2018 has been a year full of initiatives and events for the digital brands of the Mondadori Group, which confirms its position as Italy’s leading publisher on the web with an audience of 26.5 million unique users every month and 4.2 million daily users (Source: Audiweb Total Audience – September 2018).

From Giallo Zafferano to Studenti.it, Donna Moderna to Starbene Grazia and Nostrofiglio, Mondadori’s digital portfolio offers the country’s richest and most varied range. A model based on innovation and continuous expansion that leverages engagement and emotional communication with readers, with the aim of transforming traditional magazines and web sites into multimedia brands.

As the leader in the highest value sectors of the market, including women, food, health and parenting, Mondadori’s 30 digital brands are a point of reference for the passions of online Italians and are able to respond to the needs and interests of users – who are increasingly the protagonists of content – and advertisers, and now well-established as synonyms of authoritativeness also in the context of B2B.

This is also demonstrated by the new multi-subject communication campaign, which celebrates with visuals and emotional headlines the particular strengths of Giallo Zafferano, Donna Moderna and Grazia. These three brands each communicate appeal, beauty and style, offering advertisers the opportunity of reaching millions of users and readers thanks to the visibility of their channels, where they stand out with monthly audiences of, respectively, 14 million, 13 million and 3 million unique users (Source: Audiweb Total Audience – September 2018).

The campaign, conceived and developed by the agency Casiraghi Greco&, has been planned across sector-focused print and digital media and foresees out-of-home advertising activities in strategic areas of the city of Milan and digital out-of-home advertising at Linate airport and key points in the metropolitan area using the 11 plants of the iDD Magazine circuit: from Piazza Gae Aulenti to Via Tortona, Piazza San Babila and CityLife.

The Mondadori Group confirms its role as the primary interlocutor for the digital world also at the leading B2B events. The Group was present at the latest edition of the IAB Forum with a stand dominated by a large central carousel, thematic activities and two workshops in which Giallo Zafferano and Grazia Factory were able to present their respective business models to leading players in the sector: a “merry-go-round of emotions” which, in line with the communicative mindset of the Group’s digital properties, generated over 1,500 contacts in the two days of the fair.

Giallo Zafferano, recognised by the ComScore report “The Food Sector in Italy 2018” as the brand in the Food Lifestyle category with the highest reach compared with the top European sites, and was also the special partner of the second edition of Netcomm Focus Food, a key event for the digital evolution of the Food & Grocery sector

The very recent Giallo Zafferano–branded ApeCar has also made a tour of the most important media centres in Milan, offering breakfast ot some 1,200 advertising professionals

On 17 December the brands of the Mondadori Group will facilitate exchange between emerging digital talents during the StartupItalia! Open Summit 2018, the event that  promotes the sharing of ideas and new collaborations between the founders and developers of start-ups, companies and investors.

Giallo Zafferano, the Mondadori Group’s online leader in the cookery segment – with over 6 million unique users every month (source: Audiweb View, Total Audience, January-May 2017), a fan base of more than 5.2 million users and an app that has recorded almost 7 million downloads – confirms its appeal on both newsstands, with an average annual circulation of 200,000 copies and social media.

These results are based on Italy’s leading cookery web site’s ability to engage its audience, in a continuous interconnection between the web, social networks and the printed magazine, as can be seen from the extraordinary participation in the making of the magazine edited by Laura Maragliano, who leaves the choice of the magazine’s cover to the brand’s audience.

This means that the readers are active protagonists in the creation of every issue. In fact, every month, Giallo Zafferano uses Facebook to propose two possible covers for the magazine and users are invited to express a preference using the standard Facebook tools “like” and “love”. In April, this initiative involved more than 1 million people, with and average of 5,000 votes for each issue. Among the most popular challenges was the May cover, “Four pasta dishes to prepare in a flash” against ”Six varieties of sandwich”, which was the victor in the meal par excellence in Italy, with 55% of the votes, out of a total of more than 12,000. The same making of mechanism was used to select the cover of the latest issue of Giallo Zafferano, dedicated to “8 spaghetti dishes for the Ferragosto national holiday”, chosen by 74% of the voters over the competing “Ferragosto picnic “.

But user engagement doesn’t stop at the choice of the cover. The magazine’s readers are also offered the opportunity to vote for their favourite recipe of the month published in the section entitled “A three-way challenge“, in which the three section chiefs of Giallo Zafferano battle it out on a common culinary theme. The July competition, which focused on pasta salads, also received over 1,000 votes and declared Aurora’s “Farfalle alla rucola” the winner. Readers and users also enthusiastically participate in the contest organised by Giallo Zafferano. For each challenge more than 100 recipes are sent in by users with the aim of winning the award for the best dish based on three ingredients proposed by the editorial team and published in the subsequent issue. The latest issue of Giallo Zafferano, on newsstands now, features the winning dish of the contest with August’s three ingredients: green olives, chicken and red onions.

