Among the twenty teams that are preparing to start the 92nd season of the Serie A football championship, one in particular presents itself with enthusiasm and ambitions that have not been seen for some time. Genoa returned to Serie A after last year’s relegation and has so far been one of the so-called “newly promoted” teams to have invested the most among the major European leagues. He bought, among others, the new striker of the national team, the Italian-Argentine Mateo Retegui, and an offensive winger who played in the Champions League semi-finals a few months ago, Junior Messias from Milan.
These investments, which are not yet concluded, have helped raise expectations for a return to Serie A, but the enthusiasm has been growing for months and goes beyond the squad, the players and the new signings. Since the last Serie B championship, a new era seems to have begun for Genoa, and this can be seen above all from the image that the club gives of itself, from the initiatives it proposes and from the involvement of an audience that until recently did not want to have nothing to do with the company.
The over 27,000 season tickets subscribed so far are a seasonal record not only for its history, but also for the city of Genoa, which is divided in half in football. The other side is represented by Sampdoria, which was relegated to Serie B after seriously risking bankruptcy and is now trying to restart under new ownership. As in other large Italian cities where two similar teams live together, the misfortunes of one can be accentuated by the successes of the other. This was the case in Genoa last season, and this period is represented in particular by a song, “Bellissima” by Annalisa, which the Genoa fans adapted as a chorus to rage against their rivals and which was then used by the club – in its original version — to promote an unexpectedly successful subscription campaign.
The goal was 25,000 season tickets, about 5,000 more than last year, and that already seemed like a very ambitious goal. The results therefore went beyond expectations even before the closing of the sales: «The communication campaign was appreciated both locally and nationally, becoming an opportunity to tell our identity even outside the Genoa fans». the company says. A little over a year ago, however, this enthusiasm seemed far away and Genoa found themselves in a situation similar to the one experienced recently by Sampdoria.
When we talk about Genoa we are talking above all about the team that brought football to Italy, as well as the oldest still active. Its ancient English origins are clearly visible in the name, Genoa Cricket and Football Club, as well as the nine Scudetti won between 1898 and 1924 still represent a source of pride, despite the fact that the memory is now very distant. In recent decades, however, its history has been full of difficulties.
Since the early 2000s, under the ownership of Enrico Preziosi, Genoa has returned permanently to Serie A, initially also with great momentum. Over the years, however, the property’s projects have worn out, the economic difficulties have become a constant and the relationship between the property and the fans has worsened to such an extent that it has become a perennial dispute, even with striking episodes. In recent years the team has often been at risk of relegation and the involvement of the public has certainly not benefited.
After often avoiding it by a hair’s breadth, relegation finally arrived just in the season of the transfer of ownership from the Preziosi group to 777 Partners, a US holding company with assets estimated at 12 billion dollars and specific projects in the world of football. Despite their ambitions, 777 Partners took over their most difficult season and failed to avoid relegation which, however, in cases like these, can become an opportunity to start from scratch.
And so it was. While not distorting the corporate structure, 777 Partners has begun to model Genoa according to his projects. On the sporting side, these projects led to an immediate return to Serie A, but the most significant and obvious changes concern the way in which the club has begun to approach the public: relegation has in fact become an opportunity to reunite with the fans , one of the most numerous in Italy.
If until last year communication was essential and of an institutional nature, because it did not enjoy great support, the new owners have brought the development of the brand and the digital part back to the center of their work, proposing original, elaborate contents capable of increasing involvement: not a great novelty for the big Italian teams, but yes for Genoa in recent years. The corporate structure has been enriched and is also supported by a timeshare that favors the use of new tools and collaboration with other realities. In addition to Genoa, 777 Partners owns stakes in Standard Liège in Belgium, Red Star in France, Vasco da Gama in Brazil, Hertha Berlin in Germany and Sevilla in Spain.
For Genoa now “the fans are at the center of the brand and its narrative”. This was seen in his most relevant initiatives, such as the collaboration with Bresh, a Genoese and Genoese artist, who led to the success of a song, “Guasto D’Amore”, born independently, which became the team’s spontaneous anthem and despite this entered also in the charts of the most played songs nationwide.
In developing the song, Genoa supported its launch, promotion and production of the official video (with the organization of a procession of fans through the streets of Genoa), but always «maintaining a fair distance so as not to make a song too institutional song born spontaneously from cheering». For the offices that take care of the club’s brand and communication, this approach was «one of the strengths» in the success of the initiative.
A similar thing was done with “Bellissima” by Annalisa, a song that had nothing to do with Genoa, but which ended up being associated with this period of enthusiasm around the team. Annalisa is Ligurian but she is not from Genoa and not even a fan: despite this, for her club her song “became a soundtrack of last season and this favored conversations with her and her management”.
This new way of approaching the public also served to introduce recently purchased players. For the presentation of the new striker Mateo Retegui, for example, a communication campaign was organized and then a special event in Piazza De Ferrari which was attended by thousands of fans: something that hadn’t happened in Genoa since the signing of Diego Milito in the distant summer of 2008. «It was a very important blow as he is the current striker of the national team: for this reason we wanted to ride the enthusiasm of the environment and the interest around the club» said the club.
For Genoa, the sporting season began in early August with a victory against Modena in the Italian Cup, and with two goals from new signing Retegui. Serie A will instead start on Saturday night at home against Fiorentina. On September 7, the club will also celebrate its 130-year history, and for the occasion it has already planned “something special” to continue to involve its fans and also reach those who are not.
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2023-08-18 10:30:14
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