skills/creative-director/references/legendary-campaigns/cards/burger-king-stevenage-2020.md

---
id: burger-king-stevenage-2020
title: Stevenage
brand: Burger King
agency: David Madrid
year: 2020
country: UK
region: europe
industry: qsr
pattern: [P02, P05]
category: integrated
idea_type: campaign
involvement: participation
channel: digital
duration: campaign
goal: [awareness, engagement, advocacy]
budget: low
emotion: [ironic_sincerity, triumphant]
emotion_tier: 3
insight_domain: belonging
media_epoch: social
awards: [cannes_grand_prix, multiple]
quality_score: 9
scalability: unique
risk: edgy
confidence: high
quality: full
source_url: https://www.dandad.org/awards/professional/2020/232920/stevenage/
---

# Stevenage (Burger King · 2020)

## Insight
Football video games allow any team to be sponsored by any brand. Stevenage FC — the lowest-ranked team in the English Football League — was available in FIFA. Sponsoring the worst real team, then making them famous in the game, is cheaper than any traditional sponsorship and generates more cultural noise.

## Mechanic
Burger King became the main sponsor of Stevenage FC, putting their logo on the team's jerseys in FIFA. Players were then invited to use Stevenage in Career Mode, score goals, and share the footage — earning in-game rewards and real prizes. Stevenage went from obscurity to FIFA's most-played team.

## Why it worked
The enemy is the conventional sports sponsorship (P02): BK chose the opposite of a prestigious club and won anyway. Cultural hijack (P05): inserts into the existing FIFA player community's native behaviour. The budget was a fraction of any Premier League sponsorship. The community did the work.

## Steal
In sports marketing, prestige partnerships are expensive and generic. The least prestigious asset is often the cheapest and most memorable. Own the bottom before anyone notices.

## Related
- Pattern: [[../MOC-pattern.md#p02]]
- Sibling: [[avis-we-try-harder-1962.md|We Try Harder]]
- Sibling: [[kfc-fck-2018.md|FCK]]
- Emotion match: [[absolut-absolut-campaign-1981.md|Absolut _____]]

---

*Author: Serge Shima ([t.me/aimastersme](https://t.me/aimastersme) · [sergeshima.com](https://sergeshima.com) · [aimasters.me](https://aimasters.me)) · License: CC BY 4.0 — attribution required · Source: [smixs/creative-director-skill](https://github.com/smixs/creative-director-skill)*