Media brands

Donna Moderna, the Mondadori Group brand that is the point of reference in the women’s segment, with a total audience of around 11 million users (Source: Nielsen Media Impact Data Fusion, December 2020), is launching a special insert with the issue on newsstands this week dedicated to the latest Italian holiday trends: slow and sustainable tourism, which focuses on the discovery of the country’s historical and natural wonders.

From medieval towns to the cities of art, hikes immersed in nature to beautiful cycleways, and from panoramic railway routes to the unmissable spots for campervan enthusiasts, this special insert of the magazine edited by Annalisa Monfreda explains how readers and users can enjoy a “slow” holiday that is consistent with the enhancement of often forgotten cultural assets and landscapes.

“We talk about ways of travelling that people are finding increasingly attractive but often struggle to adopt because they think they might not be appropriate for their physical capacities or are just too uncomfortable.  But this is not true, as we see from the stories of people who have tried, sometimes almost by chance, these ways of travelling and never looked back. The itineraries that we have selected are ideal for beginners!” commented Donna Moderna editor, Annalisa Monfreda.

A 24-page journey, broken down into four chapters each introduced by a travel influencer and dedicated to holidays on foot, in a campervan, on bicycle and by train respectively. Each chapter includes six trips presented in six profiles, full of information about travel times, distances and the unmissable stops along the way, as well as a range of practical and original suggestions to make the best of your holiday.

Starting with itineraries strictly on foot, with panoramic walks through Tuscany, Sicily, Trentino-Alto Adige, Emilia-Romagna, Campania and Sardinia. They will be introduced by an interview with the singer-songwriter Jack Jaselli, who, though born in Milan, is an inveterate wanderer, and who has made an 800-km trip on foot along the ancient Via Francigena, from Pavia to Rome.

This is followed by the narration of Anna Luciani, couch-surfer and low-cost traveller who, armed with a video-camera, has travelled the length and breadth of Italy along with her partner Simone Chiesa, interviewing foreigners who have settled in Italy. Her suggestions will guide readers along routes that can be made by campervan and the discovery of landscapes and the food and wine specialties of Valle d’Aosta, Piedmont, Lombardy, Veneto, Umbria and Calabria.

Introducing the chapter dedicated to cycling holidays, through the mountains and along the coasts of Piedmont, Liguria, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Trentino-Alto Adige, Veneto, Lazio and Sicily Sicilia, we will have the Como-born cycling influencer Francesca Giani, an authentic ambassador of the concept of sustainable mobility.

Meanwhile, the pages that look at train-based itineraries that cross the country from North to South, from Alto Adige to Puglia, by way of Piedmont, Liguria, Tuscany, Marche, Abruzzo and Molise, will be accompanied by the words of travellers Tiziana Nuvoli and Stefano Floris, well-known for having travelled around the world always and only by train.

At the heart of the special insert is a poster with a pull-out map designed to bring together all of the proposed itineraries, the unmissable attractions and hints and suggestions about how to move around in each region that you can take with you.

Lastly, there will be the Donna Moderna online community involvement: in fact, the entire special will also be available on the web, while on social media the brand’s more than 3 million fans (Source: Shareablee + Pinterest and Tik Tok, May 2021) will find photos of the most beautiful itineraries and individual stop-offs, a map that can be screenshot and saved as well as interactive video stories with a survey to identify the most attractive destination. Plus, by using the hashtag #donnamodernainviaggio, users can also have the chance to see their own photos shared across all of the magazine’s social media channels.

The Donna Moderna special dedicated to slow holidays in Italy has been warmly received also by advertisers, confirming the positive trend in the brand’s advertising sales, both print and digital, since the beginning of the year.

Icon, the Mondadori Group’s male fashion and lifestyle brand, is celebrating its 10^th anniversary with a special issue of the magazine: 10 covers dedicated to leading figures from fashion, cinema, music and, for the first time volta, philosophy, to look together towards the future.

THE ANNIVERSARY ISSUE – DESTINATION: THE FUTURE

A collectors’ issue, a collection of stories, interviews and spectacular productions with contributions from some of the big names in photography who have accompanied the magazine in its journey.

The philosopher Byung-chul Han, the singer Mahmood, the pianist Jan Lisiecki, actors Casey Affleck, Alessio Lapice, Tahar Rahim, the dancer Sergei Polunin are the faces chosen by Icon as the symbols of a manifesto of the new contemporaneity A tribute to the future of Icon. A reinterpretation of icons in crossover areas in order to find new perspectives, while treasuring the legacy of the past. Talents from heterogeneous backgrounds, who demonstrate the capacity of the magazine edited by Andrea Tenerani to act as a catalyst for different worlds, using fashion as a lens to describe society.

