“Football for the people“ as Lele Adani puts it to summarize his life philosophy. During the Summit, he took the stage at the Football Stage alongside his friend and broadcasting partner Nicola Ventola. In a panel moderated by Vito Pace, CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) of Urban Vision, the two discussed the new online format ‘Viva el Futbol’.
After their experience with ‘Bobo TV’, the former footballers — together with Antonio Cassano — decided to continue their journey by launching a project centered on horizontal and transparent communication. “Knowledge, competence, and credibility are the three key pillars that constantly guide our work and reflect our goal of building loyalty within our community”, publicly stated Ventola, the former Inter striker.
The numbers are impressive, with the show’s official YouTube channel boasting 73,000 subscribers and over 9 million views just one year after its launch. “A new communicative paradigm that has skillfully leveraged the digital architecture”, Pace summarized as he introduced the panel, with Adani highlighting how their first experience on Twitch (alongside Bobo Vieri) could be compared to the advent of pay-TV in Italy and worldwide.
An innovative paradigm that also emphasizes diverse audiences and targets, requiring tailored approaches and tools to engage effectively. This is only a secondary challenge, however, considering that the “language of football” is universal, just like that of sport.
What about future goals? “Urban Vision wants to positively transform urban environments to build new relationships with people”, said Pace during the panel — a phrase that Adani and Ventola cited and repurposed to describe their next steps: transcending the physical boundaries of the online world and expanding into offline spheres. What does that mean? Becoming urban — accompanying people on the subway, on the streets, and everywhere in between. It’s hardly an audacious experiment, given that the three former players have already appeared on various theater stages — the most recent being the Lauro Rossi Theater in Macerata — where they received an incredible response from the audience.
What’s important is to stay engaging and use football as a vehicle for ideas and passions within the social fabric, while also embracing constructive criticism as a way to improve. The rest? “Facciamo calcio“, as Adani always says.
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"Football for the people" as Lele Adani puts it to summarize his life philosophy. During the Summit, he took the stage at the Football Stage alongside his friend and broadcasting partner Nicola Ventola. In a panel moderated by Vito Pace, CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) of Urban Vision, the two discussed the new online format 'Viva el Futbol'. After their experience with 'Bobo TV', the former footballers — together with Antonio Cassano — decided to continue their journey by launching a project
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