AdKaora

With the aim of helping brands navigate an increasingly fragmented digital landscape, AdKaora, the Mondadori Group’s MarTech agency, and Amilon, a leading European provider of digital gift cards and incentive technology solutions, today announced a strategic commercial partnership.

The collaboration builds on AdKaora’s approach of combining data, technology and creativity to help companies address the complexities of the digital ecosystem. Since its inception as a MarTech company, the agency has focused on transforming data into communication projects that deliver business results while remaining meaningful to consumers. Today, its offering extends beyond traditional advertising, delivering solutions that engage users across multiple everyday touchpoints. Advertising thus becomes an enabler of seamless experiences that connect the physical and digital worlds.

This vision aligns perfectly with the ideaShopping ecosystem, Amilon’s Italian shopping app. The platform uniquely brings together digital gift cards, discount coupons, loyalty cards and digital flyers from more than 15,000 retail brands and supermarket chains across Italy, covering key sectors including consumer electronics, children’s products and toy retailers.

A high-value audience: the Profile of “Future Buyers^®”
The partnership gives brands access to an exclusive audience that Amilon defines as “Future Buyers^®“: consumers with confirmed purchase intent and a very short path to conversion. The platform reaches around 5 million highly profiled users. Of these, 98% are employees aged between 25 and 54, while 100% are the primary household purchasing decision-makers. Users access the app with an average balance of €150 and typically spend 20–35% more than the value of their voucher, often opting for impulse purchases and premium products.

Davide Tran, MarTech Director at Mondadori Media and CEO & Co-Founder of AdKaora

The ability to measure performance, reach users based on their interests at the very moment they are making purchasing decisions and, above all, connect digital data with real-world behaviour provides precise audience insights and tangible performance results. Converting digital users into physical store visitors—and ultimately into customers—requires advanced drive-to-store and proximity marketing strategies integrated with channels such as Retail Media. Our agreement with Amilon and AdKaora’s integration into ideaShopping are a direct response to this need: through data analysis, we can follow the entire customer journey and transform digital interactions into concrete, measurable actions, while continuously improving the performance of future campaigns.

Lorenzo Incantalupo, Director of Content & Product Marketing at Amilon

“Our partnership with AdKaora takes Retail Media to a level that no other digital channel can replicate. Users who open the ideaShopping app already have a dedicated budget, a clear purchase intention and are actively looking for the most convenient way to shop. Reaching them at that precise moment with sponsored content seamlessly integrated into their shopping journey transforms advertising into being present exactly when purchasing decisions are made. For brands, this represents a direct, measurable and highly convertible opportunity to engage with an exclusive audience of Future Buyers^®—users who are certain to make a purchase in the near future.”

 The customer journey across the funnel: a unique, measurable and fully integrated shopping experience
The partnership is built on a technological ecosystem in which the entire customer journey unfolds seamlessly within the app, covering every stage of the marketing funnel. Users are guided smoothly from the initial discovery of promotional offers to viewing product details, activating coupons and planning their next in-store visit. For brands and retailers, every step of this journey is fully traceable and measurable, providing complete visibility into campaign performance.

The partnership’s key differentiator lies in its ability to deliver native, non-intrusive advertising precisely when consumers are evaluating their shopping options. At the heart of this synergy is the “Flyers” section of the ideaShopping app, one of the platform’s highest-engagement entry points. Within this space, AdKaora has introduced two native placements dedicated to digital flyers: an advanced promotional content aggregator that leverages integrated geolocation technology to deliver retail catalogues relevant to each user’s location.

This approach fundamentally transforms the in-app shopping experience. ideaShopping was designed as a digital shopping and employee engagement platform, enabling companies to provide fringe benefits that employees can convert into gift cards within the app, while also giving them access to additional savings tools such as discount coupons and digital flyers. By integrating brand promotions seamlessly into this decisive stage of the shopping journey, the traditional Drive-to-Store model evolves into an instant Drive-to-Buy experience. Since the platform’s audience largely consists of gift card holders with pre-allocated spending budgets and a strong propensity to purchase, retailers benefit from an audience whose purchase intent is significantly higher than the market average.

