Demo Film

Presentation Image

Title	FOOTBALL DECODED
Brand	MICROSOFT
Product/Service	XBOX / FIFA 18
Category	E01. Standard Sites
Entrant	McCANN LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
Idea Creation	McCANN LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
Media Placement	CARAT London, UNITED KINGDOM
Production	CRAFT LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
Production 2	SOMESUCH London, UNITED KINGDOM
Production 3	TWENTYFOUR SEVEN Madrid, SPAIN

Name	Company	Position
Rob Doubal and Laurence Thomson	McCann London	Co-Presidents and Chief Creative Officers
Sanjiv Mistry and Jamie Mietz	McCann London	Executive Creative Directors
Jim Nilsson	McCann London	Copywriter
Jacob Björdal	McCann London	Art Director
Robert Stockton	McCann London	Account Manager
Francois d’Espagnac, Matteo Della Venezia and Tom Oliver	McCann London	Account Directors
Sailesh Jani	McCann London	Managing Partner
Rob Smith	McCann London	EVP
Paul Gillespie	McCann London	Senior Project Manager
Claire Colohan and Rebecca Wilford	Craft/McCann	Producers
Sergio Lopez	Craft/McCann	Chief Production Officer EMEA
Karen Crum	McCann London	Head of Planning
Fanni David	McCann London	Senior Planner
Jack Goss	McCann London	Planning Intern
Omri Cohen	Somesuch	Director
Todd Martin	Somesuch	Director of Photography
Louise Gagen	Somesuch	Producer
Seth Wilson	Somesuch	Executive Producer
Reimer Eisig and Lennard van der Last	Somesuch	Composers
Chris Graves	Craft/McCann	Music Supervisor
Adam Smyth and Giselle Hall	Craft/McCann	Senior Sound Engineer and Sound Engineer
Mariona Sauret, Adam Ryzman and Francis Harris	Craft/McCann	Editors
Miriam Sasiain	Twentyfour Seven	Production Manager
Yasmina Ikimou	Twentyfour Seven	Production Coordinator
Lucas Cuevas	Twentyfour Seven	1st AD
Frodo Martinez	Twentyfour Seven	2nd AD
Ivo Van Vollenhoven	Twentyfour Seven	Ext. Producer
Bea Cañete	Twentyfour Seven	Producer
Joe Richardson	Craft/McCann	Artworker
Liam White	Craft/McCann	Print Producer
Ellis Faint	Craft/McCann	Studio Manager

Write a short summary of what happens in the ambient or digital execution or campaign.

Xbox’s competitor had bought all the marketing rights to FIFA 18, a huge football videogame. So Xbox leveraged something bigger than videogame football - real football. Partnering with superstar club Real Madrid, we translated real football matches, move by move and in real time, into the corresponding commands for FIFA on Xbox. The dynamic, animated perimeter boards at Real Madrid’s stadium were the centrepiece of the campaign. The perimeter boards became a utility, teaching the audience (at the stadium and those watching at home) how to play like Real Madrid – on Xbox’s version of FIFA, all while never mentioning the game. When all other brands were just using perimeter boards as a space for branding, Xbox used the perimeter boards to not just sell FIFA 18, but make people better at it.

Cultural/Context information for the jury

In the lead up to the launch of many big videogames there’s a bidding war for marketing rights. For FIFA 18, an important game for Xbox, our competitor PlayStation snapped up all the marketing rights. This meant that while PlayStation had total freedom to advertise the game any way they wanted, we at Xbox had the opposite – a 100% ban on marketing the game. We couldn’t use any game assets, the logo or even show our own game packshot. So we had to somehow market a game we were forbidden from marketing.