Exetera, co-founded by Alessio Farina, has become a leader in blending strategy and technology to create innovative digital solutions. One of their latest standout achievements is the successful redesign of ACF Fiorentina, setting a new standard for fan engagement and scalability in sports. In this interview, Alessio shares the details of how he and his team brought this ambitious project to life and takes us through the playbook that drove its success.
What led you to co-found Exetera and how did your past experiences shape your vision for the agency?
My professional path began in marketing in the 90s, fueled by a strong curiosity for technology. At the time these fields seemed separate, but I soon realized how complementary they were. Using standard, open source, and low/no-code platforms helped me gain valuable experience in digital marketing. However, I quickly realized that these tools were not enough to support larger ambitions. To achieve true innovation and customization I needed engineering skills, which unfortunately I don’t have, Marcello does. Together, with him and Cristian, we founded Exetera, an agency that combines strategic marketing vision with advanced technological skills.
Exetera is positioned as one of Italy's leading Kentico partners, can you tell us about your first encounter with Kentico?
Our knowledge of Kentico was inherited from Marcello, who had been using it since 2008. From the beginning, Kentico proved to be the perfect solution for our business vision, combining powerful digital marketing tools with endless customization possibilities—and we knew how to maximize it. Adopting Kentico as our digital experience platform was a strategic choice that shaped Exetera's growth trajectory. It is the tool that allows us to face complex challenges and manage ambitious projects. Our close relationship with Kentico has also helped us stay informed about relevant digital marketing developments.
Tell me a bit about Exetera’s approach. How do you tackle digital strategy and execution for your clients?
Our competitive landscape is based on digital consolidation and multi-channel digital experiences, a still relatively uncrowded field. Each project presents different challenges, often involving multiple third-party players and heterogeneous technologies. What sets us apart is our versatile technology stack and our experience in consolidating heterogeneous digital systems. These capabilities allow us to operate in a broad range of digital transformation, integrating seamlessly with other IT systems, optimizing digital assets, reducing technological friction and creating synergies.
Are there certain industry verticals where you feel Exetera can make a unique impact?
Over the years, our competencies have helped us achieve high client satisfaction in industry verticals such as tourism, healthcare, and sports. Generally, our ideal scenario involves projects based on interoperable technological assets, multiple digital channels, advanced customizations, high productivity, custom applications, and elevated standards of performance and security. Our skillset is often needed for these industries, for example, our recent success with ACF Fiorentina.
What drew Fiorentina to partner with Exetera and Kentico for their digital transformation?
ACF Fiorentina approached us as users of Kontent, a solution they had already adopted for its headless CMS capabilities. However, they needed a platform that could support a more comprehensive digital experience—critical for their loyalty project. At the time, Kentico Xperience 13 seemed to be the platform best suited to their needs. So we planned a migration of their entire digital ecosystem, but there was still one challenge: figuring out how to maintain a high-performing multichannel system. The answer was Xperience by Kentico, which perfectly combined the functionalities of a DXP with those of a headless CMS.
What were some of the main objectives you set with the club?
Loyalty and engagement are essential for sports clubs to maintain strong relationships and actively involve their fan base. The goal of the InViola platform was to centralize and reactivate loyalty programs such as point tracking, the rewards catalog with its request flow, the mapping of affiliated stores, and numerous gamification activities, including PlayToWin, Player of the Month, and other interactive contests. In the initial phase, we focused on contact normalization, fidelity card management, and consent collection to ensure GDPR compliance. During this process, Kentico played a big role in integrating the third-party loyalty platform with a proprietary interface developed by ACF. The platform managed complex data acquisition and normalization flows, identifying inconsistencies and providing users with tools to autonomously correct and update their data.
“Thanks to Kentico, we successfully normalized over 40,000 contacts and created an integrated ecosystem that supports the club’s entire loyalty strategy, delivering an engaging and seamless user experience.”
You mentioned the goal of creating a “Digital Arena” to better connect Fiorentina with its fans. How did the InViola platform fulfill this vision?
Fans are passionate and want to engage with their club at all times, not just during matches. This requires the creation of a multichannel digital ecosystem that allows the club to continuously interact with fans. This is what we defined as the Digital Arena. Kentico was the ideal solution. On one hand, it facilitates integration with the main systems used by a sports club, such as CRM, ticketing platforms, loyalty programs, and SSO systems. On the other hand, it manages the production and distribution of content across multiple channels, including web, apps, monitors, displays, and social media.
It sounds like scalability and personalization were vital for Fiorentina's website.
These were at the heart of our approach for Fiorentina’s website. Personalization ensures the platform can adapt to the club's evolving needs, aligning with their strategy and ambitions. Scalability drives growth, enabling the digital ecosystem to expand seamlessly alongside their fanbase. We implemented this vision in phases. In 2023, we launched the InViola platform to centralize data and improve its quality. By 2024, we integrated key systems like CRM, ticketing, and Opta for dynamic match and Viola Park management. Looking ahead to 2025, the focus shifts to AI-driven marketing, loyalty programs, and expanding into new digital channels.
From your perspective, what are the biggest pain points sports marketers are currently facing?
Sports clubs are fortunate to have a very large fan base, but it is also highly heterogeneous, comprising a wide range of demographics, interests, and digital behaviors. Beyond individual marketing activities, there's two main pain points: personalizing the user experience and ensuring consistent multichannel coverage. Fans are not just spectators; they are individuals with diverse and growing expectations. Understanding their needs and delivering personalized content, services, and interactions increases engagement and strengthens their sense of belonging.
Managing vast amounts of data from multiple sources (like CRM, loyalty, ticketing, social media) is a significant challenge, especially when this data is not integrated or properly structured. They also interact with the club across numerous touchpoints, such as the website, mobile app, social media, ticketing platforms, and even physical events. Ensuring that every touchpoint provides a consistent, seamless, and uninterrupted experience is crucial to maintaining engagement.
Adding to these challenges is the constant pressure to innovate to stay competitive, both in terms of digital experiences and monetization opportunities. Clubs must not only attract new fans but also retain existing ones, turning digital engagement into tangible value. Addressing these challenges requires an advanced digital platform that is able to integrate personalization, centralize data management, and multichannel capabilities.
Looking ahead, are there any new technologies, trends, or strategies that you’re particularly excited to explore?
Naturally, artificial intelligence (AI) is currently at the forefront, and we are deeply interested in understanding its evolution and finding ways to integrate it into our offerings. Our goal is to identify advanced uses for AI that can truly help our clients achieve competitive and operational advantages. From our experience with ACF Fiorentina, we’ve realized that the real challenge lies not in mastering a single technology but in creating interoperable, efficient, and integrated ecosystems. These ecosystems must function as a unified entity, capable of engaging with stakeholders seamlessly and continuously, regardless of the channel, timing, or device.
Exetera and Alessio’s success highlights the power of combining strategy and technology to achieve exceptional results. Their ACF Fiorentina success story stands as a testament to the team’s ability to deliver dynamic, scalable solutions that redefine fan engagement and set a new standard for digital transformation in sports.
Alessio’s expertise is actively transforming digital experiences for sports organizations, as evidenced by ACF Fiorentina’s success and status as a Site of the Year 2024 industry award winner. With a strong foundation and an innovative mindset, Exetera is well-positioned to revolutionize how sports clubs connect with their fans.
Feeling inspired? Kick-start your journey towards improving digital experiences for your sports organization by downloading our ebook, The fan experience game changer: How to elevate sports experiences in the digital era.