AD cube, the AI platform for the optimization of digital advertising campaigns and part of AdKaora, the MarTech agency of Mondadori Digital, launches CreativeDNA, a new module dedicated to the in-depth analysis of ad creative assets.

CreativeDNA allows advertisers to view the performance of all their assets, both static and video, in a single dashboard. It helps identify which elements drive the best results, uncover patterns across top-performing projects, and generate actionable recommendations to improve creative strategy.

The new module is integrated with other products within the AD cube platform: MMM (Marketing Mix Model) for strategic budget planning, and AD cube core for campaign monitoring and operational optimization. Together, the three modules cover the entire digital advertising cycle, from strategy to execution and creative analysis.

In performance advertising, focusing only on budget and channels is no longer enough. Creativity has become the decisive variable,” says Alessandro Nuara, CEO of AD cube. “Yet for too long creative decisions have remained a matter of intuition. With CreativeDNA we aim to build a bridge between creativity and results, giving teams the opportunity to understand, based on data, what really works and why. The goal is to transform creative analysis from a subjective exercise into a measurable strategic lever, enabling companies to replicate successes, eliminate waste, and make creative decisions based on evidence rather than opinions,” Nuara concludes.

CreativeDNA is already available to AD cube clients. A modular version of the product will be made available in the coming months, allowing new users to test the platform’s creative analysis features.

AD cube is an AI platform for the optimization of digital advertising campaigns. Since September 2025, it has been part of AdKaora, the MarTech agency of Mondadori Digital. The company was founded in February 2023 from research conducted by the Politecnico di Milano and ML cube. The company, selected among the 16 best AI startups in Europe by the ELISE programme, manages more than €30 million in optimized advertising budget for clients in Italy and abroad.

AdKaora, the digital company of Mondadori Digital, announces a strategic partnership with YEP (Your Eco Plan), a platform specialised in measuring, optimising, decarbonising, and activating environmental impact in digital advertising.

Thanks to this agreement, AdKaora integrates YEP’s Media Environmental Efficiency KPI (or Impact KPI) into its offering, adding a new level of measurement alongside traditional media KPIs. The system enables advertisers to assess how environmentally efficient a campaign is, without altering existing media buying strategies or operational workflows.

Environmental efficiency becomes part of media KPIs

Digital advertising today contributes over 3.5% of global CO₂ emissions, an impact comparable to the entire aviation sector. At the same time, growing European regulatory pressure, including the CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive – EU 2022/2464), is encouraging companies to consider advertising as part of their Scope 3 emissions.

In this context, there is a need to complement traditional media KPIs with new indicators capable of measuring not only performance but also the environmental efficiency of advertising delivery.

Making the impact actionable within the media

“We are pleased to collaborate with Luca Brighenti and YEP to offer our clients a timely tool that integrates environmental impact directly into media strategies, at a moment of strong and justified attention to green issues,” says Davide Tran, CEO of AdKaora and MarTech Hub Director at Mondadori Digital. “This partnership strengthens our positioning as an innovative player and allows brands to link advertising delivery to measurable and trackable environmental indicators.”

“With AdKaora, we introduce the Media Environmental Efficiency KPI directly within the agency’s offering,” states Luca Brighenti, Founder of YEP. “The goal is to make environmental efficiency a native media metric, integrated into campaign planning and evaluation, complementing traditional performance KPIs with a new operational dimension.”

How the integrated solution works

Within AdKaora’s offering, the new KPI is activated as a plug-and-play solution requiring no additional technical integrations. Through a single operational layer, the system provides:

• Measurement of environmental efficiency: calculating the environmental intensity of advertising delivery (gCO₂ per impression, energy consumed, campaign footprint) via a carbon data platform aligned with global frameworks such as the Global Media Sustainability Framework (GMSF);
• Optimisation of media efficiency: continuous analysis of media configurations to identify opportunities to improve environmental efficiency, with actionable recommendations integrated directly into planning strategies;
• Decarbonisation and activation of environmental projects in Italy: for unavoidable emissions, brands can activate decarbonisation solutions via certified carbon credits and local nature-based projects (reforestation, agroforestry, marine ecosystem protection), linking media efficiency to tangible environmental outcomes;
• Efficiency-ready reporting: YEP reporting translates delivery into clear environmental indicators — Footprint Index, Optimisation Index, and Outcome/Activation Index — which together form the Impact Score, a single metric representing the overall environmental efficiency of the campaign.

