It’s in the game / The Fifa game franchise is the bestselling sports franchise of all time, with the game’s developer Electronic Arts (EA) revealing in September 2018 that across all Fifa titles, the company had sold more than 260 million units since it launched in 1993. The audience numbers are impressive too, with EA reporting that the 2018 version of the game saw gamers playing 7 billion football matches and scoring 17 billion goals, while the competitive global series of Fifa had 20 million players across 60 countries.
The Stevenage FC stadium will play a maximum of 52 games a season, which could either be home or away across the league. Its home ground, the Lamex Stadium, has a maximum capacity of 6,722 people, which is small when compared with England’s national team’s Wembley stadium, which has 90,000. Compared with the limited brand exposure at physical games, the digital Fifa 20 platform could put Burger King in front of the game’s audience all day, every day. Stevenage is at least three years away from being in the same league as the biggest clubs in the country, and it lacks the equivalent talent or investment to achieve promotion to the Premier League. Considering that Manchester United FC was paid £64 million ($82 million) by Chevrolet by way of shirt sponsorship this season, Burger King’s back door route into the same digital exposure is a thrifty move.
The underdogs / Sports marketing provides a fertile landscape for brands to find the stories of underdogs and thrust them into the limelight. In 2018, Burger King’s parent company Restaurant Brands International reported that the fast food chain achieved revenues of $1.6 billion. Despite its success, Burger King still positions itself as a challenger brand in the fast food market, consistently flinging jibes at market leader McDonald’s with activations like the McWhopper, The Wropper Detour and Scary Clown Night.
