Month: October 2020

GialloZafferano, Italy’s best-loved food media brand, is betting big time on TikTok to enhance the title with a new language, original content and to further strengthen its relationship with Generation Z.

First launched on the short-video platform in June, the GialloZafferano profile already has more than 200,000 followers, and growing rapidly, with over 17 million video views with the hashtag #giallozafferano and an average of more than 200,000 views and 20,000 likes for each video posted.

On TikTok the Mondadori Group brand offers  original and exclusive content with its unmistakeable mix of recipes for everyone, and the simple ideas and advice that makes the web site a point of reference in the kitchen for 18 million unique users  every month (Source: Audiweb, average Jan-Jun 2020) and 12 million fans on social media, from Facebook to Instagram, Youtube to Pinterest, and now also on TikTok. GialloZafferano produces different and ad hoc content for each platform with the aim of being always close to Italians in the kitchen, thanks to always new proposals and responding, 7-days-a-week, on the web site and on social media, to tens of thousands of comments and requests from users.

“Once again, we are evolving, with new content and approaches, in order to remain in constant contact with people. We follow changes in habits on new media through the constant development of new and original formats, also to interact with a new audience, and expanding our presence on social media,” declared Andrea general manager of Mondadori Media. “For some time now we have seen social media not just as a way of disseminating our content, but as a new paradigm, in which GialloZafferano is the instrument for the creation of a community built around the passion of Italians for food and cooking, a and where it is not the brand that is the protagonist, but people, who are increasingly engaged and central.”

To reinforce even more its position on TikTok, from today, GialloZafferano will also take advantage of the exclusive collaboration of three innovative food creators: Cooker Girl (Aurora Cavallo), Theavokiddo (Aisha Ben Thabet) and michi.fadda (Michela Fadda), very young food enthusiasts who have been able to discover interesting and fascinating ways to emerge and engage users on TikTok.

Aurora Cavallo, or Cooker Girl, is 19, has 250,000 followers and 5.4 million likes on TikTok. She was born in a small village at the foot of Monviso and is a student at the University of Gastronomic Sciences of Pollenzo. She likes to define her cooking as “traditionally new”. Often reinventing tradition, combining different culinary cultures and techniques to make every dish her own, Aurora learned to cook on the web web, watching thousands of video recipes on YouTube and reading numberless articles on blogs, in books and magazines. And it is perhaps this “amateur” background that has had the biggest influence on her way of communicating; spontaneous, simple and direct, rich in values, but hiding close study and limitless passion.

Aisha Ben Thabet, or Theavokiddo, is just 16 years old, has over 450,000 followers and 18 million likes on TikTok, and lives in Milan where she studies and a languages-based high school. She began cooking when he was six years old, along with her sister, and in 2016, for fun, she took part in Masterchef Junior where she came third. During lockdown she took up cooking again and, in a few weeks, her TikTok profile became one of the most popular in Italy. She shoots video recipes that are tasty and within the reach of all schoolkids, in a spontaneous way and an immediate editing style with brilliant effects. The kitchen has become her safe space as, though the ingredients, the preparation and sharing of her recipes, she manages to express her feelings.

Michela Fadda, or michi.fadda, is 20, has over 350,000 followers and 12 million likes on TikTok, and has Sardinian origins and studies Educational Sciences at the di Milano Bicocca University. Even as a little girl she cooked with her mother and grandmother, a passion that she has continued to pursue over the years.  With just her smartphone and her creativity, with her videos Michela tries to transmit the peace and serenity that she herself finds when she’s cooking. With a single light, Michela manages to capture the details of every recipe, enhancing the ingredients and highlighting the preparation of each dish in the editing and an always pertinent choice of music, while also trying to remind us that beauty lies in small and simple things.

For the Mondadori Group, the novelties on TikTok don’t stop here: for some months, other brands have begun to try out new things on this platform, from Grazia, that launched its profile during the recent fashion week, with a continuous increase in the number of followers, to a DMBeauty, Smartworld and Studenti.it.
A continuous evolution that will soon also involve also other Group brands, with new projects and exclusive collaborations. These editorial developments generate new opportunities for interaction and Mediamond is already working, alongside Mondadori, on the development and fine tuning of new proposals for branded content for 2021, aimed at all interested commercial partners.

