What was your journey until taking on this role in the company?
My mother was a painter so I entered the world of art since I was little, then I continued my studies at the art school where I approached architecture, a discipline that immediately fascinated me. Subsequently I did not continue in the architecture branch but with that of design with an orientation towards product communication at the SID. At the beginning I was very focused on design thinking, not taking drawing into consideration in this field at all. Once I finished my studies I joined Unox but after just six months I felt that it wasn't the company for me and so I moved to London where I started designing bags and accessories for a well-known brand. Upon my return to Italy I designed my first products for a studio in Vicenza and subsequently joined Innova in the technical and communications office. In the first period I followed the development of the product where I learned a fundamental technical expertise for the design and realization of an idea linked to a product. As time passed, the current owner of Innova noticed some of my portfolio products and decided to produce them, giving birth to the Vice Versa collection. Now I take care of managing all the corporate communication and the artistic part.
What do you think of social media within the interior sector?
Now there are all the brands on social media, digital communication has now entered the video ecosystem so companies that are not yet present on the platforms are really behind. When I joined Innova the company did not have any social media and consequently I immediately opened the main channels, also because all the competitors had already been present for at least five years. In our sector, social media is essential for showing the usability of the product. Furthermore, all architecture firms now use digital catalogs and no longer paper ones, therefore they directly search for companies on the platforms, which today have become a direct means of exposure to the market.
Which social network is more in line with your business model and which is less?
Facebook is certainly the platform that generates the least results for us and we use it as a reflection of Instagram. Certainly the strong social networks for Innova are LinkedIn and Instagram. LinkedIn has been a very strong professional catalyst for us since we started posting the creations with our products and with this operation we managed to combine marketing with the commercial part. On Instagram we are achieving excellent results on an organic level and we are currently thinking of allocating some budget to start targeted actions.
The data shows that having a low number of followers damages the brand image, what do you think?
I think it is a number that has a great impact on the perception of the brand as long as there is quality at the base: Innova is focusing on the fan bases of the different platforms but not in a maniacal way like many players do. So it is important to demonstrate that you have an audience that follows you but the contents you publish and the impact on the products you create are equally important. We have started a marketing plan that envisages an increase in the fan base and a pilot strategy to calculate the results at the next furniture fair. In this sector, however, not only social media matters, all platforms such as Archiproducts, Archilovers, Architonic, etc. are also very important as they are portals of exchange between companies and architects.
Have you ever collaborated with external professionals regarding the social sphere?
Innova's social media are managed internally but the entire technical part, therefore ads, together with the Google ecosystem, is managed by an external studio. The choice to outsource this part is because internally we do not have the skills to understand where to direct marketing campaigns. All the offline/online content marketing is internal and I manage it personally, also because we are lucky enough to have a photo room in the company while the 3D renderings are outsourced but I always initially design the scene and then they create it.
What are the future corporate communication projects?
Next year Innova will present a flagship product at the Salone del Mobile which I don't want to spoil anything about. We are taking a new digital direction in an ironic way, we want to increasingly describe and explain all the products by also showing internal departments such as production, where our ideas come to life.