Italian Serie A side Napoli offered its fans a novel way to get to know attacker Arkadiusz Milik by going on a ‘date’ with the Polish international via a Tinder hook-up
This inventive initiative saw the club partner with dating app Tinder to offer supporters a chance to meet the club’s star forward
Fans were invited to send messages of support to the 23-year-old forward ahead of his long-awaited return after a cruciate ligament injury.
Milik then picked four fans for a stadium tour ‘date’.
Milik, who was bought by the club to replace former start forward Gonzalo Higuain when they sold the Argentine to Juventus, started well and scored six goals in his first month playing for the club.
But he suffered a serious knee injury playing for Poland and was out for most of the rest of the season.
To celebrate his scoring return, Napoli teamed up with Tinder – the so called ‘the world’s leading social app for meeting new people’ – to offer fans the chance to match-up with their striker on the app and send him theirt good wishes and support.
Milik then personally picked his favourite four welcome back messages and replied to them – inviting them to meet him in person.
Folllowing the ‘dates’, Milik posted photos on social media with fans tweeting: “Thank you all for the messages you sent me on Tinder! You’ve been great!”
Thank you all for the messages you sent me on Tinder! You’ve been great! pic.twitter.com/SxtHJCoWqe
— Arkadiusz Milik (@arekmilik9) May 24, 2017
“I’m really proud to be part of this unique and innovative initiative with Tinder, The fans here have always given me a warm welcome and it’s really amazing to be able to interact with them directly” said Milik.
“Technology brings people together, just like sports, and I look forward to starting this new adventure.”
“We are happy to support Arek Milik and S.S.C. Napoli. Tinder is first and foremost a platform for meeting new people. We look forward to connecting fans with their favourite player,” added Tinder partnerships VP David Wyler.
Comment:
Napoli wasn’t the first sports team to partner with the popular dating app, but it certainly used the platform as a novel way to bring fans closer to a player.
This is one of the more clever and inventive uses of the dating app by a sports rights-holder.
It was way back in 2014 that the NCAA college football team the Oregon Ducks became the first sports team to activative using Tinder – a smart move considering the dating app’s early update amongst university students (see case study).
Then in early 2015 the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks become the first US professional sports franchise to run a ‘Swipe Right Night’ campaign on the platform (see case study).
By 2016 the activation tactical trend for the platform had crossed over to Europe: one off the more interesting examples was French rugby outfit FC Grenoble’s Valentine’s Day mascot-led Tinder initaitive (see case study).
Links:
Napoli
https://www.youtube.com/user/SSCNapoli
https://www.facebook.com/SSCNapoli/
https://www.instagram.com/officialsscnapoli/?hl=it
