Mondadori Media’s innovative MarTech Centre – created around the digital company AdKaora following the acquisition of Hej! in 2021 and then the Spanish media agency Adgage, completed a few months ago – aims to offer the market a wide range of next-generation marketing and advertising services.
The offering ranges from proximity marketing solutions to data-driven performance conversational marketing solutions, from mobile first video advertising solutions to a creative studio able to offer customers high-impact and highly effective advertising formats.

The synergies between AdKaora, Hej! and Adgage – which today make up Mondadori Media’s MarTech Centre – began at the end of 2022 with the aim of guaranteeing, from a technological standpoint, better development of new integrated solutions, to enhance the different professional skills available and to maximise commercial effectiveness and go-to-market.
It was a successful undertaking, cemented by the results achieved in 2023, which showed total revenues of more than 32 million euros, up by almost 30% compared to the previous year, alongside the team continuing to grow stronger, and which now numbers 80 professionals across Milan, Rome and Madrid.

GROWTH DRIVERS

International development is one of the strategy’s most important drivers. The acquisition of the Spanish company Adgage opened up important new international opportunities in 2023, starting in Spain itself and, in recent months, Latin America.
This allowed AdKaora and Hej! to expand into foreign markets and to extend the AdKaora Value Network, thanks to the entry of important new publishing groups worldwide, with entry into other European markets and beyond also planned for 2024.

The second development lever for the coming years is the search for companies that can be integrated in order to offer innovative and complementary solutions to the range of services already offered. A number of interesting special operations are already under consideration in this area.

The third area of development focuses on the strong ability of the in-house marketing, tech and innovation teams to continue developing new products by understanding the opportunities that technological developments provide ahead of time. Along these lines, AdKaora has recently launched new advertising solutions on the market, like Impact Video, a high-impact, full-screen mobile format that is part of an advanced total video strategy covering different channels and focusing on the most interesting current KPI: Attention. The effectiveness of AdKaora’s video formats has been proven by the excellent results in ‘The Attention Game’ research conducted by GroupM and by KPIs provided by third-party certifiers such as Lumen and DoubleVerify.

Proximity marketing has also taken a further leap towards even more effective coverage of the entire consumer funnel thanks to the partnership with Savi – a marketing technology company specialising in coupon-based shopper activation services – where the aim is to strengthen product consideration and purchase incentives through mobile couponing.

Consideration becomes a crucial stage to oversee in order to achieve more concrete results: 2024 will therefore see the consolidation of AdKaora and Hej’s! full funnel proposal, which combines the quality of products with branding focus of the former with the performance strength of the latter.
The strength of Hej! Lies in harnessing Artificial Intelligence at different product and analysis levels. Using its proprietary platform, which is increasingly advanced in terms of analysis automation, Hej! can offer its customers in-depth qualitative analyses aimed at optimising the results of the entire supply chain. With data collected in real time, it is possible to achieve optimal performance and act on the subsequent marketing steps, like processing a qualitative lead.

And it is specifically Generative Artificial Intelligence that the Mondadori Group intends to invest in significantly in the coming years, not least to support the growth of the MarTech Centre. In this respect, a major Open Innovation project will soon be launched, which will also see Mondadori Media at the centre of the AI-related revolution in publishing and marketing.

A NEW STRUCTURE FOR THE MARTECH HUB

In order to achieve its ambitious goals, the MarTech Centre has established a new organisational structure.
Reporting directly to Andrea Santagata, Managing Director of Mondadori Media, Davide Tran, formerly Director of AdKaora, was appointed as Director of the MarTech Centre, with the aim of implementing the new development strategy and maximising synergies.
Reporting directly to Davide Tran, Stefano Argiolas was confirmed as Managing Director of Hej! and appointed the Head of Artificial Intelligence for the Mondadori Group; Paolo De Santis, Co-Managing Director of Hej!, was appointed the Head of Development of New Acquisitions for the MarTech Centre.
To strengthen international development, Luca Nigro, former Managing Director of Adgage, was appointed the Director of Development for the MarTech Centre in LATAM countries; Francesco Binetti, Head of Operations at AdKaora, was appointed the Director of International Development for the MarTech Centre’s Publisher Solutions.
The central sales department is entrusted to Paolo Ingrosso, appointed as Sales Manager for the MarTech Centre, and Luigi D’Alterio, Sales Manager of Hej! and MarTech Centre’s direct customers, while Walter Ferrari assumes the role of Marketing Manager.