How League 2 Stevenage became the most marketable club in football
Yes, you read that right…
In June 2018, an unusual partnership occurred between American fast-food chain; Burger King and lowly ranked Stevenage, who play their football in England’s fourth division.
This is not the first time that Burger King have sponsored a football club.
In 2009, Burger King sponsored Madrid-based La Liga outfit, Getafe - which boasted the rather large Burger King branding in the centre of the shirt.
Arguably one of the ‘loudest’ sponsors, in terms of visibility, Burger King have a firm understanding of how to market themselves within the footballing world.
Back when the fast-food chain sponsored Getafe, Elias Diaz, a spokesperson for Burger King at the time said:
“Burger King's values of fun, fidelity and authenticity identify with the spirit of Getafe and their unconditional passion.”
It’s apparent that Burger King have stuck with these values within their latest venture, in what has turned out to be one of the best marketing decisions in world football.
Burger King x Stevenage FC
Via @StevenageFC on Twitter
When Stevenage announced their partnership with Burger King, they received an expected amount of backlash - not just because of the irony of a football club being sponsored by a fast-food brand, but because of their shirt designs.
In the image pictured above, their away shirt from last year features red and yellow streaks, which naturally denotes connotations of fries and ketchup, thanks to the loud Burger King branding.
Whilst their 20/21 kits are a slight improvement, it’s a factor that seems small in comparison to the major feat that the Burger King x Stevenage FC partnership have recently birthed.
Despite the club deteriorating at the bottom of League 2, they do still make it into the world’s biggest football video game franchise; FIFA.
Of course, due to the EA Sports game attempting to appear as realistic as possible, authentically branded kits and sponsors appear every year (on teams that are licensed).
This was a huge factor in Burger King sponsoring Stevenage, as they acted on their chance for some likely exposure.
The #StevenageChallenge
Via @BurgerKing on Twitter
Upon FIFA 20’s release, Burger King announced ‘The #StevenageChallenge.’
It was a challenge that encouraged FIFA players to play with the club in Career Mode and take them to the highest level competitions in the world, with the greatest players in the world.
From there, we saw the likes of Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar, Kylian Mbappe and Paul Pogba donning the Stevenage shirt in the Champions League final.
Of course, this challenge gained huge notoriety and quickly became a significantly efficient marketing ploy, with 25,000+ goals scored by Stevenage FC in FIFA Career Mode.
As if things couldn't get any better, Stevenage benefited from multinational exposure, became the most played with team in FIFA 20 and reportedly sold out of shirts for the first time in the club’s history.
“You haven’t heard of Stevenage Football Club, right? Well, neither had we but we realised that even though they’re at the bottom of England’s fourth division, they were going to appear in the same video game that all the expensive players were going to be in. And that’s when, almost two years ago, we decided to sponsor Stevenage,"
a Burger King spokesperson said on a video posted on Twitter.
"Because if we put our logo on their real shirt we would definitely have our logo in the game.
Introducing The Stevenage Challenge.”
The partnership between Burger King and Stevenage FC has already written itself in the history books for a number of reasons.
It also demonstrates the impact of sponsors in video games. At first glance, it appears that EA have integrated these sponsors to make the game seem more realistic, but when you hear of success stories such as this one, it’s definitely a money maker for both EA and the sponsors - who gain almost a full year of exposure with players playing multiple FIFA matches daily.
It’s clear that this is the future.
Hats off to Burger King, that is some world class marketing.
