Roma’s Missing People campaign is a wonderful lesson to club’s on how to use their social presence

When scrolling through social media this morning, you might have come across Roma’s heart-warming, inspiring and quite remarkable tweet as they broke the news that a third missing person had been found thanks to their Missing People campaign.

For a bit of context: Roma had agreed to post the faces and names of missing people alongside every one of their first-team signings this summer in a bid to help the cause and search for those who have been separated from their friends and family. The Italian club announced deals for 11 new players in the past two months, including Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Chris Smalling from Premier League clubs Arsenal and Manchester United respectively.

Over time transfer announcements have become a popular and over-engineered part of the transfer deal itself, and in recent years we’ve seen some funny ones, some inventive and creative, and some just simply strange and forced. Signing a player is now an occasion and a moment to celebrate in the off-season almost like a good result or trophy itself, which shows how much pulling power and engagement transfer stories can get, especially when signings are announced.

This could be be down to many factors, like Sky Sports News, who have been glorifying the window for over a decade now, but it’s also down to fans’ demand for new players in a world where transfer spending has inflated dramatically.

Collate all this and what you find is a market brimming with opportunity to advertise with an audience chomping at the bit for more information, more engagement with their club and constantly refreshing social media for updates. Roma, quite brilliantly, have taken advantage of this like many clubs, but used it for a cause everyone would agree is of huge importance.

On Friday morning, Roma’s Twitter account announced that a third person had been found thanks to the cause and the search, which is fantastic. Even if the campaign had found just one person, it would have been a success. Even if no one had been found, the campaign will have raised awareness and should certainly be getting clubs and media outlets to question how they use the huge engagement they get from fans during transfer seasons.

Roma delivered the news on social media, which was met with great applause from the public:

Three people found, but there’s still many more missing out there. Football clubs, or any organisation that gains so much guaranteed traction and engagement, should learn from this movement and be involved in more campaigns. Whether it be for missing people, helping the environment, or fighting inequality, the transfer window provides a huge opportunity to hit a big audience and it must be taken advantage of.

Roma’s campaign with Missing People has worked well, but it’s time this growing market is truly taken advantage of.

About author

You might also like

SPORTEL Monaco 2021: CEO Laurent Puons praises event

The second day of SPORTEL 2021 got underway this morning in Monaco. Following on from yesterday’s masterclasses, Wednesday played host to a number of conference talks from industry-leading professionals. The

SPORTEL 2021: Day One Recap

This year’s prestigious SPORTEL convention kicked off in sunny Monaco today, welcoming a host of familiar faces as well as plenty of new ones. Doors opened at 8:30am with businesses

SPORTEL 2021: Monaco prepares to host prestigious October convention

After a one-year hiatus due to the impact of COVID-19, the world-renowned sports media and tech convention, SPORTEL, returns to host its annual event in Monaco. The conference will take

0 Comments

No Comments Yet!

You can be first to comment this post!

Leave a Reply