FIFA Aims to Create a Cultural Crossover Through Gaming

Embedding the brand beyond sports with the 'FIFA Gaming Couch'

This year’s summer of soccer saw FIFA expand its digital strategy, with a cultural crossover into the physical world. Now, the “FIFA Gaming Couch” is a permanent fixture in the organization’s marketing arsenal.

FIFA piloted the couch activation to unite all aspects of its gaming platform through storytelling. 

But, there are loftier goals afoot. The global football governing body seeks to embed its brand into cultural conversations that transcend sports.

In partnership with Jung von Matt Sports, the digital team took a sofa on the road in a branded truck across the U.S. for six weeks. Four events featured the couch, starting with a West Hollywood kickoff, moving on to Netflix House in Dallas, then hitting Miami and concluding at Fanatics Fest in New York as the World Cup wound down.

People gathered on the couch to play the newly-released FIFA World Cup: Launch Edition, which was made available on Netflix Games midway through the tournament.

“On the one hand, the couch is such a mundane thing. But on the other, it holds so much meaning,” says Christian Volk, FIFA’s director of gaming & esports. “The idea is to think back to a time when we were students hanging around the couch just playing and having fun. We wanted to bring back that feeling of closeness and friendship.”

“The couch was designed to deliberately represent a permanent cultural crossover that we’re trying to build between football and entertainment.”

The idea sparked in the prep phase of the World Cup. The goal was to add an experiential dimension tying into other IP that could stand above the din of World Cup communications. 

With that, a 14-episode mobile content series emerged to further drive the connection. Each featured “Dean the Delivery Guy” hauling a couch into the different locations, meeting celebrities as he made his way to NYC. 

Crews were on-site in the various cities to film the shorts, which were subsequently released throughout the tournament, allowing the story to unfold at its own pace. 

Harkening back to the ’90s sitcom style, Dean sat on the couch and immersed himself in the digital game while sparring with some of the famous personalities he encountered. Skateboarding legend Tony Hawk, Germany and U.S. footballer Marco Reus, Brazil’s Ronaldo and, fittingly, a squad of Squid Game players made appearances.

Pulling in celebs and elements not necessarily associated with football was essential. Even Shrek shows up in the new mobile arcade game, FIFA Heroes. 

“The beauty of digital football is it can be more open, flexible and innovative in how we interpret traditional football,” says Volk, adding he believes we will see much more of those interpretations in the future.

Elsewhere, more than 70 creators added to the mix, expanding the effort across popular culture. Volk points to Italian journalist and influencer Fabrizio Romano, considered by many to be one of the greatest football creators today. A-list influencer and streamer IShowSpeed is also on the roster. 

“This provided a multi-dimensional perspective about what the FIFA Gaming Couch could become in the future,” says Volk. 

The numbers are starting to trickle in. The couch reached over 102 million views. These include consumer interactions with the traveling sofa, views attributed to content creators, plus 200 pieces created for FIFA’s owned-and-operated channels and its third party partners. 

The Netflix distribution deal tallied an 85 percent approval rating and is considered the biggest launch on the streamer’s gaming platform.

Reaching 225 million gamers across FIFA’s spectrum of offerings during the World Cup, Volk says there are early signals that the organization is moving in the right direction.

“The aim is to stretch the FIFA IP into different subcultures,” says Volk. “The couch is a manifestation of that ambition.”

Next, the team will work to create something relevant to entertainment throughout the entire year.

“The bigger question is, what does the Road to Rio look like in the way of activities next June and July for the Women’s World Cup,” says Volk. “It’s safe to assume the couch will make an appearance—we are happy how things have landed thus far.”