed Adweek.
EA Sports activities sums up its transition like this: it’s evolving from “a online game product powered by world [soccer] to a worldwide [soccer] platform powered by a number of video video games,” in response to Jackson. “This is likely one of the causes we made the seismic determination to carve our personal path and our personal model.”
EA nonetheless has greater than 300 licensed companions, with entry to over 19,000 athletes throughout 700 groups and 30 leagues. However with the title change, “client confusion is comprehensible–FIFA has been synonymous with the sport for many years,” Jackson mentioned.
‘Hidden in plain sight’
The rebranding course of started about 18 months in the past when EA consulted sports activities media enterprise Copa90. One of many truths they uncovered was that the sport “is a kind of generational properties, just like the Marvels or Star Wars of the world. It sits in that rarefied area, the place dad and mom could play with their youngsters or siblings play with one another,” he mentioned.
EA then employed London-based company Unusual Inventive Studio to develop its new model id and emblem. Inside the temporary that EA issued to Unusual, this line jumped out on the artistic workforce: “[Soccer] is available in many colours however only a few shapes.”