“Over these 10 years Icon has talked about the evolution of fashion and its interpreters and been a spokesperson for new languages and an amplifier of styles and trends. With this issue we don’t just want to pay homage to the past, but to celebrate the future, in an attempt to map out a destination to examine together with our community of readers, through the international gaze provided by our team of photographers, journalists and stylists, expanding our point also to other industries and borders,” explained Andrea Tenerani, editor of Icon.

At the heart of Icon, on newsstands from 15 April, there is not just fashion and image, but also current affairs, in a global world in constant evolution. In the new issue, Destination: Future presents interviews and essays that focus on the changes taking place in culture and society: technological innovation, the environmental issue, inclusion, sustainability, mobility, major social issues, the commitment of the new generations, to offer readers a point of view on the new frontiers of the world of fashion, art and design and to understand the crucial challenges of the coming decade.

The April issue also features the special Iconology, a gallery of the history of Icon with the images and representations produced by the brand over the last 10 years, which will also be live on the new website.

FUTURE WEB

In conjunction with the publication of the Anniversary Issue, Icon will also extend its offer on the website www.iconmagazine.it which has been completely redesigned to further enhance the quality of photos and videos in new sections dedicated to People, Fashion, Cult, Beauty, Design, Eat & Drink, Where to go, Wheels, ICTV, Fashion Shows with previews, news and insights.

The 10-year story of Icon will continue on the brand’s social media profiles, with special content and initiatives throughout the month.

Launched in April 2011, for a decade Icon has been describing the fashion, customs, passions and lifestyles of the contemporary man – from beauty to beverages, travel and cars – plus the icons that represent him. A successful formula that has always counted among its strengths a very high attention to image quality and to Made in Italy, a reference point for the public and operators in the high-end fashion industry, which has also taken the brand abroad, to Spain, as a male supplement to the newspaper El País, and to Australia.

The trend in advertising sales, managed by Mediamond, is also positive: the Anniversary Issue obtained 100 advertising pages out of a total foliation of 352, contributing to the excellent result of Icon’s print and digital platform which to date has recorded an increase in revenues of 10% compared with last year.

The launch is accompanied by a advertising campaign planned on print, radio, web, social media and the DOOH – Digital Out of Home circuit.

Some 20 million Italians between the ages of 18 and 54 follow at least one influencer. Of these, 48% follow a macro-influencer; a category that includes not only individuals, but also publishing brands with stand-out social media profiles in their communities of reference and recognised as authoritative in nine specific areas: health and wellbeing, families and children, entertainment, technology and science, beauty and personal care, fashion, food and beverages, travel and tourism, cars and motorcycles.

And it is precisely these macro-influencers that are at the heart of the survey “Italians & Influencers” conducted by Buzzoole, InfoValue and Mondadori Media, aimed at examining more closely the views and opinions of Italians regarding an increasingly significant category in consumer behaviour.

In particular, it looks more closely at the relationship between Italians and influencers and publishing brands, with regard to the social media presence and the type of role that they play in entertainment and users buying habits.

The first interesting element is the frequency with which users consult their profiles: 37% claim to follow them every day, while another 37% check in every 2-3 days.

Why do users follow influencers?

For the advice they give (54%, above all for matters related to food) or for their expertise in specific areas (51%, technology and automotive) or because they are considered models of reference to identify with (19%, fashion and families).

At the top of the list for renown on social media there is Chiara Ferragni (mentioned by 85% of the sample), followed by GialloZafferano (72%) and Benedetta Rossi (71%).

As part of the study, emphasis was given to the role of macro-influencers in buying behaviour, with a different focus depending on the sector of interest for users. This showed that they can play the role of a “tutor” that explains a product (for 54% of the interviewees), especially in the areas of food beauty, a discoverer able to introduce new products (for 47%) for tech and beauty, a friend who can say where and when to buy something (41%), above all for fans of cars and motorcycles, or, also, an outstanding trendsetter (27%).

There is, therefore, a clear recognition of the commercial function: an expectation that influencers and publishing brands can provide information on a wide range of product types and become an “advisor” that in every situation can play a determining role.

Have looked at the role of macro-influencers in buying behaviour, the survey then examined their level of incidence in buying propensity: 85% of Italians claim to take the opinions of influencers into consideration when buying a product.