This week Donna Moderna is on newsstands with a special issue Acts of Beauty, in which the magazine edited by Annalisa Monfreda launches a reflection on the acts of beauty that help us to be ourselves and find our place in the world.

“Beauty is not an aesthetic canon, however new and inclusive. Nor is it a slogan, with which we are all beautiful and each body is perfect. It’s not even ad duty: that of having to feel beautiful and value ourselves. Beauty is an action. It is commitment, effort, courage. We wanted to dedicate an entire issue to those acts of beauty that improve the lives of all of us,” declared the editor Annalisa Monfreda.

Featured on the cover is Paola Egonu, the Italian world champion volleyball player, of Nigerian origin, who, with her statuesque and elegant pride, was chosen by Donna Moderna as an example of a woman who is not afraid to feel free.

To celebrate this special issue Donna Moderna produced a special cover, with heavier paper and a eye-catching caption in glossy red lacquer.

At the centre of the magazine is an exclusive illustration by the artist Luca Font who, for Donna Moderna, has interpreted the words with which the brand’s audience describes beauty today: happiness, respect, audacity, courage, honesty, care, choice, acceptance and self-esteem. Positive concepts, chosen by readers in an instant poll on Instagram, that enhance the value of the project.

“Acts of Beauty completes the project for three special issues which Donna Moderna has used to give readers a new perspective on issues of great interest. It’s an initiative in which we firmly believe and through which we have attempted to bring to the market a product of very high quality that underlines the social value of the content within, and confirming, once again, the capacity and commitment of the magazine to engage and be close to its audience,” declared Andrea Santagata, general manager of Mondadori Media.

A range of faces from the worlds of literature and entertainment, including Paola Turci, Sveva Casati Modignani, Fiamma Satta, Michela Murgia, Alessandra Amoroso, Geppi Cucciari, Kim Rossi Stuart, Stefania Auci and Jonathan Bazzi, have supported the Acts of Beauty initiative and have enriched the pages of the magazine with their own accounts of beauty.

The message of Acts of Beauty develops on the pages and in the columns of the issue also with investigations of current affairs that talk about actions to enhance the territory across Italy, women in companies and the talents of differently abled people.

The special issue of Donna Moderna also tells the stories of special people who, with courage, have found their place in the world: from Daniela Lucangeli, the much followed psychologist and learning difficulties expert, whose revolutionary ideas about teaching are based on positive emotions, to Maura Gancitano, the philosopher who is helping to make her subject something that (almost) everyone can approach and Francesca Vecchioni, founder and president of Diversity, the non-profit organisation committed to promoting social inclusion.

The issue also has a feature dedicated to the life and choices of three influencers: the curvy blogger Laura Brioschi, who has launched her BodyPositive fashion line, Eugenia Longo, the instagrammer who lives with alopecia, Aurora Celli, the TikToker who has made her vitiligo a point of strength.
Three portraits of women famous on social media that are not spokespersons from a classical concept of beauty, but who particularities make them even more beautiful and unique.

“We are extremely satisfied because Acts of Beauty, the third special issue from Donna Moderna, after Talento Italiano and Un Nuovo Futuro, has been widely appreciated by all of the companies on the front line for social commitment and the valorisation of beauty in all its forms. The market has recognised the editorial and advertising value of these three special issues, enabling us to record and 20% increase in ad pages and a 12% rise in revenues, compared with the same issues of the previous year,” declared Davide Mondo, chief executive of Mediamond.

 The storytelling of the Acts of Beauty special issue  is developed also on the web site www.donnamoderna.com, where the magazine’s content is included, expanded and updated, as well as on the brand’s social media channels, in particular the Instagram profile of Donna Moderna with a filter that plays on the key words of beauty chosen by readers.

Two backstage videos were also made during the Paola Egonu photoshoot and on the set with the three influencers, who talk about their acts of beauty to make them feel good about themselves, but also to spread a positive message to their followers.

