AC Milan's Chief Revenue Officer, Casper Stylsvig spoke to the microphones of Forbes recently and said these words about the partnership with Rocket League:
"This is the ultimate proof in the convergence between sport, entertainment, gaming, fashion, and lifestyle – they all intersect. Being able to do that in such a popular game as Rocket League is something that we’re really, really proud of… We like to say that we want to think differently, we want to do things in a different way, and we want to be different... Ultimately it’s about the capture and the share of attention of the fans. Not only our fans but football fans of all sorts... [Through Rocket League] we’re catering on a global scale, on a massive platform, to a younger audience. This is something that we really think we can pride ourselves on being a really innovative club.”
About the stylish AC Milan fourth kit, Stylsvig, told Forbes that 60% of the sales were to customers located outside of Italy, and 20% of sales were to the U.S., highlighting the global reach of AC Milan, which was ranked by Forbes in 2022 as the 14th most valuable soccer club in the world.
"It’s not only a trick for people to buy more products. Because we cannot trick the consumer today and that's not the thinking behind it. But I think it's to be seen as an innovative club. Our ultimate goal is to bring the club back where it used to be, so we sort of lost the way, probably over a decade and now the club is coming back, being in the quarter-finals in the Champions League, which is our natural habitat. But it's telling our story, our brand story, being interesting both to consumers, but also to other brands to what can you use AC Milan for. And then also making sure that we are catering to as many different people, as many different fans as possible. That is absolutely key for us.”
Stylsvig added:
“We are based in Milan, which is the fashion capital of the world. So when you have this very fine line between fashion, sport, and gaming today, so people tend to be fans of football but they’re also fans of fashion, and fans of gaming... A lot clubs are launching their fourth kit, but a lot of the launches are just disappearing in all the noise and that’s the reason you want to stand out. We want to be seen as trend setters here, that we are at the forefront here. We don't want to copy other clubs. We like to do things our way and I think that's much more important than a few more marketing dollars going that way.”
On AC Milan's growth and where does Stylsvig sees the club in the digital world in the next 10 years?
"That's the first step on something very interesting that we're cooking at the moment. I can say that we’re sort of reaching out not only in the gaming space but broader, because we see ourselves as a brand, not necessarily just as a football club. But definitely, we’ll be very innovative in how we communicate, how we go forward. And maybe also a little bit more brave. Because all football clubs, AC Milan included, are very guarded in the way we do it and I do think using other platforms we can be a little bit more brave... A brand of the future is absolutely key because as a business we need to keep growing. We have existed almost 125 years but we need to change with the world, which is absolutely key for us."
