All the numbers from Identità Milano

How do you assess the success of an event? Its organisers always tend to offer a flattering report. We – being involved – have already reported on the excellent outcome on the day after Identità Milano ended, with this article on the final results. Yet does this interpretation hold after the so-called fact checking? We will thus trust pure numbers: well, for a congress that aims at communicating (and stimulating the communication of) Italian cuisine, and therefore has its main evaluation parameter in the media outcome, data is totally pitiless. For the detractors.

We had already underlined how the information industry – even before the congress began – had already considered Identità Milano as a lovely opportunity to spot important news in the world of cuisine: over 1,250 journalists, bloggers and communication professionals registered, on top of 15K industry professionals who came in crowds during the three days. Were their expectations met? Indeed: there have been over 1,050 articles already published, since 1st January, presenting the event, reporting during the event itself but most of all later, because Identità Milano always creates a “long tail”, it offers inspiration and analyses which then spread over the following months, basically until the next edition. The number we mentioned, therefore, though already remarkable is destined to grow, a lot.

Part of the news was the great impact on television, which has always taken Identità into consideration but never as this year: there have been mentions on all tv channels, with special reports on Rai1, Rai2, Rainews 24, Canale 5, La7. Speaking of the latter… Marchi and Ceroni pointed out the new perception of the congress as “Identità Pop”, that is to say fine dining and creative cuisine become a popular matter, they go beyond the gourmet élite and reach the greater public. An example of this was given by the live report that La7 created during the congress with Simone Salvini, who is now famous to the audience also thanks to Maurizio Crozza’s hilarious parody (read here).

And not only on television. Even radio dedicated us lots of space, especially on Rai Radio Uno and Rai Radio Due. And then there’s the (extraordinary) social media chapter, which are obviously in harmony with Identità, sharing the same dynamism and innovation. The success of the identitagolose.it website, which registered during the weeks around the congress a +48% users compared to last year – and +65% when comparing the period from 1st of January till today – was replicated on Facebook. On Twitter there were almost 300K visualisations of @identitagolose’s tweets (the most seen? Those referring to Carlo Cracco, Massimo Bottura and the homage to Annie Feòlde), with over 1,100 retweets.

The official hashtag #IGmi16 totalled almost 10K tweets, 44 million impressions, and around 1,500 contributors. The list of “tweet stars” has of course Identità Golose in the first place, then Andrea Radic, who passionately followed the congress for affaritaliani.it, then Paolo Marchi and Carlo Cracco. Over 2 million single users were reached only on Monday 7th March. Then one of course shouldn’t forget the over 1,300 photos shared on Instagram. This result, in terms of communication and digital traffic was also thanks to the ever more successful and synergic collaboration with our media partners, such as IFood, Agrodolce, Dissapore, Social Reporters and many more.

Claudio Ceroni explains: «These results don’t happen by chance, but are the consequence of years of patient work. Today they make it as clear as ever that Identità Milano – and Identità Golose in general, “signing” also many other events and activities – is not only an influential and significant congress, but most of all it produces great communication, all in favour of Italian cuisine. I’ll add that the huge effort we’ve made during Identità Expo had a great contribution in multiplying our relevance, and that of the world we think we’re finely representing».

Paolo Marchi agrees: «These numbers gratify me, they are the result of a general fact that impresses me. That is to say there’s a growing attention to Italian gastronomy. Indeed it is a question of perception, in Italy and abroad: once our fine dining was seen as something excellent yet also isolated, without being influential, without a clear acknowledgment, so that our chefs looked like a poor version when compared to, say, the French. This is no longer the case».

As with our fashion and interior designers who are now established, a clear point of reference worldwide, «the same applies with food, and not only with the tradition of pasta or pizza, or the excellent work Slow Food does on products. Today Italian cuisine appears strong, complex, it works as a team, it gets areas that used to be marginal involved, as with high quality pizzerias and agritourism. It is across-the-board». This is why even politics now pay attention to it, as with the government’s Food Act (read the latest news here and here), or the fact Davide Oldani was called as testimonial of the Italian team in the Olympic games in Rio.

They notice this abroad, just like they appreciate the work Identità Golose is doing. Marchi gives an example: «Riccardo Felicetti, the president of the world’s pasta producers just called me. He’s in San Francisco and was just chatting with starred chef Michael Tusk. He told him: “When you hear from Marchi, tell him we have excellent restaurants here too, not just in New York or Chicago. He should come and see!”». Not bad, for those who were until recently only associated with little more than pizza and mandolins.