• by Sarah Mahoney , Yesterday

While plenty of FIFA campaigns star soccer’s most recognizable faces, New York Life is going in an entirely different direction. “The Assist” stars not just three players on the U.S. Men’s National Team -- Tyler Adams, Tim Ream and Matt Turner -- but all the people the trio credits with their success.

The docu-series highlights many of the coaches, mentors, former teammates and family members who believed in them early and helped shape their paths to this year’s tournament. Footage includes Ream, team captain, revisiting the St. Louis warehouse where he learned the fundamentals, and Turner’s journey from walk-on goalkeeper to international star, thanks to a supportive early coach.

A critical component of the campaign, says Lisa Thomsen, head of acquisition, client and sponsorship at New York Life, is community events and clinics that support soccer’s development at all levels. The company is backing that commitment with a $15 million investment over three years in the New York Life Foundation’s Coaching the Future initiative, which works to encourage the next generation of coaches and mentors. “We really want to put our money where our mouth is,” Thomsen says.

She tells Marketing Daily that the effort also supports the “More Powerful Together” effort, which the company used to relaunch its brand late last year. “The metaphor of sports speaks so prominently here" that using its partnerships with both men’s and women’s soccer felt just right, she says. “We knew this would be a great way for us to talk about what's meaningful to us as a brand, and some of these authentic stories.” And given the amount of attention being paid to the games, “this was just a great moment for authentic storytelling.”

That none of the players in the effort are household names doesn’t matter, she believes. “You don’t have to be a soccer aficionado to be part of what's happening with the culture and be interested in human stories, especially on social media.” Thomsen compares the approach to the Olympics, where few people know who the individual skaters, curlers or bobsledders are, “yet the things that were happening on social media were very interesting stories about these athletes' lives.”

Since the company’s targets are young families, social media is the main play. “When people are scrolling and in the mood for entertainment, looking for something that's a little bit more than just information, that’s  the place to catch them.”

Thomsen acknowledges that there are plenty of unknowns about the FIFA tournament, including how many U.S. consumers will pay attention. But the campaign, created entirely in-house and engineered to increase brand awareness, was never meant to be just a World Cup effort. “Everyone recognized that yes, the World Cup will be a great cultural moment, but it’s also just an extension of our brand in a culturally relevant way,” she says. “These are great stories. Why wouldn’t we be telling them?”