AdKaora, the digital company of Mondadori Digital, has been selected by Guess, one of the world’s most recognisable fashion brands, to manage its 2025 digital activities in Europe, with coordinated planning across Italy, Spain, Germany and Poland. The partnership was created to support two of the brand’s most important initiatives through a creative and technological ecosystem capable of maintaining a consistent narrative across multiple markets.

The campaigns, aimed primarily at a female audience attentive to style, personal care and fashion trends, with a strong interest in beauty, fashion and accessories, benefited from a multichannel approach combining high-impact formats, premium editorial distribution and advanced proximity marketing tools.

A central role was played by the proprietary creative formats developed by the AdKaora Creative Studio, designed to showcase products through an immediate, immersive language capable of capturing attention from the very first seconds. Thanks to their interactive nature, these solutions offered Guess a distinctive way to present both the spring lingerie collections and the iconic accessories launched in the second half of the year.

The strength of the collaboration lay in the ability to build a full-funnel journey, adapting messages and objectives to the different stages of the decision-making process. The upper funnel was supported by high-impact rich media and premium placements, while the consideration phase relied on more interactive experiences. Conversion, in turn, was driven by proximity marketing and drive-to-store solutions, integrated with a certified footfall analysis, enabling the real impact of digital activities on Guess boutiques across the various markets to be measured.

The overall analysis highlights how the synergy between strategy and creativity delivered strong performance, significantly exceeding market benchmarks in all countries involved, thanks to targeted planning on the AdKaora Value Network, an international editorial ecosystem that includes premium sites across the fashion and lifestyle sectors. This network enabled Guess to reach relevant audiences in each market while maintaining high quality standards. “Working with a partner like AdKaora allowed us to achieve very solid results, both in qualitative terms, thanks to consistently high-quality content, and in performance across the entire funnel. At the same time, being present within a premium editorial environment gave us the reassurance of planning aligned with the brand’s values, even across multiple markets,” said Ester Diamante, Media Planning Manager at Guess.

“The collaboration with Guess is a concrete example of how proprietary creativity, multichannel planning and measurable drive-to-store activation can coexist within a single international strategy,” commented Davide Tran, MarTech Hub Director Mondadori Digital and CEO of AdKaora. “Our Value Network, made up of premium vertical publishers across the main European markets, is a strategic asset that enables us to guarantee quality, consistency, brand safety and real results wherever the brand chooses to communicate. With proximity and drive-to-store strategies, we also ensured that Guess could bring genuinely interested customers into its stores, maximising visit rate performance throughout the campaign,” Tran concluded.

Mondadori Digital is strengthening the offering of its MarTech hub with the merger of Hej! into the digital company AdKaora. The transaction represents a strategic step forward for both businesses, which come together as a single operating entity and a market leader, driven by a highly specialised technology hub offering full-funnel digital solutions: from brand awareness and lead generation through to final conversion.

“With this operation we are completing a strategic integration journey that has, over the years, proven its effectiveness in terms of results and innovation,” said Andrea Santagata, CEO of Mondadori Digital. “The merger of Hej! into AdKaora further consolidates the positioning of our MarTech hub, which today generates more than €40 million in combined revenues across Italy and LATAM, thanks to a full-funnel offering that brings together creativity, technology, data and performance. From this virtuous integration emerges a digital ecosystem that enhances the value of each individual asset, setting new benchmarks for effectiveness and performance in the MarTech landscape,”,’ Santagata concluded.

The new AdKaora, with operations in Italy and Spain, brings together a team of more than 80 industry professionals, led by Davide Tran as CEO and Paolo De Santis, COO and Co-founder of Hej!, who has been appointed Co-CEO of AdKaora.

“The integration of AdKaora and Hej! under a single brand is the natural outcome of years of shared successes, and having Paolo De Santis alongside me in leading this new organisation reflects our strong commitment to continuity,” said Davide Tran, MarTech Hub Director at Mondadori Digital and CEO of AdKaora. “Today we no longer offer simply complementary products, but a single digital ecosystem in which creativity, data and technology work together to guide users throughout the entire funnel. AI plays a central role in this evolution, with Hej! remaining the cornerstone of our performance offering. Our goal is to further strengthen our position as the partner of choice for innovation in marketing and communications, delivering effective and distinctive solutions for our clients. In the first quarter alone, we already have several new products in the pipeline, spanning both awareness and performance, as we continue to evolve and differentiate ourselves in the market,” Tran concluded.

