#87: Roma Football Club Connects with Loyal Fans

This short summary of my interview with Laura Cagnacci discusses exciting loyalty initiatives being run for Roma Football Club by their marketing agency, who realised the importance and power of connecting Roma with their fans directly, rather than simply on third-party platforms like Facebook.

As a much loved football club, Roma used the power of a platform they owned to connect with previously unknown fans of all ages and profiles, with clear data points being measured, tracked and rewarded at the individual level, rather than just at a segment level as many marketers did in the past.

Listen to this episode to learn all about this award-winning programme in the sports sector, as well as learnings from building both a consumer AND a Business2Business loyalty program for an insurance client.

Show Notes:

1) Award-winning Loyalty in Italy – Roma Football Club and Advice Grou‪p‬

2) Laura Cagnacci 

3) Advice Group 

Audio Transcript

“Let’s Talk Loyalty” is an industry podcast for loyalty marketing professionals. I’m your host, Paula Thomas, and if you work in loyalty marketing, join me every week to learn the latest ideas for loyalty specialists around the world.
24s
Welcome to Let’s talk a Little loyalty, my new shorter show for loyalty marketing professionals. In today’s episode, I’m summarizing my interview with Laura <inaudible> who works with the marketing agency, leading Roma football clubs, loyalty initiatives. Roma is a much loved football club with loyal fans of all ages and profiles. However, it wasn’t until their fans data was proactively captured and managed with their full permission that the true power of the relationship with these fans was being realized. Roma created an exclusive hub for content and prizes for fans.
1m 7s
And with that, they were able to connect with fans within a platform of their own, instead of purely relying on third party platforms like Facebook, this approach resulted in the development of a full loyalty program with some super Brazil’s with clear data points, being measured, tracked, and rewarded at the individual level, rather than just as a segment level, as many marketeers have done in the past by creating and connecting with their super fans of the football club. Roma realized that these advocates were each worth 30 times what the less engaged average fans were worth.
1m 51s
The program became a bridge between the fans and the club, which had no direct commercial expectations, but instead it was entirely focused on creating a true sense of community and connection that Roma wanted to have between their team and their fans. It also yielded fascinating insights, such as one superfan who actually is blind. So cannot watch any of the games, but she doesn’t let that stop her from loving the team. And she attends every single game to simply soak up the atmosphere. This program was so successful that Laura and her colleagues in the agency won three awards from the loyalty magazine awards, celebrating their success alongside the Roma success story.
2m 44s
Laura also shared her learnings from building both a consumer and a business to business loyalty program for an insurance client. If you’d like to hear more about these award-winning loyalty programs in Italy, you can listen to the full interview is episode number 12 on let’s talk loyalty.com
3m 11s
This show is sponsored by “The Wise Marketer”. The world’s most popular source of loyalty marketing news insights and research. The wise marketeer also offers loyalty marketing training through its loyalty Academy, which has already certified over 170 executives in 20 countries as certified loyalty and marketing professionals. For more information, check out the wise market tier.com and loyalty Academy.
3m 45s
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