Serie A

MADE IN ITALY LANDS IN NYC

Serie A USA introduces new season initiative for US Market

Lega Serie A office in USA hosted a launch event for the new "Made in Italy - International Main Partners Lega Serie A". Thanks to the international communication project developed with Maeci (Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation) and ICE (Agency for the promotion abroad and the internationalization of Italian companies), Calcio, soccer in Italian, will join other Italian exports from the worlds of fashion, food, and industry as an Italian excellence abroad. As part of the Made in Italy initiative, Lega Serie A will produce unique video formats featuring all 20 clubs, the most iconic players in Italian football, and what is unique about all of the cities that have Serie A Clubs.

"Serie A Made in Italy" was celebrated at the Serie A USA office in New York City with the consul general of Italy in New York Fabrizio Di Michele, and Lega Serie A Ambassador Marco Materazzi: “In one year we have seen Lega Serie A growing in numbers and popularity throughout the United States - said Fabrizio Di Michele -. The cooperation between the Serie A and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International cooperation and Trade Agency is quite an unique experiment stemming from the vast potential that sport, and notably Italian calcio, bears as a vehicle for promoting Italian business, culture and lifestyle”. In addition to the Made in Italy celebration, Serie A USA unveiled key new initiatives developed for the US market. This season with top American players now with Serie A teams (Christian Pulisic and Yunus Musah at AC Milan and Weston McKennie and Timothy Weah at Juventus), Serie A is seeing significant growth in interest across North America. Serie A USA has also partnered with Roc Nation Sports to support their commercial business as well as content development and community engagement. “The Serie A Made In Italy project, in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and The Italian Trade agency, is not only a commercial partnership but it is the new backbone of our international marketing strategy. Italy is loved in all over the world for food, fashion, design, art and we are simply connecting all the pillars of Made in Italy with Calcio: creating engaging stories about our 20 clubs, in 17 cities that we’ll spread in all over the world, through our broadcasters and social media, more than 60 pieces of content involving 1 relevant player for each SERIE A clubs. It’s a win-win strategy: more content for our broadcasters, more global awareness and consideration for our clubs, showing globally the beauty and well-made of our country”. Said Michele Ciccarese, Commercial & Marketing Director at Lega Serie A, who oversees the global commercial partnership revenues and today presented the Serie A global strategy and the new Made Italy project during the event in Serie A USA Office in Manhattan, New York. Serie A USA aims to make a bigger impact on the North American market through the following initiatives:

Columbia University School of Professional Studies - Sports Management program --> Serie A will be a strategic partner with one of the world’s most respected Sports Management programs. This partnership will provide Serie A access to the Sports Management program's professors and students to help advise on activities to grow Serie A in the US market as well as for Serie A to participate in events at Columbia University's Sports Management program.

Community Events --> As part of their presence in the US, Serie A has committed to being involved in the local communities.

Street Soccer USA: Serie A partnered with Street Soccer USA to help support the installation of a street soccer park and launch of a media center in the South Bronx neighborhood in NYC. 6 October marks the first class in the Serie A Media Center to help train kids to use social media responsibly and content creation in collaboration with education experts. - Serie A Elite: Serie A organizes youth talent identification sessions throughout the US and Canada in collaboration with Rome City Institute. This season Serie A Elite plans to double the number of participants reaching around 1,000 kids across 8-10 cities in the US. - Pulisic Stomping Ground: PUMA, Serie A and Christian Pulisic are joining forces to engage with the youth community in Little Havana, Miami. Teens from local high schools will have the chance to train with the Rome City coaches and also learn about careers in soccer from top Serie A and club executives who will be in town for the SoccerEx convention, where Serie A is a presenting sponsor.

Calcio Weekly Newsletter --> a weekly aggregation of news about the league, edited by Ryan Bailey, who is also host of the popular podcast, Total Soccer Show. Calcio Weekly will provide fans with a preview of the week’s matches and other stories that make Serie A unique and exciting to watch. Calcio Weekly is planned to launch Oct 19 just in advance of Juve and Milan face-off.

Social Media Content --> For the USA, Canada and Mexico, Serie A has launched a dedicated Instagram @SerieA_northamerica, which has grown more than 2x since the start of the new season. There will be new content franchises that will be launched specifically for the US and other North American audiences over the coming weeks including weekend wrap-ups and player profiles.

"Last season’s success in the European competitions gave us a good tailwind for the start of the new season and now having 4 of the regular starters on the US Men's team in Serie A is another added boost,” said Andy Mitchell, CEO and Managing Director of Serie A USA. “We’ve developed these new initiatives to help capitalize on greater interest in the league as well as invest in local communities to use soccer as a way to help kids develop in various ways”.