FM26 Launch: 'Change The Game'

To launch FM26, a completely rebuilt version of the game, Football Manager needed to reintroduce its core proposition to prospective players.

Whilst core PC & Mac players know it very well, new audiences had grown considerably with the introduction of FM on Console (Xbox and PlayStation) and subscription platforms such as Arcade (Apple devices) and Netflix Games (FM Mobile) and a new UI meant the game would look and play different for all.

Add in the cancellation of FM25 and the critical sentiment that came with it, and it meant we had a number of key jobs to do creatively to ensure FM26's launch was a success. These included:

- Introducing our new brand identity.
- Making it clear FM is a management game.
- Showcasing the many ways you can play.
- Tease new features to drive excitement.
- Include global talent, with regional appeal.
- To feel authentic to real football.
- Showcase licensed leagues and club partner IP.
- To work as a connected creative device.
- Adaptable for future story-telling.

Introducing: 'Change The Game'.

In order to make the campaign work alongside our new brand and content strategy season-long, we needed a simple creative device to help tie it all together.

As the manager - it is you that has the power to change the destiny of your club in your save. Whether that's the team, the tactics, or even the narrative. Perennial underachievers? Sleeping giant? In FM, you have the power to reshape your club's destiny. In a year where we also changing the game quite literally, it was the perfect articulation of both the product in its current context, and a direct CTA to prospective players to fire up FM26 and show they have what it takes to lead their club to glory.

So we built our trailer around it, with three distinct narratives that demonstrate how our game 'blurs the lines' and influences the real world of football and vis-versa - whether that's innovative tactics (La Revolution) or spotting and signing future wonderkids - such as Porto's Rodrigo Mora.

The trailer was purposefully modular, so certain stories could be targeted to specific audiences (e.g. Brighton content to Brighton fans) and media partners identified to support the trailer with longer-form content - which in the case of Mora was a social video profiling his football journey to date and positioning him as a potential star signing for new FM26 players.

The partnership was just one of many designed to infiltrate football fans' feeds during launch, with additional partnerships across social, retail, events, paid media, talent and influencers all helping FM26 to its most successful launch on record.