“By bringing teams and expertise together, we are building something truly new, grounded in very solid foundations. For us, bringing people together has always come before merging companies, as from the very beginning we have shared the same principles and the same vision of the world and of business. This deep alignment results in a genuine cross-pollination of ideas and know-how, creating the fertile ground from which our next wave of products, services and innovation will grow”, said Paolo De Santis, Co-Managing Director of AdKaora.

THE STRENGTHS OF THE NEW ADKAORA

The new AdKaora is built on three key pillars:

1. technological evolution: the sharing of technological infrastructures accelerates the development of proprietary solutions and the integration of increasingly advanced artificial intelligence systems;
2. data enhancement: the integration of databases and analytical capabilities enables even more granular user profiling, transforming data into predictive value for campaigns and into measurable, tangible results;
3. optimisation of operational workflows: the unification of internal processes allows for a faster, more comprehensive and more consultative response to market needs.

In this context, Hej! retains its strong identity as a best-in-class product line and as a specialised technology arm focused on AI and Conversational Marketing.

ADKAORA’S NEW ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE

AdKaora ‘s new organisational structure brings together, under a single strategic vision, specialised expertise designed to enhance the company’s ability to bring integrated, data-driven technological solutions to market. Reporting directly to CEO Davide Tran, the team includes key roles with cross-functional responsibilities, including:

• Stefano Argiolas (Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer at AdKaora and Mondadori Digital), responsible for steering strategic development and product innovation, with a specific focus on leveraging AI as a competitive driver across the entire Mondadori Digital ecosystem;
• Paolo Ingrosso (Chief Revenue Officer), responsible for revenue growth, commercial activities and relationships with clients and agencies;
• Francesco Binetti (Chief Operating Officer – Supply), leading operational management and supply-side development, with a focus on the monetisation of advertising inventory for national and international publishers;
• Walter Ferrari (Chief Marketing Officer), responsible for coordinating marketing strategies, communication and events;
• Luca Nigro (CEO AdKaora Iberia) and Gonzalo Guzman (Co-CEO AdKaora Iberia), leading business development and commercial strategy in the Iberian markets, as well as the expansion of the international publishing network.

AdKaora, the international digital Martech agency of the Mondadori Group and a leader in mobile advertising, proximity marketing, and full-funnel solutions for brands and publishers, has launched the white paper “Dal banco alla brand experience: il Retail Media in farmacia” in collaboration with Haiku Technologies. The study provides an in-depth analysis of pharmacies as new strategic media hubs and examines consumer trends shaping the sector’s evolution.

In recent years, Italian pharmacies have undergone a profound transformation: from simple points of sale to multifunctional hubs integrating prevention services, consultation, and advanced technologies capable of measuring advertising effectiveness. Thanks to digitalization and the installation of indoor screens and multichannel proximity solutions, pharmacies have become high-value communication channels, reaching consumers already predisposed to purchase.

The white paper offers market analysis, case studies, and guidelines for leveraging this growing channel, which is projected to reach over €640 million in Italy in 2025.

Key insights from the white paper include:

• Purchase trends show significant seasonality: supplements +20% in August, dermocosmetics +43% in December, and infant products +79% in December.
• Product category weight varies: OTC (over-the-counter drugs) 41%, Personal Care 24%, and Supplements 11% representing the most significant share of the pharma sector.

The document also highlights the importance of a full-funnel approach for effective retail media strategies AdKaora and Haiku’s solutions are designed to reach consumers both inside and around the pharmacy and across their digital journey through multiple touchpoints.

With over 250 digitalized points of sale, 2.5 million monthly scans, and an omnichannel ecosystem, AdKaora and Haiku provide healthcare and pharma companies with granular insights into purchasing behaviour and real-time KPIs. This allows for direct connection between media investment and actual sales results, optimizing campaigns and maximizing ROI (return on investment).

