NEWS

Huge success for the “uncomfortable” edition of IF! Italians Festival

Milan, 28 November 2019 – IF! Italians Festival, the event devoted to creativity, organised and promoted by ADCI – Art Directors Club Italiano and UNA – Aziende della Comunicazione Unite, together with primary partner Google, lowers the curtain on its 6th edition, this year with record attendance numbers.

A short video recaps the highlights of the three-day festival and shows the emotion and excitement that pervaded the creative hub BASE Milano from 6th to 9th November The event totalled 44 talks, 17 training courses as well as numerous interviews, seminars and workshops. More than 130 guest speakers from Italy and abroad provided insights and creative challenges.

With the theme #MetteteviScomodi (#StayUncomfortable), the 2019 edition of IF! Italians Festival stands out for prodigious audience numbers: as many as 2,500 people attended the opening on Thursday 7th November, and a presence of more than 8,000 over the three days, an extraordinary 23% increase over last year.

Ticket sales soared too: 3 Days and 1 Day passes for the 2019 edition exceeded those for 2018 by approximately 30%. In fact, the BASE Milano venues were always full capacity, from the first talk on Friday 8th November to the last on the Saturday evening.

Business partners too this year topped 70 – of which 45 were sponsors, content providers or technical support – confirming the exceptional operational synergy created by IF! Italians Festival.

Google, primary partner of the event for the sixth consecutive year, was in the frontline right from the early stages of the event, as well as appearing on stage with its Italian team: from Marketing Director Vincenzo Riili to Paola Marazzini, Director Agency and Strategic Partnerships, Carla Leveratto, Creative Partnerships Manager, Francesca Mortari, Director Google Marketing Platform Emerging Markets, Giacomo Zanni, Video Creative Lead.

In addition, with the IF! YouTubeLab and voice overs provided by Roya Zeitoune of YouTube Culture & Trends Lead EMEA, YouTube was highly visible as first-time content partner of IF! Italians Festival.

Finally, record numbers too for the staff, with 200 people guaranteeing a smoothly-run operation.

The 6th edition of the Festival also left its mark in the sustainability stakes, with an even greener approach than previous years on several fronts: from adopting Lifegate’s Impatto Zero® to offset C02 emissions to making use of hand-painted sets made with recyclable materials, not to mention panel discussions on environmental awareness, and the sale of branded water bottles for free refills.

Closing IF! Italians Festival once again was the ADCI Awards ceremony, the Italian Art Directors recognition of the very best of Italian advertising, with juries chaired by SMALL New York founders and Executive Creative Directors Luca Lorenzini e Luca Pannese.

“The excellent results achieved by the 6th edition confirm the increasingly important role of IF! Italians Festival in the industry, consolidating its presence in the national and international creative panorama, year after year, success after success. The Festival is now a fixture in the calendar of Milan’s not-to-missed events, clear from the constantly growing turnout and the extremely positive feedback received from delegates, partners and sponsors”, comments the Organising Committee in a joint statement.

“We are proud to have made so many people uncomfortable, encouraging an increasingly sustainable approach and bringing Italian creativity back into the spotlight, a truly precious heritage that, continually nurtured and applauded, educates us and leads to really great things”, concludes the Committee.

CONDIVIDI