A Successful Kit Launch in the Era of Modern Football: AC Milan & PUMA

Over the past decade, kit launches and the way football clubs release their jerseys have changed dramatically. Not only has it become an important part of aesthetics and sports fashion, but it also become a way for clubs to communicate with their fans and communities. A wide variety of designs, colors, and fittings are just a few of the features when it comes to kit launches in the modern era of football. It is also worth mentioning that there are more than fifty football clubs worldwide looking for various sponsorship opportunities for different areas and kit suppliers as well on Sponsor.Online's digital marketplace.

A number of case studies illustrate how kit launches in football are becoming increasingly prominent. A prime example of this is the launch of AC Milan and PUMA's home kit before the 2020-21 season. Through our collaboration with SportBusiness, we explore the case of AC Milan and examine its communication process regarding the launch of its 2020-21 home kit.

With Covid-19 still raging in July 2020, Puma & AC Milan used an Instagram-led campaign – celebrating Milan’s contemporary design culture and architecture to launch the 2020-21 home kit.

The campaign reflected the design of the shirt itself and drove record sales figures through a multiphase launch spanning film, graphics, photo shoots, player and influencer support, pre-order and youth strands, a personalization offer, and a media partnership giveaway.

The objective of the campaign brief was to promote the new season kit, worn by AC Milan’s men’s, women’s, and youth teams through a creative approach around the shirt’s design inspiration which is the city’s architecture in general and its famous Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II (a double arcade in the center of Milan that houses Italy’s oldest and smartest shopping mall).

The marketing team was tasked to roll out the campaign closer to the final game of the delayed 2019-20 season. Leveraging spiking soccer interest around the final Serie A game of the season, the campaign began with a pre-order phase on July 25. Early purchases were incentivized with an offer of free name and number personalization for those who ordered a jersey at the Casa Milan or AC Milan store located in San Babila.

The teaser phase included graphics and a 10-second video posted on the club’s Facebook and Instagram pages. Following the teaser phase the new AC Milan 2020-21 home kit officially went on sale on July 28 via PUMA’s official website, at PUMA stores, official AC Milan stores, store.milan.com, and selected shops around the world. It was unveiled at a socially distanced presentation event in Milan for the football and fashion media. Then it was promoted across the club and PUMA’s social media platforms with a PR push.

The initial tweets on AC Milan’s and PUMA’s feeds explained that the new shirt design was inspired by the ‘grandeur of Milan and the magnificence of its Gallery ‘. The debut tweet was followed up by graphic content and a six-post Puma Football Twitter thread explaining the background story of the design.

The social media activity on Twitter was followed later that day by the launch of the full hero social spot, illustrating how the jersey was inspired by the elegance and style of the city particularly on YouTube.

On July 29, a social contest was launched to win a new shirt in harness with media partner @433 - famous for its social media content for football. The non-stopping activity on social media continued on July 30. A behind-the-scenes video post of the kit launch photoshoot of players was shared across the club’s communication channels.

A child/youth kit-focused phase was rolled out one day later. This was followed up by a small influencer social strand which saw shirts delivered to and shared by a selection of celebrities and stars from other sports including Kevin Porter Jr, shooting guard of Houston Rockets in the NBA.

The kit then made its on-pitch debut on August 2 on the club’s final home match of the season against Cagliari. An Instagram video thread on AC Milan’s platform explaining the design process was posted right away.

Despite the challenge caused by the pandemic, the campaign drove a record sales boom for a new AC Milan shirt, with a 1,700-per-cent rise in purchases across the first 48 hours of the campaign compared to the previous season. The number of jerseys sold in the first two days exceeded the purchases made after the first three weeks of the previous year’s new shirt.

The campaign’s social media metrics also demonstrate the success a month after the campaign’s launch on July 27, with campaign content viewed more than six million times on the club and the sportswear brand’s social media platforms (Including 3.5 million views on AC Milan’s Instagram feed and two million views on its Facebook page, plus a further 500,000 views on Puma’s YouTube and Twitter channels).