For brands and investors, the opportunities are numerous: from planning high-impact, measurable retail media campaigns to segmenting and personalizing strategies based on specific product categories.
In conclusion, retail media confirms its status as a strategic and innovative channel, set to play an increasingly central role in communication and marketing strategies for the future.

The full white paper is available here:link.

AdKaora, the international Martech digital agency of the Mondadori Group, together with Hej!, specialised in conversational marketing, and Meaningfool, a next-gen creative agency partly owned by Mondadori Media, supported Alcon in promoting the free trial of its Precision1 contact lenses at the new pop-up in Piazza Gae Aulenti, in the Porta Nuova district of Milan.

The three companies designed a complete funnel, where digital strategy, creator-led video content, performance marketing and in-store experience come together to create an integrated drive-to-store campaign, running from September 16th to December 15th.

With this project, AdKaora, Hej! and Meaningfool launched a new framework that combines data, technology, media and creativity, redefining both the user experience and the relationship between digital channels and physical retail spaces, while measuring the overall impact.

THE DRIVE-TO-STORE CAMPAIGN

AdKaora implemented a mix of channels and technologies to reach the target audience and drive traffic to the pop-up. Interactive rich media formats were used to boost engagement and raise product awareness, while a blend of display and social drive-to-store activities increased visibility and encouraged visitors to experience the event in person. Key measurement tools included Footfall analysis – to assess the campaign’s impact on pop-up visits – and Brand Lift studies to evaluate campaign effectiveness in terms of brand recall and perception, while also gathering valuable socio-demographic insights on the target audience.

Hej! brought its expertise in Conversational Performance Marketing to the project, integrating a conversational strategy that used personalised messages and customer journeys to generate interest, inform users about the features of the lenses, and guide them towards booking a free trial at the pop-up. This one-to-one approach not only improved the quality of the leads collected but also strengthened customer relationships, offering seamless integration with Alcon’s booking system.

Meaningfool, meanwhile, designed and produced a UGC video campaign on Meta that ran throughout the entire funnel. Three creators brought the pop up’s storytelling, built around the parallel between finding the right “feeling” with your contact lenses and in a romantic relationship, to a new, more ironic level. The free trial of Precision1 lenses became a playful opportunity to see people better on first dates, the complimentary pouch for visitors turned into a place to stash failed flings, and the pocket mirror became a tool to spark a chance encounter on the street. The creators guided the audience through every step: sharing full details of the initiative, recounting their own first hand experience, and highlighting the top three reasons not to miss the trial.

The two performance campaigns that closed the funnel, both aimed at driving online bookings, included a first video with multiple creative variants for testing, followed by a second retargeting video.

Pharmacies are being transformed. They are no longer just points of sale but actual strategic touchpoints capable of connecting brands and consumers when decisions really count. This was the guiding vision of AdKaora, Mondadori Group’s MarTech agency, when it designed the new campaign developed in collaboration with WPP Media for the launch of the HYALU-FILLER skincare line by Laboratoires Filorga Cosmetiques Italia.

An Ecosystem Combining Digital and Physical Content, Branding and Performance

The new HYALU-FILLER line, inspired by the Skin Booster and Filler treatments, represents an important step for Filorga in the world of pharmacies, which are currently a priority channel. To enhance the products, the brand built an integrated communication ecosystem together with AdKaora to accompany users at every stage of their journey, from product discovery to purchase, through direct in-store interaction.

Media Mix Focused on Pharmacies

The core of the communication strategy was the new in-store retail media channel. The touchpoints activated in the campaign included the Addendo Pharma digital network by Haiku Technologies, AdKaora’s partner in the pharma & beauty sector. Participating pharmacies throughout the country were equipped with indoor digital screens to deliver video advertising, turning points of sale into real media centres.

As a second step, the AdBox™ technology – also developed by Haiku and integrated into pharmacy registers – collected real-time data on user behaviour. With this IoT system, concrete, timely insights are obtained to accurately measure the impact of campaigns on sales, optimising ROI (return on investment) and enhancing the effectiveness of the entire communication ecosystem, as well as providing timely, granular information on sell-out at individual pharmacies.

Proximity Marketing to Trigger Action

The strategy did not stop with the pharmacies. AdKaora also activated a proximity marketing component – its historical strength – to intercept users on the move. With geolocalised, engaging and highly relevant mobile formats, it was possible to stimulate interest and guide users smoothly and naturally to points of sale.

