Milan, day 2

It was an early morning, as we had to be out the door by 8am for our first of two media visits. I truly have never been this exhausted in my life. With the dangerous mixture of dehydration, sleep deprivation, and walking an average of 20,000 steps a day, my body has found itself in desperate times. This has been leading me to falling asleep in the darndest places…for example, on the public transportation. At the table while eating a meal…

Also want to take this time to give a shout out to essential oils for saving my feet from eternal pain. Grazie.

I was also more sick today, so I had to make sure I was loaded up with lots of tissues so I was prepared. Luckily, it only seems like a light cold, which means it’s more manageable and less painful for myself (and those around me).

Also want to say that the pictures for today and probably tomorrow’s blog will be sparse, since I didn’t take my camera today and won’t tomorrow. So random iPhone pictures will be scattered throughout here.

Our morning started off with a visit to Burson-Marsteller Milan – the Milan office of the well-renowned public relations and integrated marketing communications (IMC) firm. (If you don’t know what integrated marketing communications is…it’s basically what I’m spending four years at college studying.) Their office was lovely, and they had pastries and coffee (espresso, rather) for us that meant more to everyone than they would ever know. I had two pastries.

There were a handful of professionals who presented to us, all specializing in different aspects of IMC. Overall, this presentation was the most tangible for me, because it literally related to all of my major classes. Of course I can appreciate the other ones, but they were speaking the language I knew, which was pretty cool.

We were fortunate enough to be hosted by Fabio Caporizzi, the CEO of Burson-Marsteller Italy, the whole morning (that’s a big deal). The thread that linked his commentary was the idea that the European communications market literally has to be constantly changing to keep up with the world. Unfortunately, this change includes adopting the English language in almost all of their work. In his words exactly, “we think in Italian, but we work in English.”

He also told us, with a tear in his eye, that his son moved to the U.S. to work and changed his last name so natively English speakers would not have to work harder learning his last name. This made me incredibly sad – we can learn how to say the last name Caporizzi without him having to change it to Caprese…right? Pictured further below is Fabio standing in front of a picture of him and his son, taken 20ish years ago.

While it makes my heart sad that they have to work in English, I admire their work ethic and desire to keep up with the industry. This is what makes them one of the top IMC firms in the nation – they are not afraid of change, they face it head on, and they don’t apologize for it. This is why they are producing and creating amazing works and get to see that work increase engagement by incredible numbers.

The last presenter was the creative director for an ad agency underneath Burson-Marsteller and it was one of the most fascinating presentations for me by far. The presentation was led by the CEO and Chief Creative officer of J. Walter Thompson Milan, Sergio Rodriguez (J. Walter Thompson is an advertising agency).

He started off the presentation by having us all try a Milanese liqueur by the name of Campari. Let it be said early on, that this is not why the presentation was my favorite. Campari is by far the worst variety of alcohol I have ever tasted. It was awful, and I never ever want to drink it again.

Sergio is the creative director of the Campari advertising campaign, and listening to him describe and explain the campaign is why this presentation was my favorite. He explained the creative process to us literally from the bottom to the top, starting with the creative brief. He pulled up graphs and explained to us how they found the brand identity and brand essence, and then he talked to us about the campaign itself and how it promotes both the identity and the essence.

Then he showed us some of the print ads and the digital ads they created, including a short film directed by Stefano Sollima and starring Zoe Saldana. The story Sergio and his team created around Campari was elaborate and unique, and there was so much thought and artistic intention behind it. I won’t go into all of that, because it would take me way too long and I’m already writing way too much, but if you want to actually watch the short film, you can head to their website.

After all of the presentations at Burson-Marsteller were over, we headed to a room where they had prepared a table of drinks and sandwiches for us, which was really nice since we were scheduled to head to another media visit directly after. Here are some pictures of the presenters:

We took public transportation to the Rai studios in Milan. Rai is the Italian national public broadcasting company of Italy. Since security was tight, we turned in our passports and got name badges when we entered. The visit started with a presentation from two Rai employees then continued with a tour of the building. We stopped at a radio studio, where Emily Yurchison got to go onto the actual radio station with two of the DJs.

We also got to tour a bunch of the TV studios, which was fascinating. So many times, we just think that TV studios are just like we see on television, when in reality they don’t look like that at all. All of the people who worked at Rai seemed really passionate about their jobs, just like all of the other employees in the other places we visited.

We concluded our visit there with our contact giving us all little certificates. I have no idea what it says, because it’s entirely in Italian, but it’s a nice little souvenir from our trip. We gathered up our passports and headed back to the hotel after a long day of visits. Here are some pictures from the Rai visit:

Em, Beth, and I all took a short 30-minute nap which was much needed, then we headed back out to the city center for our last free night in Italy (tomorrow we have a group dinner). We stopped at a dinner place which was just okay. Our waiter’s nose was bleeding but no one was telling him, and we were both amused and extremely grossed out (definitely more of the latter). There was also no music playing in the restaurant, which is way more apparent than you would ever think.

After dinner, we decided to head somewhere else for dessert (and coffee). We stopped at a fancier restaurant in the shopping center and I got even more delicious tiramisu. I work at an Italian restaurant in Hershey, and the tiramisu there is just as good as any I’ve had in Italy, which means that it’s absolutely delicious. I’m so lucky to work at a good quality Italian restaurant with good quality tiramisu.

It was also nice to visit the Duomo at night. Have you ever looked at a beautiful landmark building and wondered what they look like at night? The Duomo was beautifully spotlighted while people walked past it not seeming to really acknowledge it’s majestic-ness.

We also ran into the Campari bar in the city center of Milan, and we all laughed about how this drink will probably follow us everywhere. Italians, particularly Italians from Milan, are very proud of this drink.

After dessert, we hopped back onto the bus to head back to the hotel. We had a slight mishap with getting off at our stop, but we still made it back in a safe and rather timely manner, so all was good. Climbing into bed was a wonderful feeling.

Tomorrow is our last day in Milan and Italy. I can’t believe it’s all almost over, but I have to say that I’m excited to go home. I miss my family, my dogs, and ice water. I’m also excited for the feeling of summer starting.

We’re visiting Hearst Italia tomorrow, which is bound to be interesting, so stay tuned!

Peace + love,
Carrie