July 12th, 2015
Second Account Nella Bella Italia
The exciting news of a week in which we’ve seen everything from amazing coups on the coverage front, to word-of-mouth recommendations and yet more new business enquiries, is that, on Friday, Catapult scooped its second Italy-based client.
This much coveted prize now sits alongside all the Italian brands we are marketing in the UK for their UK importers and, of course, our very special agreement with CIBO, in Bologna.
The new client is based in Milan, but the new campaign is a tourism and food focused campaign – right up our street – which will support a rebranded and rejuvenated festival that is based around what I have described for a UK client as the ‘Lento Lifestyle’.
The festival is focused on part of a famous and historic Tuscan trail, reasonably close to Siena. Catapult is now part of a multi-national marketing team, with one consultant per country, in places such as the USA, Germany and northern Europe. The scenery is stunning, the food allegedly divine, accommodation impressive and the opportunities to reconnect with nature are irresistible. There is also a spiritual element and possible endorsement by the leader of a major faith.
This year’s event will take place in October, but this relationship is a long-term one and the big ideas will really be rolled out next year, when everything will be considerably scaled up. I have a huge idea to build on links to Britain with something quirky. That could be massive.
Now, do things happen for a reason? I certainly hope so on the book front this month, but there are two other connections to this new account. One is my former Italian teacher, who lives spookily close to the trail. The other is a tourism team based in the city at the very end of this trail, who I pitched to a few years ago. I may just have to join up all these dots.
The overseas side to our business is most definitely growing and we haven’t done any outbound marketing at all yet! It’s certainly vindication, following all the sneers we’ve had about attempting to do this and, even now, some still dismiss it as ‘going on holiday’. Luckily, I learned long ago not to worry about the opinions of those for whom you have no respect anyway and have stuck to my guns. I think not being very English in attitude definitely works, however and having no affinity with where you live can really assist you when you chase a dream like this. UKTI training, overseas exhibitions and a lot of investment of time and money have also been essential ingredients, not to mention building up what my Italian teacher used to describe as ‘Gianna’s biblioteca”.
Our fabulous new client news comes in the wake of launching our new website and around 10 days ahead of the Bellavita exhibition – the largest Italian food and drink exhibition in the UK – for which we have a VIP pass and special marketing materials to take along. These demonstrate our PR USP of being able to handle both PR for Italian brands in the UK and for Italian businesses in Italy, which wish to promote themselves in the UK.
We shall continue to make forays into the Italian market, taking more ‘holidays’ if necessary! For now, we’re simply delighted with what’s already on the books and we somehow feel that we’re carving out a very exciting and vibrant niche.
