SEGA
Thinking like gamer
Brief
Football Manager is a flagship brand for SEGA. It is loved to the point of obsession by hardcore fans around the world, who view it as life affirming. SEGA approached us with the challenge of repositioning Football Manager as a more mainstream football brand to increase sales and encourage broader appeal across Europe.
Approach
Known as the 'Widow Maker', the game is seen to be difficult, addictive, nerdy and simply antisocial. This made the task significant. To open the game up to a wider football-loving audience, we knew we first had to address these perceptions. We used Neighbourhood to look at the product through fans’ eyes and realised that where non-fans saw dark layers of statistics and tables, true fans saw the beating heart of football - a golden passport to manage their team to ultimate glory.
Solution
We targeted the imagination of the mainstream football fan with a campaign that showed how Football Manager fans feel every time they play the game. Evocative and emotional, we celebrated the glory and excitement of being a football manager. We moved communications away from static, dry media to multi-media channels that could bring this world to life. The strategy hinged on a universal truth that could resonate with football fans across Europe. This was encapsulated with the new brand slogan 'The Greatest Job on Earth'.
Results
The results were emphatic – our inaugural campaign led to the game becoming the biggest and fastest-selling title in the brand's history. Football Manager 2009 then bettered this performance, holding top spot on the UK’s PC games chart for an unparalleled 22 weeks. Success followed success with last year's Football Manager 2010 claiming the coveted number one position on the UK All-Formats chart – an impressive feat for a PC-only game and a testament to the title's growing mainstream appeal.
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