To say the rest of the world loves soccer is an understatement. Americans, not so much. Nothing new there. Video game soccer, however, is a slightly different story, as the success of EA Sports FIFA series will attest. (Insert your own joke about Americans preferring artificial things to real ones here.)
But hey, if you can’t beat ’em join ’em. And that’s exactly the thinking behind this new campaign from HEAT/San Francisco that sells the new FIFA 12 not by tapping into a love of soccer, but a love for (wait for it)…playing soccer video games. In other words, using the fun of the video game to sell the video game. True, that sounds like Advertising 101. (Or a bad toy commercial during Saturday morning cartoons.) But juxtaposed against campaigns that seek to create some sort of faux-serious, cinematic backstory around a game, it’s actually kind of a departure.
Enlisting the help of Steve Nash, Tim Lincecum and Hope Solo adds some fun and fame to the mix. (Insert your own joke about Americans being obsessed with celebrities here.)
