04/ — Brand Marketing Strategy & Campaign — EA

Making a faded racing icon matter to a generation that grew up without it.

ClientEA — Need for Speed Unbound

RoleBrand Marketing Strategy Lead

Year2022

ScopeGlobal integrated campaign

At a glance

Tension

Need for Speed built its name on street racing culture then the culture moved on without the game. And the team had nine weeks to fix it.

Insight

Street racing culture didn't disappear it relocated. The game couldn't advertise into that culture; it had to be made from it.

Strategy

Rebuilt the launch from inside the scene under one idea “Electrify the Mundane” the game as an artefact of the culture, not a product aimed at it.

Reveal trailer ft. A$AP Rocky — +6M views

Tension

The culture moved on without the game.

The music, the fashion, the street art that once defined the franchise now lived elsewhere with a generation that had never played it.

Need for Speed built its name on street racing culture. Then the culture relocated into music, fashion and street art, not car magazines.

And the team had nine weeks to fix it.

Brand refresh — positioning NFS in culture

NFS Unbound design system — The design system

Strategy

Electrify the mundane.

To reach the new generation, the game couldn't advertise into the culture it had to be made from it.

We rebuilt the launch from inside the scene: nine themed cultural drops to sustain momentum; capsule collections with Palace, Balmain and Puma connecting in-game style to real-world credibility; A$AP Rocky revealing the game live at Rolling Loud, his custom car and music at the centre of the creative; creator-led takeovers across key markets. The game as an artefact of the culture, not a product aimed at it.