01/ — Brand & Creative Strategy — EA SPORTS
Getting EA SPORTS into a Hollywood story that didn't need it.
At a glance
Tension
The F1 Movie was going to dominate the sport's cultural moment with or without EA. The job: earn the game a seat inside someone else's story.
Insight
Don't market alongside the fiction join it. Sponsorship is the native language of the F1 world, so a fictional team can have a real sponsor.
Strategy
EA SPORTS reframed as the fictional team sponsor of APXGP every campaign mechanic a real sponsorship trope, bent.
A story that didn't need EA.
The F1 Movie was going to dominate the sport's cultural moment with or without EA.
APXGP is the film's fictional eleventh team the underdogs of the season, led by Brad Pitt's Sonny Hayes.
The job: earn the game a seat inside someone else's story and turn a film release into a reason to play F1 25.
Join the fiction.
Don't market alongside the fiction. Join it. Sponsorship is the native language of the F1 world so a fictional team can have a real sponsor.
We reframed EA SPORTS as the fictional team sponsor of APXGP. Every campaign mechanic borrowed a real sponsorship trope and bent it: stunt livery reveals, creator paddock visits, branded hype films, in-game and web takeovers positioning EA as a proud APXGP backer. The teaser dropped with an unreleased Ed Sheeran track from the film. The story wasn't just told in theatres it was playable.
The trope, bent
Every mechanic borrowed from real sponsorship language livery reveals, paddock content, backer bragging applied to a team that doesn't exist.
Stunt reveals & paddock visits
Livery stunts and creator paddock visits treated APXGP like any team on the grid.
The Ed Sheeran tease
The teaser dropped with an unreleased track from the film fiction and release calendar fused.
Playable story
Sonny Hayes and APXGP on the grid in F1 25 — the film's season, in players' hands.
"The story wasn't just told in theatres it was playable."
[Proof — pending.]
[Placeholder — teaser views, DLC downloads or sales vs. forecast, Miami/London activation footfall, social volume in the release window]
This section stays empty rather than decorated — the same EA dashboards that produced the F1 23 numbers tracked this campaign.