To make the experience even more immediate, a call to action was integrated to activate Find&Go Now! The interactive map, created using AdKaora’s proprietary technology, shows the nearest pharmacies with active screens in real time, presenting the shortest route to get there. A direct bridge between banner and shelf.

Results: Awareness, Action and Concrete Performance

The campaign managed to combine visual impact and activation across the area, recording excellent performance throughout the funnel. The Display format achieved a CTR (click-through rate) of 2.1%, indicating strong interest and involvement by the target audience, while the pharmacy videos ensured a constant and memorable presence at a key moment in the decision to purchase.

However, sell-out is where the strategy expressed its full potential. Weekly sales in Addendo circuit pharmacies that were analysed increased by more than six times the annual average. This increase leaves no room for doubt about the effectiveness of retail media in the pharma sector in generating tangible results, turning engagement into real conversion.

A New Approach to Pharma Retail Media

The campaign deployed a well-orchestrated mix of technology, media and data, both online and offline, with a single objective: enhancing the pharmacy channel as a space for interaction, advice and conversion. Today, using solutions such as those by AdKaora, this aspect can become an active part of a brand’s media strategy.

‘For Filorga, the pharmacy channel is much more than a point of sale. It is a place of trust and advice, developing genuine relationships with consumers. Presiding over this strategic touchpoint with innovative and measurable communication solutions is crucial for enhancing the value of our skincare products, especially in a setting where choices are made at a decisive moment. With the support of AdKaora, we have transformed our pharmacy presence into an omnichannel experience that combines awareness and conversion, confirming our commitment to supporting people along their beauty and wellness journey,’ says Irene Picazio, Marketing Director at Laboratoires Filorga.

‘Retail media in the pharma channel can no longer remain in the shop window. It must become a tool for interaction, activation and measurement. With our full-funnel approach, we take brands exactly where it counts: to customers at the moment they are deciding what to buy. Using a hybrid ecosystem combining pharmacy screens, geolocalised mobile advertising and drive-to-store technology, AdKaora is now able to turn advertising into concrete action, and pharmacies into true physical media touchpoints. With the ability to measure real insights and sales uplift, we guarantee brands not only visibility, but also performance. We would like to thank Filorga for their trust, given the sales results, and for sharing this strategy with us,’ says Davide Tran, MarTech Director of Mondadori Media.

A carbonara can express more than a recipe: it can communicate tradition and quality, as well as innovation, contemporary taste and brand choices. This is exactly whatTulip has done. This Danish brand, which boasts over a century of experience in meat processing, turned to AdKaora, the MarTech agency of the Mondadori Group, for a digital advertising campaign tailor-made to celebrate the latest edition of Carbonara Day.

A tailor-made format for an impactful experience

Goal: to communicate the two variants of its diced pancetta – sweet and smoked – in an engaging way through an immersive experience that speaks to the audience, combining brand storytelling, design and performance.

The heart of the campaign, running from 1 to 13 April, was a fully customised rich media format designed by AdKaora Creative Studio. The creativity took the form of a Product Carousel, designed to highlight the two variants of Pancetta Tulip through simple and engaging navigation.

The format, designed to stimulate user engagement and ensure complete product discovery, integrated high-impact visual elements and immediate call-to-actions, ensuring high visibility and memorability, while encouraging interaction to drive qualified user traffic to the site.

“The campaign created for Tulip best expresses our understanding of shared value: a tailor-made project, creativity built for the right channel and distribution capable of reaching the most receptive audience at the ideal time. What makes the difference is our Creative Studio, which allows us to develop truly tailor-made advertising formats in a very short time to market, designed to deliver fluid, engaging experiences that are perfectly integrated into the user journey. This combination of content, context and innovation yields concrete and lasting results,” commented Davide Tran, MarTech Director at Mondadori Media.

