Identità Milano, everyone’s talking about it

The fact mass media have covered, are covering and will cover, in the future, Identità Milano 2015 is the best demonstration of its success, which goes beyond the observations we already made here: because if Identità has a meaning, this will be of being a sounding board for the world of gastronomy it represents. Identità exists, in other words, because it offers an important stage to chefs, producers, firms; if from this stage one were to preach to an empty theatre, the entire operation would miss its logic. Instead, the audience was as numerous as ever.

A few extra numbers can help get an idea.Identità was as visible as ever on television, with pieces on Rai 1, Rai 2, Rai 3, Tgcom, Italia Uno and Class Life. On radio: 4 pieces on Rai Radio Uno of which one was a dedicated episode lasting over 20 minutes; 6 pieces on Rai Radio 2 of which 3 episodes lasted over 50 minutes each. Then there’s press and web: while last year we stopped at 850 articles, from December 1st 2014 to February15th 2015 we reached 1,063 (+25%), and many more will arrive because Identità Milano produces content with a very long “trail”. After all, the registration requests from journalists, photographers and communication professionals were 1,785, +30% compared to 2014.

Looking at the world of social networks the picture is similar: over 5,800 tweets in 3 days with the official congress hashtag (5,881 versus 5,224 in 2014: +13%), resulting in over 10 millionimpressions and a great participation from chefs, restaurants, press, publishers, firms and public. Thousands of photos shared on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter: those tagged #IGmi15 were over one thousand, at least as many those without the hashtag. Even Facebook posts did very well: Identità reached a public five times larger than its usual fan-base and received over one thousand new fans.

This intoxication of numbers deserves a few observations. Paolo Marchi: «We grow every year. And we are so rich in inspiration, ideas, topics that we cause a nice phenomenon. We of Identità only manage to see part of the lessons and events we have scheduled: there are too many. So the following days, reading the various pieces written by colleagues, we discover stories we had hypothesised during the planning, when we invited the speakers, but then had no chance to see». With a corollary: «Those who come are happy. Those who don’t wish they were and are sorry. I’m thinking about the many topics to which we couldn’t give space this year, I’m thinking about ice cream, an interesting world we already hosted in the past and we plan to have once again on stage in 2016».

The conclusions are to be made by Claudio Ceroni, patron of Magenta Bureau, organising the event: «Our work is measured by its media impact: therefore, with numbers at hand, the great success of 2015 is clear, and follows other editions which were also positive. The press review says Identità Milano ended up on general media, as well as economic, fashion and specialised sections... This is very important for us as we reach all targets. This is the best way of making the project we are conducting something concrete: for sure Identità Milano is a congress, because it is a container for ideas. But I also like to consider it in another way, as a communication factory facilitating the world of Italian cuisine».