The study also looked in detail at how many purchases are “actually” made on the basis of the advice of influencers. Over the last year around half of the interviewees bought an average of 2 products or services recommended by influencers or editorial brands on social media: beauty, food, fashion and technology being the most influenced shopping categories.

An examination of buying intention is single areas, showed that in first place among the preference of Italians were the profiles of GialloZafferano (89%) in the food & beverage sector and Mypersonaltrainer for products related to health and wellness.

“The study conducted in along with Mondadori Media and InfoValue,” declared Gianluca Perrelli, CEO of Buzzoole, “has clearly demonstrated the complexity of a now consolidated phenomenon that involves millions of people. In addition, it has highlighted the multiple roles that Creators can have for Italians, not just as repeaters of messages, but as key elements in the purchasing process.”

“Brands remain among the main influencers of consumer buying habits, and central in the discovery of new trends and tendencies,” declared Andrea Santagata, General Manager of Mondadori Media. “The research clearly shows how some of them, the more vertical with a language and approach that is close to users, have maintained, and even reinforced, this role, also in the increasingly important social media environment. I think that it is key for a brand in social media to satisfy specific need, with a view to providing users with help and support.”

As regards the platforms used, Instagram emerged as the social media platform par excellence (67%), followed by Facebook (59%) and YouTube (53%). The younger target follow on TikTok (9%) and 4% on Twitch.

This quantitative survey involved over 1,500 interviewees, representative of Italian web users between the ages of 18 and 54, and examined 9 topics of main interest, arranged by socio-demographic profiles, with a special focus on female targets.

“Italians & Influencers” was conducted in the context of the WeTalks project: a permanent observation laboratory through which Mondadori Media addresses companies interested in information about the dynamics of consumer behaviour. The complete results of the survey are available on www.buzzoole.com and www.wetalks.it.

Coming to newsstands on 26 February Me contro Te: the only original fantasy comic by Luì & Sofì, the two YouTubers who have won the hearts of millions of children through simplicity, a joyous spirit, positive values and an ability to create content to evoke dreams and stimulate imagination.

Luì & Sofì have chosen the Mondadori Group for the launch of their first 100% official magazine 100: an occasion to entertain and transport young kids on a range of adventures and the discovery of the world of science.

“We are really excited about this super new project. The fantasy comic Me contro Te is a magazine entirely devoted to fun and the discovery of the world and its wonders. We want to thank the Mondadori Group for having once again believed in us and for having helped us to create the magazine of our dreams,” commented Luì and Sofì.

Every month this new fantasy comic will present two new adventures by Luì & Sofì, illustrated and told in the unique. Colourful and joyous style that is the basis of the magical world of the Me contro Te. Plus, news, curiosities, original ideas from little experiments, topic-based games and quizzes to test readers’ knowledge: an authentic “activity magazine”, conceived for boys and girls aged between 6 and 10. Among the features of the first issue, the world of insects and dinosaurs. The young readers can also write and send drawings to their favourites: and the best letters will be published.

Children will be brought closer to interesting and educational content, thanks to the new comic format of Me contro Te that makes reading stimulating, in a simple but engaging way, in line with the great publishing success of the books published by Mondadori Electa.

The launch of Me contro Te – Il fantafumetto, with a print run of 100,000 copies for the first issue, was announced in a preview by Luì and Sofì in a post on their Instagram profile and is supported by a communication campaign on print media and point of sale.

The magazine will be available on newsstands from 26 February, with a cover price of €4.90.

Icon will be on newsstands from tomorrow with an issue entitled No pictures please!, dedicated to the evolution of our relationship with images. This issue of the magazine, edited by Andrea Tenerani, will include over 200 pages of fashion, beauty and news, as well as special features and four exclusive cover stories.

The protagonist of the male lifestyle and fashion brand of the Mondadori Group is the football player Zlatan Ibrahimovic, a timeless icon, on and off the pitch, in an exclusive portrait for Icon: “From the very beginning, I told myself that I wouldn’t want to be anyone else. Successful or unsuccessful, I waould remain who I am. For me, when you are so original, in the end, people recognise that, and they love you for it. The key to it all is authenticity,” the champion says.

The February issue of Icon also features I Negramaro, photographed by Giampaolo Sgura to mark the release of their latest album Contatto: “In recent years the meaning of this word has changed. When we talk about contact, we are usually talking about an email, a telephone number to reach out without ever touching. And during this pandemic it’s become something else again; a dream, the word is now almost dreamlike,” explained Giuliano Sangiorgi.