The launch of the new special issue Acts of Beauty by Donna Moderna will be supported by an advertising campaign developed by CasiraghiGreco&, and planned on print, digital, and social media, as well as, radio and digital out of home in core districts of Milan on the iDD Magazine circuit.

Thanks to a unique mix of practical advice, first-hand testimony, stories and live daily events, Donna Moderna is always at the side of its readers and their needs. Through the magazine and its web channels, it reaches a total net audience of 14.6 million users every month (Source: Nielsen Media impact, data fusion March 2020), to which should be added 2.6 million fans on social media, with the engagement of 1.4 million interactions per month (Source: Shareablee and internal data on IG Insight), confirming the brand’s postion as the point of reference on the women’s segment,

Mondadoristore.it, the e-commerce site of the Mondadori bookstores, is 20 and is celebrating this anniversary with readers with a range of initiatives, promotions and instore digital events with personalities from the world of arts and entertainment.

Created in 2000 with an offer dedicated exclusively to books, Mondadoristore.it was among the pioneers of online retail. Today it is one of the leading media stores on the web, thanks to a vast assortment of products for leisure, ranging from books to music, films, toys stationery and eReaders.

“We were among the first players in the Italian market to support our bookshops around country with e-commerce: an activity that enabled us to expand the sales channels of our network and rapidly establish the presence of Mondadori Store also online,” declared Carmine Perna, chief executive of Mondadori Retail. “Always attentive to the evolution in buying habits, over the years we have developed a range of integrated services that bring together the online world of Mondadori Store with that of our over 550 physical stores, in order to bring our offer to readers, wherever they are. A service that in recent times, as never before, has shown itself to be essential in maintaining the relationship between the public and bookstores, with visits to the site increasing by more than three times during the lockdown period, compared with the previous year, and a record of over 40 million estimated visits in 2020.”

Over these last 20 years, the Mondadoristore.it team has responded to the challenges of innovation by creating successful original formats, alongside new services, to offer the public and omni-channel experience: from the first publishing cases on the web to the most recent music trends, such as Korean pop,  and the first instore digital events with national and international authors and artists  launched in a time of social distancing.

The inititives

Piero Armenti, Silvia Avallone, Massimo Bisotti, Federica Bosco, Glenn Cooper, Andrea De Carlo, Gordon, Q4, Licia Troisi, Marzia Sicignano, Paolo Stella and many other writers, YouTubers and protagonists of the great events of Mondadori Store, have celebrated the anniversary with a video-message on the Mondadori Store social media profiles.

To mark the anniversary, from today and for 20 days, Mondadoristore.it is offering free delivery on all purchases and exceptional discounts books, bestsellers in the music and film category and a selection of gift ideas. Plus, coming soon, many new online events, including Francesco Sole and other guests in exclusive chat rooms with readers.

The initiative will be accompanied by a communication campaign with the claim “Click e a capo” involving all media: the web, social, dem, radio and in store. The advertising, overseen by the agency Canali&C., plays ironically with some of the events linked to the history of publishing and lifestyle in the last 20  years: in “2002: the word selfie didn’t exist”, “2006: we were still good at football”, “2010: I’ll follow you no longer sounds like a threat”, “2018: Garbo is no longer the most famous Greta.”

On Mondadoristore.it it is possible to choose from a catalogue of over 1 million titles, including books in Italian and other languages, school textbooks and eBooks, as well as the best eReaders and accessories to read in complete freedom, plus films on DVD and Blu-ray, music of all kinds,, toys, gift ideas and stationery products. The entire offer of Italy’s most extensive network of bookstores is always available through free multi-channel services, such as Pick Up Point, to collect in store a product bought online; Prenota e ritira, the possibility of ordering online and paying and collecting in store or at one of  Italy’s 11,000 post offices, and Invia a casa, to have delivered at home products bought in a bookstore.

The online buying experience is enhanced also by a broad range of editorial content curated by a staff of experts and enthusiastic readers who every day indicate “what’s new”, promotions and events related to the world of publishing and entertainment. In addition, there are also thematic pointers to the most interesting new titles and news about niche or specialised titles for fans and those in the business.

