Working with EA Sports to create and hide an explosive new skill move called ‘El Tornado’ in the game. A TVC about real Ronaldo learning to do the trick broke, kicking off a frenzied search for its secret combo. Once discovered, it exploded out of the gaming world into football and wider culture in social media. New audiences put their own spin on it, uploading their own tricks, creating How-To videos, memes, remixes and real-life trick attempts. EA titles UFC and NBA even created their own versions, while music artists Run the Jewels released and performed an El Tornado single, reaching music fans around the globe. To complete the loop, we invited pro footballers to post video evidence of them doing the trick in training, in order to get ‘El Tornado Certified’ in the game.

The campaign was executed globally across multiple platforms in the week before the game launch, centering around the trick hidden in the console game itself. A TVC and online film full of influencers ranging from pro footballers, to Youtubers, skillers, digital artists and musicians, challenged our audience to find the hidden combo and experience the move for themselves. PUT YOUR SPIN ON IT led to over 50k+ trick uploads. After launch, hundreds of user-generated Youtube tutorials helped newcomers to pull it off, weekly El Tornado goal highlights videos celebrated those that pulled it off best. Real life attempts were showcased on Instagram. When Pro-Footballers, pressured by fans, demanded that EA allow their virtual-selves to do the move, we launched ‘El Tornado Certified’. Footballers who posted video evidence of their El Tornado ability to their social feeds, received FIFA18 footage confirming their upgraded in-game character.

50K+ trick uploads

304M+ views of film

+244% earned media coverage

+250% launch conversation and social mentions

42M El Tornado GIFS posted

+20% new players recruited

Broke all FIFA franchise engagement records.

Designed to reach new audiences beyond the core fanbase, ‘More than a game’ was a full 360 engagement campaign, with a customer journey that began by changing the product at the heart of the brand – the console game itself. We created a new virtual trick called ‘El Tornado’, hid it in the game for the world to discover, then challenged the world’s best footballers to pull it off for real.

We were targeting young people across the world. They all shared a passion for football and football culture and we wanted to use that to bring them into FIFA18.

The entertainment they chose was based on wanting to connect with friends, so they would listen to, watch and play the things that are most talked about by their friends and celebrity heroes.

Our goal was therefore to make FIFA the biggest talking point in football and gaming culture. To achieve this, we needed to create an experience that could change behaviour and fuel debate across real football, FIFA18 and social channels

Creating a new skill move for the game was the perfect tool to achieve this. It gave all football fans something for themselves (and their heroes) to aspire to, but was simple enough to travel across any country and any platform, from TV, to GIFs to PlayStation.

FIFA is one of the most popular computer games in the world. Already known to football fans across the globe, to expand FIFA’s reach further, we needed to attract casual gamers – those who only buy games their friends, family and idols talk about. Therefore, the only way to convince these people to buy the new FIFA18 game, was to make it the hottest topic in the social groups and newsfeeds of our audience.