🗣️🎙️Interview: Cesena FC Head of Marketing, Claudia Gatti
Cesena have huge ambitions of growth with their history and region's culture at the heart of it all. I sit down with Claudia Gatti, Head of Marketing, to find out more about the project's journey.
In the first ever interview for FORZA CALCIO, I spoke to Claudia Gatti, Head of Marketing at Cesena FC.
How do you balance marketing to local fans vs. growing the club’s national and international presence?
“Cesena FC has a great fan base. We can count on a high number of season tickets holders every season who are passionate people who love Cesena and support the club. 90% of our season ticket holders are from the Romagna region. We definitely have a very local presence. We also have almost 30% of our fans who are under 18 and the presence of women is growing consistently season by season.
American ownership brought us to a very international level in terms of marketing and commercial approach. We consider our club as a real business to be developed in all aspects but always in the total respect of our traditions and local mentality.”
What role does club history and identity play in your marketing strategy?
“Club history and identity are very much respected and taken into consideration in every new plan we make. We have a strong Romagna identity. We are from a wonderful region and all Italians respect and love us for the way we are here, for our positive attitude, for our amazing hospitality and for the big passion we put in everything we do. So, every day we try to translate this into our marketing, social media and actual activities.”
How important is local culture to you and how do you use local culture to engage fans?
“We respect the local culture. Our anthem is 'Romagna Capitale' by the popular local folk singer Raoul Casadei. We engage our fans most of the times by simply involving them as much as possible. We created a fan village for them to enjoy before the match inside our kids & family section of our stadium. We created a mutual moment called #tifositime where they come earlier to be pictured and issued on our Instagram. We have plenty of initiatives created to support out local fans and to thank them for being so faithful to us every season.
There is also our Calcio Integrato project. It's a project that Cesena has been developing for the community for almost 10 years. We have a team of disabled kids who do their training at the main stadium once or twice a week and they train with kids of our regular youth academy. It's a special project aimed to eliminate as a much prejudices as possible. We're very proud of this project. The kids are improving year by year, with thanks also to the support of specialised coaches. Just recently, the project got a recognition in a Rome from the Minister of Sport, Mr Andrea Abodi.”
What is your ideal trajectory for Cesena, both sporting and from a brand perspective?
“The American ownership has never hidden the intention of becoming more and more international both from a sport and brand perspective. We already have fan clubs in USA and our international audience is growing day by day. We already noticed the significant change of visibility we had this year passing from Serie C to Serie B. We all inspire to the best. We fully understand, though, that every step has to be done at the right moment and with the right means.”
What do you think Serie B’s image is globally, and how can it be improved?
“As said for us, in terms of visibility, the promotion to Serie B was already a big step forward. However, a lot more could be done to give value to this championship, which is one of the most interesting and challenging in Italy. For example, starting with international TV rights, more visibility on Italian national TV and so on.”
What initiatives have been most effective in bringing in younger fans?
“Lega B already has an initiative for which 10 out of 19 home matches are free for kids under 14 years old. We as a club create family packages, special price for students and kids under 18 years old. Kids of our youth academy and all of our affiliated clubs (we have 25 affiliated clubs around Romagna and Italy) can come for free.
The Fan Village is something that is also very attractive for kids as it’s full with entertainment and giveaways. Finally, we have always to consider that many of the kids of our region aim to play for Cesena first team .It's their dream. Last year we got promoted and we had 6 young players coming from our youth academy who all come from nearby Cesena and this year we still have four of them playing on the first team.”
How does the club integrate the marketing and brand strategy with their sporting one?
“We consider the role of players crucial in every initiative we create. We involve them on commercial and marketing, making them become our testimonials. As well as this, we include them on every single initiative for the community, such as ‘Black and White School’ where we go to schools with our players to meet with kids, as well as charity work for the hospital and much more.”
What is the ultimate goal for the project?
“Improve significantly and become more and more international.”
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Claudia Gatti is Head of Marketing at Cesena FC, joining the club 3 years ago. Since then, her heart has been black and white, and everything she does at this project is filled with passion and ambition. Prior to Cesena, Claudia worked in sales and marketing for big fashion groups, which took her to the likes of New York, London and Osaka.
Photo credits:
Cesena FC
Luigi Rega
Netrising
Claudia Gatti