As the title says, this has probably been my best day in Rome so far. The sun was shining, despite a few sprinkles of rain, and the two media visits we had were so outstanding and inspirational.
Art attack is a digital advertising agency located in a little hole-in-the-wall in Trastevere. The office was extremely modern and expressive, reminding me of agencies like Gatesman in Pittsburgh. There, we met with the founder, chief customer experience officer, and creative director.
Our talk began with them showing a unique promotional video that introduced the members of the team. That set the mood for the rest of the lecture, as it was extremely engaging and energetic. Personally, I loved seeing the three individuals talk highly of their professions. It made the lecture that much more truthful and made me feel better, as I would potentially like to work in an agency similar to Art attack.
The other thing that excited me about this visit was that we were able to learn about multiple different case studies and projects the agency worked on. I feel like Art attack beats out so many other agencies in Italy and focus on the customer’s experience and what they want to see. Their campaigns were all interactive and the video quality was extremely impressive.
They were so great that they even treated us to appetizers, coffee, and juice after the presentation. I tried these mini pizzas that had a croissant-like crust. It was amazing. Again, I feel like it’s hard to mess up pizza in Italy. We had free time for lunch or to explore the area more once we finished at Art attack, and to nobody’s surprise a group of us went out for gelato.
Today’s flavors included a raspberry cheesecake and mint chip in a waffle cone. I can’t say it beat Fonte della Salute but it hit the spot! We explored another church (Matteo’s suggestion) afterwards and it was magnificent. I cannot get over how beautiful Italian churches are and how much work is put into the design.
Media visit two was to la Repubblica, a daily Italian newspaper. When we arrived, I was slightly confused as we were outside of a furniture store. Our host let us into a gated area, and there was huge building that is la Repubblica.
First, we were taken to a hip looking TV studio. la Repubblica talked about its stations and how they even had a music show to appeal to younger audiences.
We listened to three employees at this presentation, and another fact that stuck with me when going over la Repubblica’s Instagram was that the company gains an average of 2,000 followers a week. I found that to be extremely impressive for a newspaper to keep that much traction.
When the presentation was over, we toured two different floors of the news station. A corner of the one floor was decked out in a fun way, reminding me of how advertising agencies typically look in the United States. As far as I know, none of the newspaper offices back home do anything fun like that to their offices.
The evening was for ourselves and rumor had it that there was a Pittsburgh Steeler bar in Rome. Of course I could not pass up the opportunity to take a look at it!
Getting there was not as easy as one would think however. It decided to downpour right when we got off the tram. From there onwards, it was a battle to keep dry, avoid stepping in river-like puddles, and just finding the bar in general.
After what felt like an eternity, we arrived at the bar and settled in with another group from our trip. It’s a small little bar, but I loved the idea of using different university flags from the United States as decoration. The bar was the perfect amount of “Yinzer”. Another highlight of the night was having my first spaghetti dish in Italy. Again, no complaints here, it was fantastico.
