An all time record Maturità (the Italian high school exam) season for Studenti.it, the Mondadori Groiup brand that is a point of reference for Italian students. The site, which this year is celebrating its 20^th anniversary, chalked up its best ever traffic figures during the recently concluded period of written exams, confirming its leadership in the education segment.

In the 3-day period from the eve of the exams until the second written paper, Studenti.it recorded double-digit growth, during the live marathon from 19 to 21 June, reaching 2.3 million unique users; there was also a particularly significant boom in access from mobile devices, which in the same days accounted for 73% of the site’s total traffic (source: Google Analytics).

Also of significance was  triple-digit growth on Facebook. The “Maturità 2018” group, coordinated by the Studenti.it team, saw an authentic flood of registrations, reaching a total of 42,000 subscribers (+280% compared with 2017): exam candidates who up until the “night before the exams” continued to interact with each other looking for help and, in turn, offering their support to their peers. Overall, thanks to constant activity on the fan page, in the week of the written exams, Studenti.it content reached 2.4 million users, a figure that rises to 3.8 million when the data for the last month is taken into account. Also in this case an extraordinary performance compared with 2017, with increases of more than 250% (source: Facebook Insights).

So, an increasingly social and digital maturità, made possible also thanks to the quality of video content: in addition to live feeds with experts, psychologists and tutors in preparation for the exams, the big new feature this year was the involvement of webstars and youtubers such as Favij, Frank Matano, Sofia Viscardi and Salvatore Aranzulla, who talked about their experiences with the maturità through live specials on social media and popular video clips. In fact, during the last month, including the exam days, the Studenti.it platforms (Facebook, YouTube and the web site) recorded 4 million video views.

The Chi Summer Tour, an event created by Chi, Italy’s most widely read people magazine edited by Alfonso Signorini, returns this summer to 4 very trendy and chic locations. Following the enormous success of previous editions, this year the tour will have a range of new features to entertain the many guests and the public.

The tour kicks off on Saturday 30 June on the beach of Mondello in Palermo, before proceeding on  8 July to Cortina d’Ampezzo, on 15 July to Forte del Marmi, ending up on 21 Juli in Rimini.

This year the Chi Summer Tour will travel round Italy with a personalised truck that will convert into a stage from which the editor Alfonso Signorini and his guests will animate the squares of the locations involved.  This year’s four stages will provide an opportunity to get a closer look at the world of the Mondadori Group magazine, to meet the editor and the celebrities participating in the event.

There is much anticipation for the talk show, conducted by the editor Alfonso Signorini, with some of the best known faces from the world of entertainment who will talk live about themselves to the audience, providing also some gossip, curiosities as well as what’s new and trending in the summer of 2018. From Valeria Marini to Giuseppe Sottile, and also Cecilia Capriotti Giovanni Ciacci, Francesca Valtorta, Romina Mondello, Iago Garcia and Antonio Spagnolo. At the same time, the Chi truck will also host moments dedicated to beauty and a show-cooking by Alice Balossi, pastry chef and cake maker, blogger and TV presenter.

The appointment at all 4 locations will be at around 7 pm in the heart of each place visited by the Chi Summer Tour (with the exception of Cortina, that will start at around 5 pm).

With this format, the advertising sales company Mediamond offers companies the possibility of communication projects and events that allow them to present their stories in original and valuable contexts.

All updates concerning the Chi Summer Tour will be available on the magazine’s social media profiles: Instagram chimagazineit and Facebook www.facebook.com/chimagazine and by following  the hashtag #chisummertour.

Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. announces the launch today of a treasury share buyback plan under art. 5 of (EU) Regulation no. 596/2014, in execution of the resolution adopted by the Ordinary Shareholders’ Meeting held on 24 April 2018, authorizing:

– the purchase and disposal of treasury shares for a maximum amount of up to 0.472% of the share capital, which is intended to provide the Company, in the three-year period, with no. 1,236,065 shares needed to meet the obligations under the “2018-2020 Performance Share Plan” approved by the Meeting;

– the continuation of the buyback plan – to service the “2017-2019 Performance Share Plan” – launched on 26 June 2017 in the manners and within the time limits of the relating Regulation.

