Casper Stylsvig, chief revenue officer of AC Milan, spoke to the microphones of the SportPro Podcast and spoke about AC Milan's corporate strategies.
Here are his words:
On Milan's strategy and absence of fans:
"The two things I am selling are the past and, above all, I am selling a vision for the future. It is a shame that after a few years in which we have had difficulties on the pitch and things are finally turning slightly we cannot have the fans at the stadium. to celebrate this with the team."
On the new sponsorships:
"When you start putting all these elements together, you need to make sure your brand is relevant and up-to-date. In general, football teams are very good at running from day to day, they've been doing it for a long time. But it's the commercial side where you have to figure out where to grow your fanbase, which is a challenge for all of us."
On the Covid situation and on the remote involvement of fans:
"We recognized very quickly that we needed to adapt and be much more digitally advanced to engage our fans, not just in Italy but around the world. We recognized the importance of being socially active and giving back to the fans. our fans and the community. One of the first big events we had, global events, was in early May when we had From Milan With Love, which was a kind of virtual concert hosted by DJ Khaled, the impact was phenomenal. It was for charity, to celebrate the frontline workers. So this is just one example where we as a club were trying to think differently, and we were also trying to be more innovative because we believe the line between sports, entertainment and music is becoming very thin."
On Milan fans in the world:
"I don't want to value and say that a fan is worth that much in euros, but we know we have to meet their needs. Also, all fans are not the same. We have a huge fanbase in China, we have a huge fanbase in Indonesia. which is very different from our fanbase in Italy."
On Global market:
"There are certain markets that tend to buy more merchandise. Also, in Asia, we have some big markets there, in the Middle East, in Brazil, and then a market where we are seeing more interest is North America. So we can't give a value to every fan, but what we can collectively say is that we know that the more we engage, the more we make it accessible, the easier we make the customer journey on our e-commerce platform, the more we will sell."
On the way to sell at a distance and the sponsorship market:
"For the future, I think in terms of larger items as main partners, it is always very difficult to sell these items when you can't meet customers like you could in the past, you can't host them at a match and you can't portray what the brand is. That's the challenge. But showing the innovation and saying, 'We've passed this and these are the case studies we have and this is what we have charted,' we use a lot of metrics in terms of partnership performance tracking, which helps to tell the story and convince. So honestly, I don't think the sponsorship market will go down, but I think brands are getting a lot more sophisticated and they know exactly what they want. So, if you don't check those boxes, you will not be considered."
On player presentations and digital production at Casa Milan:
"It's a lot easier when we have player appearances, when we have player announcements, we do it in-house - they come to sign the contract at Casa Milan and then we go to the first floor and we have the photo session there. But also, most importantly, for the partners. They can also use the facilities, they can come here and we can create content for them. This was very important to us. Of course, there is cost savings in doing it in-house and not having to rent structures on the outside, but it is also more control, speed and flexibility."
On football after Covid:
"I think the exit from the pandemic will change the approach for most clubs, at least for the most successful clubs. They will further develop the digital space, they will have the fan in focus in terms of how we can engage. It's not just about monetisation, because that comes later. It's about making sure you give the fan an authentic experience in terms of closeness to the club."
