A semi-unknown team from the fourth division of the English soccer league becomes the star of FIFA, thanks to a sandwich and a genius marketing strategy
The most used soccer team by gamers who compete on FIFA 2020 is not Barcelona, it's not Real Madrid, it's not Liverpool, it's not Manchester City and not even Juventus or PSG: it's Stevenage. If you don't know what team it is, then it means that you haven't recently played the Electronic Arts title.
The Stevenage Football Club is a semi-unknown soccer team that plays in League Two, the fourth English league, the last of the professional sector. Not the league of the stars, in short. Or at least not in real soccer, but in the virtual one yes: thousands of passionate FIFA players, in fact, for days are playing with Stevenage in career mode and are making the shirt of this team to wear champions such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Messi, Mbappè and Neymar. But why are they doing all this? For a sandwich and for a genius marketing move that has already achieved incredible results.
Because everyone plays FIFA with Stevenage
The main sponsor of Stevenage Football Club, since 2018, is Burger King. The well-known fast food chain pays into the coffers of the team, every year, the modest sum of 50 thousand euros and in return its logo stands out on the white jersey with red stripes of the English club.
With a textbook marketing move Burger King has offered vouchers to buy sandwiches in one of its restaurants to those who used the Stevenage at FIFA with the strongest champions: just publish the exultation of the various Ronaldo, Messi and colleagues of equal level dressed with the jersey sponsored by Burger King. The results have been great.
The results of the #StevenageChallenge
The marketing campaign, which took the form of the hashtag #StevenageChallenge on Twitter, has achieved incredible results: in just a few hours over 25 thousand images have been shared by players, Stevenage has become the most used team on FIFA in career mode and its shirts have sold like hot cakes.
The first #StevenageChallenge has ended, but given the results Burger King has already launched the second one and, you can bet, this time there will be even more gamers playing FIFA with Stevenage.