The power of distribution: valuable content in valuable contexts

The campaign found its ideal home in the AdKaora Value Network, a publishing ecosystem that today brings together 159 publishers and over 1,900 web domains and AMPs, reaching millions of passionate users in brand-safe and relevant environments. Thanks to the quality and vertical nature of the contexts on offer, Tulip conveyed its message through the main food properties, reaching highly profiled audiences

“The collaboration with AdKaora is a perfect fit in our multi-channel strategy, which integrates high-performance digital activities with a strong in-store presence. We developed a project that enhanced the product’s distinctiveness in qualified digital environments, generating not only excellent results in terms of engagement and conversions, but also a high and authentic level of attention from the public. Today, attention is a key indicator for measuring the real effectiveness of campaigns and confirms the solidity of our integrated approach, geared towards building value for the brand,” comments Daniele Moggia, Trade Marketing & Business Development Manager at Tulip Italia.

The natural integration of the advertising format within users’ digital habits, coupled with the strength of the tailor-made creativity developed by the AdKaora Creative Studio, led to excellent results: an engagement rate of 4.4% and a CTR of 2.8%, clear signs of genuine and spontaneous interest from the audience.

Hej!, a specialist in conversational marketing and part of the Mondadori Media MarTech Hub together with AdKaora – the international digital agency with full-funnel advertising solutions – launches a new product designed to take full advantage of WhatsApp in lead acquisition and qualification. Hej! has already integrated the solution into several campaigns in the education, automotive, service and utilities sectors.

The right channel for lead acquisition? WhatsApp convinces users and companies

According to research conducted by expert Vincenzo Cosenza in July 2024 using Audicom-Audiweb data, the instant messaging platform has 35.7 million active users in Italy, with a penetration rate of 90.3% between the ages of 16 and 64. It is used more than 17 hours per month on average, making it the most common channel among Italians today. Not only that, 69% of users are more likely to buy from a brand that can be accessed via WhatsApp.

Hej! proposes strategies for using the WhatsApp communication channel at an early stage in the user-brand relationship, and not only for engagement, nurturing, e-commerce and caring activities after customer acquisition. This solution fosters conversation between users and brands and transforms lead acquisition into a simple, functional and high-performance experience.

AI-enhanced conversations to improve digital performance

The new product developed by Hej! uses WhatsApp to activate two key solutions: lead generation and lead qualification, designed to radically improve the effectiveness of media campaigns.

Through AI-enhanced conversations, the system begins an initial interaction with users on WhatsApp, facilitating both their access to information on products, services and offers, and data collection by brands in a natural, non-invasive and privacy-focused manner. After an initial guided exchange, AI adapts the conversation based on the answers, refining the interaction, improving data quality and providing an engaging user experience.

‘We wanted to create a product that was simple for users, but advanced for businesses, one that could combine the immediacy of conversations via WhatsApp with the power of AI applied to conversational marketing. We have specialised in lead generation and conversational marketing for several years and our technology is designed not only to optimise lead generation, but especially to enhance qualification, making each contact more relevant and useful for the brand. We have always focused on offering functional user experiences, aware that there are humans on the other end, at least at the moment, and that they are the only thing that matters,’ says Paolo De Santis, COO and co-founder of Hej!

Different user acquisition channels are available, starting with the more traditional ones, such as Meta, TikTok and Google, up to proprietary channels.

The heart of the product is the proprietary platform, developed over the years for conversation management and predictive scoring. Together with a wide range of marketing automation and AI features, it maximises performance and guarantees concrete results for brands.

Hej! and WhatsApp: optimising the entire lead generation chain

The campaigns conducted for customers to date have yielded extremely positive results. More than 70% of users completed the qualification process and were sent to the brands’ CRM systems with different qualification scores, allowing for more streamlined and effective post-lead management. The reaction speed was also surprising: 80% of users completed the qualification within five minutes of first contact. The data show how an intuitive interface, direct communication and a familiar context can make a difference in terms of performance and engagement.

‘This project is the perfect example of how innovation in the MarTech Hub can generate tangible value. In the Mondadori Group PLAI accelerator, we have a hub of innovative solutions and the possibility of interacting with tech professionals. Artificial intelligence is not only the workflow engine, but also the key element that allows us to personalise the conversation while making it scalable with high performance. The integration of WhatsApp into lead-generation flows is not just a technological choice, but a concrete response to the evolution of consumers’ digital habits. We are already working on other innovations that will significantly change the world of performance marketing,’ says Davide Tran, MarTech Director at Mondadori Media.