From Italy’s number one cooking web site comes a new magazine Giallo Zafferano. The Mondadori Group’s new monthly, on newsstands from Saturday 18 March, can already boast of two firsts: it has the same name as a brand leader in the digital world and is the first cooking magazine, in Italy and in Europe, to have been born from a web site.

Giallo Zafferano offers readers the opportunity of enjoying an experience that begins on the site and is completed with the magazine, with a distinctive offer compared to others on the market, thanks to continuous interaction between the web, social networks and the magazine, giving the brand an increasingly wide total audience.

The starting point is the 6.8 million unique users per month (source: Audiweb view total digital audience, December 2016) and a strong presence on social networks, where Giallo Zafferano already has a total of  4.6 million fans on Facebook.

The magazine, edited by Laura Maragliano, is an ideal bridge to “bring the kitchen into the hands of the reader” and enjoy an even richer experience. “This is the first time a cooking title has been born from a site: Giallo Zafferano is the result of two worlds and two experiences that meet and merge. Our team is made up of long-established professionals working alongside experts under 30, to share ideas and skills. We have begun to build a magazine with a unique, positive and interactive character. And we are confident that readers will welcome it with the same enthusiasm we have brought to this new project,” said the editor Laura Maragliano.

Giallo Zafferano has five distinctive features:

• 100 new recipes every month, created and tested by the editorial staff;
• a innovative square format and a layout that plays with white space and with all the dishes photographed from above;
• the creation of a community that includes the three much-loved faces of the Giallo Zafferano web site, as well as the magazine’s bloggers and journalists: in each issue three teams will face a new culinary challenge;
• the augmented reality app “Gruppo Mondadori AR+”, available for iOS and Android, to access filmed recipes, videos and extra content, and to interact with other users who are looking through the magazine;
• interaction with readers, who can vote on the site or using the app for their favourite dish from the monthly challenge and take part in the final contest by proposing a recipe that the editorial team will select for publication in the next issue, in a continuous online and offline dialogue.

The first issue of the magazine will be available on newsstands and at all the major retail chains both as a stand-alone product, at the special introductory price of €1, or in combination with the leading Italian weeklies, Donna Moderna, Chi, Tv Sorrisi e Canzoni, Grazia, Tustyle, Starbene and Confidenze (at €0.50, plus the price of the weekly), with a total print run of 1 million copies.

Giallo Zafferano makes its debut on newsstands with good numbers, also from the point of view of advertising sales with a total of 47 pages and out of the total 136 pages of the first issue.

The launch of this new magazine enhances the food system of the Mondadori Group, an offer able to cover, with its online and offline brand, all segments of the food sector: from historical publications such as Sale & Pepe, which this year celebrates its 30^th anniversary, to Cucina Moderna, the current market leader with sales of 249,000 copies (source: Ads December 2016), which celebrates its 20^th anniversary, as well as Cucina no problem, launched 15 years ago, and the more recent Guida Cucina and the newcomers CookAround and Giallo Zafferano and the Sale & Cucina School.

A brand portfolio which, with 96 issues per year, already has a circulation market share of over 60%, and a total overall audience of more than 9 million contacts, of which 7.4 million unique users per month and around 2 million readers per month (source: Audiweb view total digital audience, December 2016 + Audipress 2016 /III).

THE CONTENT OF THE MAGAZINE GIALLO ZAFFERANO

The magazine opens with the presentation of what’s new inside, a calendar of significant dates during the month, the products of the season and an extensive feature on a popular ingredient, easily found in our kitchens, with 30 new recipes quick and easy to prepare recipes, one for each day of the month.

The centre of the magazine gives space to the three teams, each headed by a well-known face from the web site – Manuel, for fast ethnic cuisine; Giovanni, for traditional cooking; Aurora, for vegetarian food – while bloggers and staff journalists each month will propose a new dish, with video-recipes available using the augmented reality app, a menu and 8 themed dishes. The three team leaders will also compete in a culinary challenge that will change every month and that readers can vote for on both the website or app.

Supporting each section readers will find fact sheets on food, both fresh and packaged, practical advice on the what and how to buy and at the centre of the magazine a poster to remove and keep.

The final pages are given over to the cooking school: sweet and savoury specialties meticulously explained with step by step, in pure Giallo Zafferano style, with technical information on cuts of meat and fish, advice on etiquette and do-it-yourself, a list of wines and a focus on kitchen items, from utensils to the latest electrical appliances.

For the launch of Giallo Zafferano a communication campaign has been planned on print media, the web and large-scale retail outlets, with creativity managed by Hi! Communication.

To mark the publication of the first issue, Giallo Zafferano will also be the protagonist of a series of meetings during the Milan Design Week, with show cooking and themed evenings that will take place in the exclusive location of the Casa Facile Design Lab in Via Solferino 14, in Milan, form 4 to 9 April from 7 to 9 pm.