Pursuant to the Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/1052, details of the treasury share buyback plan are shown below.

• Purpose of the plan

The purpose of the plan is the buyback of Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. treasury shares to service the “2018-2020 Performance Share Plan” approved by the Shareholders’ Meeting held on 24 April 2018, and the “2017-2019 Performance Share Plan”.

• Maximum amount in cash allocated to the plan

Buybacks will be made at a minimum unit price not lower than the official Stock Exchange price on the day before the purchase transaction, reduced by 20%, and at a maximum unit price not higher than the official Stock Exchange price on the day before the purchase transaction, increased by 10%. The definition of volumes and unit purchase prices will be made in accordance with the conditions set out in art. 3 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/1052; specifically, no shares will be purchased at a price higher than the higher between the price of the last independent trade and the price of the highest current independent bid on the trading venue where the purchase is carried out.

• Maximum number of shares to purchase

Purchases for the 2018-2020 three-year period will regard a maximum of no. 1,236,065 ordinary shares (equal currently to 0.472% of the share capital) to be allocated to the “2018-2020 Performance Share Plan”, in addition to the purchases expected in the 2018-2019 two-year period of no. 526,549 ordinary shares allocated to the “2017-2019 Performance Share Plan”.

The maximum total amount of shares under the plan is therefore within the limits of law, taking account of the treasury shares already held by the Company.

Mention should be made that Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. holds to date a total of no. 920,000 treasury shares, equal to 0.0352% of the share capital.

• Duration of the plan

The current authorization runs until the Shareholders’ Meeting called to approve the financial statements for the year ending 31.12.2018 and is renewable prior to the Shareholders’ authorization.

• Buyback procedures

The treasury share buyback plan will be coordinated by an authorized intermediary who will make the purchases independently, with no influence from Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. as far as the time of purchase is concerned. Buybacks will be made pursuant to the combined provisions of art. 132 of Legislative Decree no. 58/1998 and of art. 5 of Regulation (EU) 596/2014, art. 144-bis of the Issuer Regulation, and the EU and national legislation on market abuse (including the Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/1052), in accordance with the resolutions of the above Shareholders’ Meeting of 24 April 2018, in the terms previously disclosed to the market and in accordance with applicable law. Daily purchase volumes will not exceed 25% of the daily average volume of Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. shares traded over the 20 trading days before the dates of purchase.

Any subsequent changes to the above buyback plan will be promptly disclosed to the public by the Company in the manners and within the time limits of applicable law.

The transactions made will be disclosed to the market in the manners and within the time limits of applicable law.

The 20^th June sees the start of the final high school diploma exams in Italy, commonly known as the “maturità”, and once again this year Studenti.it – the Mondadori Group brand leader in Education sector market with 4 million unique users per  month (source: Audiweb, January 2018) – is working with students to help them pass this important moment.

Studenti.it boasts 20 years of experience having been launched in 1998 as a pass-notes database to help students to exchange study materials: the site has grown alongside the Millennials and Generation Z, young people now aged between 10 and 20, who have never known a world without the internet and that are the core audience for the brand. Since the beginning, the site has seen its offer expand enormously, with the addition of content edited by researchers and university professors, a constant flow of news and information about the world of schools, dissertation summaries, exam tools and simulations and a range of other supporting materials, making a total of some 50,000 documents in the archive.

In a now consolidated tradition, also this year, in the days of the written exams (20, 21 and 25 June) Studenti.it will run non-stop live coverage of the maturità from 7am to 8pm: with real-time updates and comments from experts and tutors in different subjects who will provide assessments of the outlines proposed by the Miur, as well as developing simulations to be published at the end of each exam. On the field, the Studenti.it team will interview students outside the schools, before and after the exams, to gather immediate reactions and comments to be added to the flow of news on the site.