Icon, the Mondadori Group’s male lifestyle magazine, dedicates its latest issue to the New Generation of Italian cinema.

The running theme of the entire issue, on newsstands from 20 October, fashion, lifestyle, stories and male passions as seen through the new faces of contemporary pop culture.

“Icon New Generation perfectly represents what the magazine increasingly aims to be: a thermometer of talent and trends, a conveyor of new languages, an amplifier for a generation that is fundamental also for  fashion and the companies that work in the sector, of which they are, in all senses, the new interpreters,” declared Andrea Tenerani, editor of Icon.

This month’s cover stories feature portraits of four talents that symbolise the new generation of the entertainment industry. Andrea Arcangeli, 27, one of the country’s most promising young actors, star of the series Romulus, which is about the origins and foundation of Rome, and soon to appear in the role of Roberto Baggio, talks to Icon about working on set, the physical preparation and  “ the hours and hours of studying a script in proto-Latin.” The actor and director of I predatori Pietro Castellitto, 28, reflects on his first forays into cinema: “It’s very good to start when you are young, because you learn about cinema through your mistakes and it is only when you are young that you have the courage and freedom to make mistakes.” Riccardo Mandolini, 20, “the bully” in the series about adolescents Baby, talks about the desire to improve oneself and new male role-models: “Becoming an adult isn’t easy for anyone. It’s great to be able to do it while feeling free to express your desires and weaknesses. But what is most important is to know what you feel and come to terms with your feelings without having to repress them.” And finally, Patrick Schwarzenegger, class of ’93, an actor, but not only: “I love acting, but I want to be an entrepreneur, and have the possibility of choosing.”

In the fashion special, photographer Giampaolo Sgura, along with the magazine’s team, led by the editor Andrea Tenerani and editor-at-large Federico Sarica, has created a brand-new story built on images. A game of interpretations in no particular order, without hierarchies of fame or sector, in which nine young protagonists from the cinema interpret themselves playing with a selection of items from the 2020 autumn-winter collections.

The new issue also sees the return of the supplement Icon Wheels, with exclusive news from the word of cars and motorcycles, previews, interviews with protagonists and the most iconic and desired models of car and motorcycle enthusiasts.

Corri con noi (Run with Us), the exciting Donna Moderna project for women who have chosen running and walking as their way of keeping fit and healthy, networking and building their self-confidence, has come to its final stage for this year.

After weeks of training in towns and cities across Italy, on 11 October a group of ambassadors, along with the magazine’s editor, Annalisa Monfreda, took part in a race against the splendid backdrop of the Valle d’Aosta. A competition with an entirely new formula and programme, with a selected number of participants to (safely and securely) conclude, the third edition of Corri con noi.

“Running together, sharing an exhausting challenge, helping and being helped along the way, these are the values of our project, the ones that help to make running an exercise in sisterhood and brings together our community of runners. And this is exactly what happened in the Valle d’Aosta, where we wrote the latest chapter in the extraordinary story of  Donna Moderna,” declared Annalisa Monfreda, editor of Donna Moderna.

Immersed in the suggestive surroundings, between the villages and pathways of the mountains, the athletes tenaciously and enthusiastically ran a 20-km trail, from  Gressoney-Saint-Jean, at an altitude of almost 1,400 metres, to Gressoney-La-Trinité, at more than 1,600 metres, and on to Alpenzù Grande at 1,788 metres, passing through ancient Walser villages with their characteristic houses built of wood and stone, alpine lakes nd valleys, where nature gives of its best.

A unique Alpine experience to enjoy the beauty of Monte Rosa and feel the flow of adrenaline that only an off-road race can offer.

Making the race even more memorable was the autumnal hues of the fir and larch trees, ranging from orange to yellow and red, that transformed the landscape into an authentic palette of colours.

From Iveta Sedlackova from Florence, an ambassador also last year in the race in the desert of Morocco, to Grazia Bellomo from Naples, who was taking part in a trail race for the first time, enthusiastic women runners challenged themselves and shared, using the brand’s social media channels as well as their own personal profiles, all of the excitement of this special adventure.