Plus, the international face of Dave Franco, actor and director, brother of James, making his directorial debut with the horror film The Rental: “I wasn’t only inspired by my paranoia about home sharing. I also thought about the period that the United States is going through in which we are divided, isolated and nobody trusts anybody.”

And finally, the future, football, AC Roma, Italy, the injuries and recovery of Nicolò Zaniolo, the young champion of Roma and the Italian national team, who talks about himself for the first time to Icon: “Roma has changed my life, in every sense. It took me on when I was just a boy and is making me into a man. It has given me the opportunity toplay football and given me all this popularity. How could I not love it?”

There is also the return of Padiglione Icon: a special feature, in the pages of the magazine and on dedicated social media profiles dedicated to a selection of excellence in fashion, with what’s new and representative items from the new collections. In the new issue, on newsstands until the middle of March, space is also given to engines in Icon Wheels: 10 pages that focus on the most exclusive new products from the world of cars and motorcycles, previews, interviews to the protagonists and the most iconic and desirable models.

With sport in our hearts

From this month, Icon also launches a special project entitled Con lo sport nel cuore, (With sport in our hearts) in collaboration with the Fondazione IEO-CCM, the body that supports clinical and experimental research and assistance for patients with cancer and heart disease cat the Istituto Europeo di Oncologia and the Centro Cardiologico Monzino, with the aim of identifying the best treatment for patients and to support new and innovative projects.

For the occasion a limited-edition Icon T-shirt has been produced, in collaboration with Roy Roger’s, to support the Centro Cardiologico Monzino.

After Claudio Marchisio, Nicolò Zaniolo will be the exceptional testimonial of the initiative which, during the year, will involve a number of protagonists from the world of sport in order to promote on the pages of Icon the research of an example of Italian excellence in the health sector.

The Centro Cardiologico Monzino is Europe’s leading hospital for the treatment, research and prevention of cardiovascular disease and is internationally recognised for the level of specialisation and innovative therapies. Also on the front line is Roy Roger’s, a brand of Manifatture Sevenbell, which offers its experience in the clothing sector to the service of a good cause.

The T-shirt will be on sale on www.royrogers.it and the revenues from the sales will be entirely devolved to applied research projects on more serious heart and vascular diseases and orphans of resolutive therapies, where only research can make a difference.

GialloZafferano, Italy’s leading food media brand, with 18.8 million unique users (Source: Audiweb, November 2020) and 13 million fans, continues to evolve and expand the user experience it offers to its audience across all channels: from the web to print, social media and events, and through all of the available interfaces on the market, including the most innovative such as virtual assistants.

Since the launch of Alexa and Echo devices by Amazon in Italy, GialloZafferano has offered its users the possibility of conduction searches and cooking with instructions delivered by Amazon’s virtual assistant, using a dedicated Skill. In fact, in many kitchens, Alexa has become an ideal ally able to provide suggestions for an evening meal and to help in the preparation of all kinds of dishes. And the number are the proof: in the last 12 months more than 5 million recipe requests have been made using the vocal service. A figure that is destined to continue to grow as more devices equipped with Alexa enter the homes of customers in Italy.

The experience offered by GialloZafferano in vocal applications for cooking are recognised as best case in terms of the continuous innovation, is now taking a further step ahead by bringing its commercial partners onboard its Alexa Skill.

After specially adapting hundreds of content items to be used by voice and having redesigned its search engine, GialloZafferano will be able to continue to provide vocal recipes produced in collaboration with the brands with which it works in the realisation of dishes. It is an operation through which Italy’s best loved cooking site can evolve its user experience on Alexa, by perfectly integrating into the recipes the companies that invest in the brand, in a completely new, immediate and innovative approach.

Everyone who has an Amazon device with Alexa can therefore continue to interact with the voice service to find inspiration for their dishes, automatically consulting all of the GialloZafferano recipes, which are now richer than ever thanks to the collaboration of GialloZafferano with its commercial partners. All you need to say is “Alexa, find me a recipe for …” to enter the GialloZafferano world of tasty ideas and get help in all phases of the preparation. Users can interrupt the process at any time and start again from where they left off, without ever having to use their hands, which, in any case, in the kitchen, are normally busy doing other things. So you can carry on cutting, mixing and kneading, while Alexa explains the next step.

With this initiative, GialloZafferano will enhance the communication system which every day reaches the homes of millions of people and offers a catalogue of 5,500 recipes and 1,650 high-definition videos and the extraordinary participation of over 10 million hours spent in the kitchen on the site.

