Why PepsiCo and EA are expanding their partnership into mobile: A Q&A with PepsiCo vp of global sports and entertainment partnerships Adam Warner

Adam Warner: 

“Gatorade is now on the ad board; it’s now got its cooling equipment and its bottles authentically, in a very cool way, integrated into the game — and not just across ‘FC’ console, but also ‘FC Mobile,’ which is a massive part of the ‘EA FC’ ecosystem. Particularly when you look across regions like Latin America, the Middle East and Asia, mobile is way bigger than console. So, having that duality of access across both the console-based and mobile-based platforms is a big scaling up of our presence within the overall platform.”

Digiday:

Warner’s answer to this question reflects his strong understanding of the differences between different global regions’ gaming audiences. Although mobile gaming is on the rise in North America, it is the dominant form of gaming in regions such as Asia and South America, where the prices of dedicated gaming consoles or PCs can be prohibitive.

The expansion of PepsiCo and EA’s partnership into mobile reflects the growth of EA’s advertising business over the past year. The publisher has consciously made hires to help build its ad tech infrastructure and make the multitude of advertising opportunities across its portfolio of titles more cohesive and easy to understand for marketers. Although pitch-side ad boards and optional video ads have been present in “EA Sports FC Mobile” since 2022, this is the first time the mobile game also contains in-game branded items, such as Gatorade coolers and bottles. (An EA FC spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment prior to the publication of this story.)

Adam Warner:

“Gatorade is very endemic to sport; it has a very long and esteemed history in sport across many high-profile partnerships. So, naturally, the guys at EA want partners and brands where we’ve got a strong organic alignment, and Gatorade is very much at the top of the pack, in that sense. So I think it’s a fairly natural and easy one for us to think about coming together on.”

Digiday:

As gaming companies have looked to expand their advertising inventory in recent years, sports games have been a particularly attractive playground for video game publishers and advertisers alike due to gamers’ natural understanding of ads showing up in a sports environment. Games such as “EA Sports FC” have virtual fields replete with banner ads and billboards in exactly the same places as real-life stadiums. 

As shown by Warner’s answer, however, publishers still need to be cautious with the brands that they allow into their games, even sports titles with more seamless advertising opportunities. For now, publishers such as EA are making sure to build their advertising businesses using brands whose presence is unlikely to break players’ immersion — such as Gatorade, which sports fans are accustomed to seeing just about everywhere. 

Adam Warner:

“We’ve had an always-on, highly successful partnership with them in year one, and what we’re doing going into year two is introducing Gatorade into that partnership in our portfolio — which was always in the plan, but we wanted to build the partnership incrementally, year-over-year.”

Digiday:

The planned, multi-year nature of PepsiCo’s integration into “EA Sports FC” reflects that both the brand and the publisher are playing the long game as they look to step up the presence of ads inside and beyond EA’s portfolio of sports titles. Even in natural environments such as virtual play fields, gamers can be wary of brands that show up too quickly or inauthentically, so it may have been wise for PepsiCo to wait until the second year of its partnership to bring Gatorade into the mix. Warner didn’t specify which PepsiCo brand might be next to enter the game, but his description of the approach made it clear that the addition of Gatorade to “EA Sports FC” is not the end of the companies’ ongoing partnership.