Holiday is a critical moment for EA. But they aren’t alone. It is a noisy and cluttered time of the year, making it hard to stand out. They have a compelling offer - but so does every other brand.

With a passionate and dedicated fanbase that FIFA wanted to incentivise, they also wanted to encourage lapsed players to return to the game. Next Generation are limited edition in-game player cards that help players build their ultimate squad. We needed to showcase these footballers, educating existing players and bringing the game culture to new fans.

With football normally reserved for the back pages, we wanted to ensure that EA’s Next Generation was creating front page headlines. So we decided to write the headlines ourselves.

In a world dominated by short form digital content, how do you connect digital audiences to the football culture of yesteryear?

We wanted to engage with existing and lapsed fans in a tangible way, bringing to life the digital world and providing a physical experience when they’d been lacking for so long, as well as creating a throwback to bygone football culture, where football news came through offline channels.

We would create a 32 page traditional newspaper, showcasing the talent that featured in the Next Generation limited edition cards within the game, providing more in-depth insight into the athletes with custom written articles. Players that feature in many fans' ultimate teams and provide a direct call to action on how to interact with these exclusive player cards in game. Native advertising, including a QR code to purchase, would drive the games promotional holiday offer.

We produced the Next Generation newspaper, a traditional 32-page broadsheet format with six limited editions. Featuring a 4-page spread for each Next Generation athlete, in-depth articles and quiz questions, it also featured media native advertisements with a simple QR code mechanic for the promotional holiday offer.

Newspapers had 6 limited edition covers and were translated into English, French, German, Spanish and Italian. Telling the stories of the 6 hero Next Generation athletes would reinforce the campaign through a physical, one-of-a-kind activation, creating a physical way to bring to life the players in the game and providing a new way to engage with FIFA fans.

For the key markets of London, Paris and NYC, we would distribute in an authentic way through newsstands to reinforce messaging whilst grabbing the attention of fans, supported and amplified through a digital campaign using influencers and the players themselves.

Bespoke FIFA branded newsstands distributed the papers in high-traffic hubs in London, Paris and NYC, embodying the energy and visual character of FIFA 22 and its ambassadors, whilst remaining authentic to the newsstand format. Simultaneously activated, they directly engaged fans and commuters with copies of the Next Generation newspaper, 32-pages of custom written articles, quizzes and trivia, custom designed within 5 weeks, translated for 6 markets.

Distribution at Chelsea FC and Manchester City FC home matches connected with local fans of two Next Generation athletes featured during the match day experience.

70+ market specific influencers and players were used to amplify and extend the shelf-life of the papers and the holiday offer through digital channels, creating a buzz in each market and ensuring FIFA 22 was at the heart of social content and talk-ability.

Digital downloads enabled those unable to pick up a physical copy access, ensuring wider campaign reach.

The campaign saw over 14,000 papers distributed in total across the key markets. Media investment drove significant over-delivery in a number of key metrics, including over 25m impressions across social through owned and partner channels. More importantly, FIFA 22 daily users were up 10% YoY during the campaign, with an additional 10% increase in new players, resulting in this being EA Sports FIFA’s most successful holiday campaign ever.