Bancomat sets its sights on Ostiamare: local football becomes a community hub
Bancomat is the new platinum sponsor of Ostiamare, the Rome-based club that has been promoted to Serie C, as part of a project that aims to go beyond football
The value of a sponsorship should not be measured solely in terms of the visibility provided by a shirt or the amount of media exposure. It should also aim to highlight and support a club’s ability to represent a community and to become a social and economic hub for the local area in which it operates.
This is the approach taken by Bancomat, the company that operates Italia’s leading payment network, which has decided to enter into a new partnership with Ostiamare, becoming a Platinum Sponsor of the Rome-based club that has been promoted to Serie C this year.
The agreement will see the BANCOMAT logo featured on the front of the white-and-purple shirt, but the significance of the deal appears to extend beyond traditional branding. The two organisations have, in fact, built their partnership around a set of shared values: people, trust, talent, the local community and the future. This approach is encapsulated in the slogan ‘Close to those who are growing up’, which identifies the younger generations as the project’s primary focus for social investment.
The choice of Ostiamare is no coincidence. The club is one of the sporting organisations with the deepest historical roots in Rome’s 10th Municipality, an area with around 230,000 residents and one of the capital’s most significant communities. At a time when businesses are called upon to demonstrate their commitment to local communities in practical terms, supporting a sports facility capable of bringing together families, young people and organisations means investing in social capital that goes beyond immediate commercial returns.
A key element of the partnership is Ostiamare’s youth academy, which now involves over 700 young players. These figures illustrate the club’s evolution from a simple football club into an educational and social hub. It is a model that many companies are viewing with growing interest, as it allows them to associate their brand with programmes focused on training, inclusion and personal development.