Listening to the views and needs of those directly affected is part of the constant efforts made by Studenti.it to get as close as possible to the maturità: for example, online surveys using questionnaires on the site and on social media have in recent months brought together the opinions of more than 52,000 students facing the maturità this year on various issues related to the exam (study techniques, the use of technology, progress assessments, managing nerves, “outlines”), surveys that have been picked up and reproduced by local and national newspapers, as well as on the radio and the web.

An important new feature this year was the involvement of popular webstars, such as Frank Matano, Favij, Sofia Viscardi and Salvatore Aranzulla, who took part in live interviews and video spots on Facebook with a reach that so far has totalled 1 million people: the participants shared news and anecdotes about their experiences of the maturità, along with useful advice and tips for getting through the exam and also dealing with what happens after the exam, when adult life really begins.

Also on Facebook, where the Studenti.it page has over 466,000 fans and continues to grow, a dedicated “Maturità 2018” group has recorded an authentic boom in subscriptions: 40,000 students (three times more than last year, the widest group about the exam in Italy). Through the group, moderated by the Studenti.it team, students can come into contact with each other in the search for tips about the exam, to let off steam in moments of difficulty but also to offer their own creative qualities and share know-how: what will come out in the Italian exam? How to prepare the perfect cover for your dissertation? What software to use? How to set out a conceptual map? How does the credits and bonus system work? Does anyone know the external examiners on my commission? These are just some of the topics that ring round schools across the country in a normal day of students preparing to face the maturità in 2018.

The seasonal peak of traffic is an opportunity for many companies and brands to communicate with a young audience in a qualitative context, also by integrating the site’s social platforms into advertising plans.

We are very proud that Ermenegildo Zegna chose Palazzo Mondadori to present its men’s S/S 2019 collection that opened Milan’s fashion week on Friday 15 June.

The models that paraded on the mirrored catwalk across the water in front of our headquarters in Segrate, a building designed by Oscar Niemeyer, seemed almost floating.

Always looking for symbolic places to show his proposals, this time the artistic director of Zegna, Alessandro Sartori, chose a location that is not only an ideal background, but fully represents the spirit of his creations: “the architecture of this wonderful place is perfectly in line with the challenge at the base of this collection.

The title – “Weightlessness” – fits perfectly into the building – monumental and evanescent at the same time – that Giorgio Mondadori commissioned in 1968 from the Brazilian architect, who for the Group’s new headquarters thought of a sort of “advertising architecture”, a building that did not need signs to imprint itself in memory.

[Photos kindly granted by Mondadori Portfolio.]

The Board of Directors of Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. met today and resolved not to accept the binding offers received from European Network for the acquisition of the Tustyle and Confidenze magazines and reviewed last 15 May.

Thanks to the Group journalists’ awareness and willingness to share a common goal, the Company has identified a new organizational and cost management structure aimed at achieving improvement targets for the two magazines.

Through an ongoing and open dialogue with the trade unions, an agreement has been reached on a reduction of the remuneration package for Tustyle and Confidenze journalists from 1 July 2018, consistent with the structural decline of the market, and on the application of a solidarity contract for journalists from the other publications in the Magazines Italy area, in force until 31 December 2018.

In line with the outlined strategies and business goals set – focus on brands with multi-channel development potential – the Company and the trade unions have underwritten their commitment to make the cost structure and the organization of the work of Magazines Italy consistent with market trends by the end of the year, in order to safeguard sustainability.

Giallozafferano, the point of reference for Italians in the kitchen, with 6.6 million unique users every month (source: Audiweb), over 6 million fans on Facebook and more than 600,000 readers for its printed magazine, from today will “speak” to its community also on  “Google Home, the voice-activated smart speaker recently launched in Italy by Google.

The Mondadori Group brand will consequently be available through Google Assistant across all compatible devices: Android and iOS smartphones and tablets, and Google Home and Google Mini smart speakers.

With Google Home it is possible to interact with the digital cooking assistant of Giallozafferano, that will establish a pleasant and friendly natural conversation with the user: all you have to do is call the assistant with a simple vocal command “OK Google, let me talk to Giallozafferano” to get the help you need in the kitchen. The secret lies in the innovative step-by-step function, in which a voice will accompany the user through each step of the preparation of the dish – using the vocal commands “back”, “repeat” or “forward” – making it possible even for inexperienced cooks to follow the recipe and  produce a perfect result without mistakes.