The event began the day before with a pre-race training session that brought together the participants and all of the staff of Donna Moderna in a 5-km walks around the Savoia castle on the “Regina Margherita” path, followed by a night-time walk.

The real final race got going on Sunday and was won by Elisa Adorni, an ambassador from Parma and the winner of the final race in the first two editions, followed by Federica Verdoya, an ambassador from Padova and Eleonora Suizzo, an ambassador from Catania.

“The thing I wanted most from these two days was to rediscover the group because a very strong bond has remained since the first edition in the Negev, and even when we are far away we are always in contact, from Sicily to Veneto, friendship is the most important thing for us,” said Elisa Adorni, winner of the race.
Others took part along with the ambassadors, including Ilaria Veronese, Italian alpine skiing champion and Scarpa athlete, and Elena Griffa, Laura Rho and Carlotta Montanera (known on social media as Running Charlotte), super trail-running experts, who on this occasion offered advice and support to the other participants.

Now in its third edition, Corri con noi is an initiative dedicated to women who want to take up running, those who run already and want to improve and expert runners who want to share their enthusiasm and experience. A community that revolves around a passion for running, not just as a sport, but also as a way of helping women to become more aware of their potential, their strength and to make them feel more secure, improve their mood and keep daily stress at bay.

And in September, both safely and securely the new appointments with Corri con noi began on twelve Italian cities and towns to train together with qualified coaches.

The Main Partner of the initiative is SCARPA, Italy’s leading producer of sports footwear and the Spin Ultra model for trail running.

Other partners include: GARMIN world leader in GPS technology for sport, fitness and the outdoors; Mediterranea Cosmetics with a line of cosmetic products for skincare and bodycare; Lauretana with Europe’s lightest mineral water; Benped® a new generation of hydrocolloid patches and a range of advanced technology orthopaedic supports, for the well-being of feet.

Supporter of the final race was the Autonomous Region of Valle d’Aosta, which with its magical background hosted our runners and the race.

Donna Moderna, the magazine brand of reference in the women’s segment, is an ecosystem which, thanks to a unique mix of practical advice, first-hand testimony, stories and live daily events, is always at the side of its readers and their needs. Through the magazine and its web channels, it reaches a n total audience of 14.6 users every month (Source: Nielsen Media impact, data fusion March 2020), to which should be added over 2 million fans on social media, with 1.3 million monthly interactions (source: Fanpage Karma, August 2020).

The Mondadori Group has announced the signing of a licensing agreement with Pantheon Media Group LLC (PMG), a New York-based media company, to launch Grazia in the United States.

Thanks to this deal, Grazia, the first 100% Italian fashion brand with over 20 international editions, strengthens its global presence and lands in one of the most important countries for the luxury and fashion industry.

Grazia USA will introduce a new business model in the American media landscape, with strong growth potential on other markets too: innovative and strongly identity-driven, it will develop through a global multi-channel platform comprising digital, video and social content, complemented by print editions starting from September 2021.

“The arrival of Grazia in the United States is a highly significant event, the first time an all-Italian fashion magazine lands on the US market with a formula that gives a perfect answer to the new needs of readers, users and businesses. In today’s historical juncture, it bears witness to the strength of a brand that has always stood at the forefront, becoming an icon of international renown, leveraging on its authoritative content and incomparable identity,” said Ernesto Mauri, CEO of the Mondadori Group.

These are the main strengths that have allowed the Mondadori Group’s magazine to chart a course of international expansion that has led it to establish a foothold in 23 countries worldwide, in all the major fashion and luxury markets.

“The arrival of Grazia USA is a transformative event that significantly reshapes the fashion and beauty landscape in the United States with a bold type of next generation media organization. The USA edition of Grazia aims to establish itself as the most prominent and influential guide to fashion, with a mission of crafting impactful visual storytelling and thought-provoking and top-tier journalism to empower and inspire readers”, said Dylan Howard, CEO of Pantheon Media Group LLC and Publisher of Grazia USA.

Grazia USA is online on the new platform www.graziamagazine.com/us with a stellar presence: Kim Kardashian-West, who takes on the lead role in an exclusive international project on the brand’s channels.

