Brought to you by the Verified channel now offering official GIF playlists. Italian soccer giants Roma have signed a partnership deal with social media platform Giphy. The deal sees the Serie A outfit become the first Italian club to have their own verified channel on Giphy, joining the likes of French giants Paris Saint-Germain and Premier League side Arsenal on the premier tier of the GIF library service. Roma have created a series of playlists, grouping their own stickers and animated images of the current season and others dedicated to individual players for users to share digitally. Since opening their official profile on the platform in June 2016, Roma GIFs have reached more than 880 million views on social media, more than any other Serie A club. Roma’s ownership, led by majority shareholder James Pallotta, is very keen on growing the club’s brand internationally through social media. In the last six months alone the club have announced a streaming deal with Twitter, a weekly Snapchat show and the launch of an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot on Facebook.
AS Roma is partnering with Giphy as it continues to expand its social media offerings. The Serie A club follows Arsenal FC and Paris Saint-Germain in getting a verified channel on the platform, becoming the first Italian team to do so. The channel will offer playlists featuring stickers and animated images of players that fans can share. Roma’s use of Giphy since June 2016 has helped it record 880 million views on social media overall, a higher figure than any of its domestic rivals.