In fact, the  step-by-step function makes it possible to complete each phase of the preparation, interrupting when necessary, and starting again from where you left off. All by using the simple vocal “OK Google, ask Giallozafferano to start cooking again”; a particularly useful feature for dishes that require a long preparation.

With Giallozafferano’s new Action on Google,  you can choose a recipe, from a selection of over 4,500 available, with “OK Google, ask Giallozafferano for the recipe for tiramisù”, or run through the list of ingredients with the command “OK Google, tell me the ingredients”.

The new service offers a range of functions also to users accessing Giallozafferano from a smartphone or tablet, with even easier and more immediate usability thanks to the support of high-quality photos that make each stage even more intuitive and simple to complete.

This new project continues the brand strategy of Giallozafferano which, on the strength of the success of the web site from which a magazine was created that in just over a year has achieved an average monthly sale of 120,000 copies (source: ADS, March 2018), a series of books and a TV programme on Canale 5, can now count on an even more articulated multi-channel offer.

A special evening, at Pitti Uomo in Forence, to celebrate Iconic Club: a small and selected group of iconic product that have become part of the history of style, certified by ICON, the upscale male lifestyle title of the Mondadori Group, edited by Michele Lupi. And, on 12 Jun, the Iconic Club Party, at Le Pagliere in Florence, will bring together the brands that have created historic icons of style; objects which, over the years, have built around them authentic communities of admirers who are proud to wear, use and share them with other enthusiasts, conscious of belonging to a limited and exclusive group.

This is the philosophy of Iconic Club, which made its debut this year in the pages of Icon with a special editorial feature dedicated precisely to the stories of such icons: from the enduring legend that is the Vespa Piaggio or the Land Rover Defender in the automotive sector, to items of clothing that have become imprinted in the collective memory of universal style, such as the Fay 4 Ganci or Levi’s 501 jeans, the Baracuta G9 Harrington Jacket to the Valstar Valstarino, or the mythical Persol 714 sunglasses and the Montblanc Meisterstück fountain pen. Behind every one of these symbols there is much more than a simple product, but an account of an original story that has developed over time to create a status symbol in terms of style.

“The inspiration – says editor Michele Lupi – came to us from the many clubs of motorcycle and car enthusiasts. With the editorial team we decided to apply the same concept – made up of communities of aficionados who come together at ad hoc events around the country to exchange information across specially created social media platforms etc, also for the world related to style and fashion.”

For the first time, the Iconic Club Party on 12 June will bring together the Iconic Club brands from the pages of the magazine in an evening event in the centre of Florence in an exhibition that covers the history of each individual product. A show perfectly integrated with the environment of Le Pagliere with big posters celebrating the icons of style that are the protagonists of the event, with historic photographs of the partner brands, taken form the archives.

This special event will be animated by a live-set by Nicky Siano, a pioneer of dance music and the legendary first resident DJ at Studio 54, the Manhattan disco which, at the end of the 1970s, was frequented by a pantheon of the international jet-set, including Elizabeth Taylor, Liza Minnelli, Andy Warhol, John Travolta, Michael Jackson, Elton John and many more.

The evening’s beverage partner will be Belvedere Vodka, the world’s leading luxury vodka, which has created especially for the occasion two Signature Cocktails, the Belvedere Iconic Club and the Belvedere Pink Icon, the official cocktails for the event along with Belvedere Ruby Tonic.

To mark the Pitti Immagine Uomo 94, the June issue of Icon, like that of last January, will enjoy a special distribution on the platforms of the high-speed trains running between Milan and Florence, in the lounge areas of 4 and 5 star hotels in Florence, and to opinion leaders and international buyers at Pitti.

Companies have responded enthusiastically to the lively and exciting proposal of Icon and given the advertising company Mediamond an extraordinary result for the June issue, which has recorded a 60% in sales compared with last year.