The new Grazia USA platform will further strengthen the global multi-channel system of the Grazia International Network. With an audience that currently reaches every month a total of 15 million readers, 35 million unique users and over 20 million followers on social media worldwide, the new platform developed by Grazia will become an exclusive global reference point in the fashion industry for an increasingly wide audience of readers, users and businesses.

The Commissioner General’s Office for Italy at Expo 2020 Dubai and Mondadori Media, a Mondadori Group company, announce a partnership for boosting Italy’s participation project in the forthcoming Universal Exhibition with cultural and editorial activities and events. 

The collaboration will involve a rich calendar of editorial events and initiatives both during the exhibition semester and over the course of the build-up year to Expo 2020 Dubai, which will start on 1st October 2021. 

The activities included in the partnership that Mondadori Media will arrange together with the Commissioner’s Office will help to enhance visibility of the main themes that Italy will bring to the attention of the people visiting the national pavilion and to those connected digitally to Expo Dubai, the first large-scale event after the pandemic and the first Universal Exhibition to be held in an Arab country, situated in the heart of the MENASA. (Middle East, North Africa, South Asia) region. 

“The Expo 2020 Dubai Universal Exhibition will be an extraordinary  showcase for Italian companies, as they will be able to communicate  to the world their “Made in Italy” know-how and excellences. As a  leading publisher, we could not fail to grasp this important visibility  opportunity for the entire country. In line with our mission, our aim is to  spread culture, ideas, entertainment and information through our  brands to the widest possible public,” explained Ernesto Mauri, the  Managing Director of Mondadori Group.

“The partnership with Mondadori Media,” declared Paolo Glisenti, the Commissioner General of Section for Italy at Expo 2020 Dubai, “will allow us to expand and promote participation in the first global event after the pandemic, an extraordinary opportunity for reaffirming how Italian beauty has come to be a strategic driver for sustainability, resilience and the country’s relaunching“.

Donna Moderna, the magazine edited by Annalisa Monfreda, is publishing a new issue with a special cover dedicated to the adoption of abandoned cats and dogs.

Featured on the cover of the magazine is the influencer Veronica Ferraro who, for the first time poses with her beloved dog Steve in an effort to improve public awareness of an issue of great current significance to which also the stars of the web are increasingly close.

With more than a million followers on Instagram, Veronica Ferraro is one of the most followed young women in Italy and she has always been an animal lover. After the arrival of Amelia, a very sweet Cavalier King Charles spaniel, she adopted Steve, a mongrel pincher, who appeared for the first time on Instagram along with the influencer in the summer of 2018.

“In 2018, Giorgio and I were visiting Los Angeles and we came across an association for abandoned animals that rounded up dogs for adoption. When little Steve arrived, it was love at first sight. That evening at the home of Chiara (Ferragni, a close friend of Veronica, ed.) she couldn’t contain her joy,” Veronica Ferraro told Donna Moderna. 

A big fashion fan, as well as an example for many women who want to enhance themselves and keep fit, Veronica and Steve are the protagonists in the pages of the magazine of a special fashion feature, along with Cristina and Martina, two animal-loving girls who pose with their four-legged friends.

During the shoot, two backstage videos were also made with exclusive interviews, that will be put up on the brand’s social media profiles.

On a glamourous and heartfelt set, the pets were photographed for Donna Moderna as authentic stars, together with their owners, Veronica, Cristina and Martina: three young women who love grunge and the dandy style, couture dresses and vintage blouses, tartan and black leather, but more than anything else, love their dogs, all abandoned and discovered at dog pounds.

Every year more than 160,000 pets are abandoned: to highlight this phenomenon and to support conscious adoption, Donna Moderna has signed up to the #BENEVENUTOaCASA campaign promoted by the petfood brand Purina in collaboration with ENPA, the historic Italian animal protection association, with more than 240 sections and delegations across Italy for the collection of abandoned and maltreated animals that in 2019 alone numbered more than 2019 35,000.

Donna Moderna is also contributing to the initiative with a dedicated mini-web site www.donnamoderna.com/benvenutoacasa to discover the stories with a happy end told in the first person by people who have taken into their homes an abandoned four-legged friend.