Focus, the Mondadori Group brand, leader in popular science and a point of reference for science and current affairs, is launching new initiatives for students, teachers and users in 2021.

Next month sees the launch of Focus Academy, a new project by Focus and Focus Storia aimed at attracting kids from second level high schools to science and history with online training activities, in line with the alternating school/work programmes outlined in the relevant convention.

At the heart of this year’s programme are the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN Agenda 2030, a 360° awareness building plan that will involve the magazine, with special detailed coverage, the web, with the multimedia content of Focus.it, and, from February, a series of monthly webinars open to all with scientists and experts, to stimulate debate and develop awareness among the young about the actions necessary for our future and based around six issues identified by the editorial team: the risks to biodiversity; health; discrepancies in the distribution of energy; more sustainable cities; food for all; the risks to oceans; climate change.

“For Focus adopting the UN goals is only natural, given that they are about saving our planet, scientific and technological development, and the quality of human life,” explained Raffaele Leone, editor of Focus and Focus Storia. “The issues we have selected are part of the magazine’s DNA given our long-standing support for environmental sustainability, medical and technological research and the protection of biodiversity. That all of this coincides with the launch of the Academy is an added value. Kids are extremely aware of these issues. Indeed, they are an authentic driving force for governments and research. They expect that we adults commit to reducing our environmental impact and outline new ways of pursuing these aims. To discuss these issues with them will provide an added stimulus also for us.”

The classes that enrol at the Academy will connect once a week, for four weeks, with the editorial teams of Focus and Focus Storia, to experience, live, the creation of a popular science and history magazine. The students will be actively involved and will have the opportunity to try writing articles or conducting interviews that will then be selected by the team for eventual publication in subsequent issues of Focus.

Also Focus Junior, the brand for children between the ages of 8 and 12 who want to have fun discovering the world in a new and intelligent way, has adopted the UN Agenda by proposing for the Focus Junior Academy digital workshops dedicated to eight of the 2030 goals: health and wellbeing; quality education; clean and accessible energy; industry, innovation and infrastructure; sustainable cities and communities; underwater life; life on earth; and the partnership for goals.

The project, now in its third year, is designed to provide additional tools to assist the syllabus of primary and middle schools, in line also with recent directives which from this year include inter-disciplinary civic education. During the encounters, pupils will work in class on a detailed multimedia journalistic project with the editorial team that will be published on the Focus Junior web site and magazine. The January, February and March appointments of the Focus Junior Academy are already fully booked, with the participation of more than 150 pupils for each workshop.

Finally, for teachers, a series of webinars and monographs have been put together by Focus Scuola, the monthly magazine that supports primary and middle school teachers with the best teaching advice and suggestions to look more closely at the issues related to the UN Agenda 2030 and innovative teaching practices, though ideas, and best practice from experts in the sector.

“In this period of great uncertainty and social upheaval, Focus Junior has decided to reinforce its role in support of children and early teens in an effort to accompany them in their progress towards being future citizens,” said Sarah Pozzoli, editor of Focus Junior and Focus Scuola. “Our objective has become that of trying to ensure that education goes beyond knowledge and skills and is a method for creating a new forma mentis in order to imagine a more sustainable world, that is also more peaceful and free of social, gender and racial discrimination, in line with the guidelines of the UN’s Agenda 2030. And we will do this in our usual style and learning-by-doing approach, while stimulating curiosity and a sense of irony.”

This is how the Focus system is further reinforcing its offer in the education sector: from collaboration with institutions and companies, to school-based projects involving students, families, schools and teachers, and successfully developing activities and events that speak directly to the protagonists of the world of education thanks to an innovative and engaging didactic vision.
Focus is Italy’s most widely read magazine, with a total audience of 7 million readers and users (Source: Nielsen media impact data fusion, April 2020) and 2.9 million followers on social media channels (Source: Shareablee, November 2020).
Focus Junior is a point of reference in the world of kids, with an average monthly circulation of 100,000 copies (Source: Ads, Jan-Sep 2020), 589,000 unique users per month on its web site (Source: Audiweb, Jan-Oct 2020) and a community of 140,000 fans on social media (Source: Shareablee, November 2020).

For information and enrolments:

https://www.focus.it/education/academy/focus-academy-n

https://www.focusjunior.it/progetti-scuola-primaria/focus-junior-academy-scuola-di-giornalismo-con-focus-junior/