Article from the May 2024 issue of Forbes Italy. Freely translated into English by Pomilio Blumm.
Japan Rail, Shinkansen. Towards the end of the 1990s, an advertising campaign on Japan's high-speed railways aimed to reassure grandparents that the trains, although whizzing by at high speed, would not damage the habitats of fireflies in the countryside. The initiative took into account the spirit that bound grandparents to their grandchildren. This is how Franco Pomilio, president of Pomilio Blumm, the public tender giant, discovered the social dimension of communication. Pomilio Blumm is the leading public and institutional communications agency in Europe and first in terms of turnover in the marketing and advertising sector according to the latest ranking published by the Financial Times on the Fastest Growing Companies. ‘But this success comes from afar,’ explains Franco Pomilio. ‘I belong to a family of creative industrialists.’
It all started in the early 1900s, when the prototype aeroplanes designed by Corradino D'Ascanio, inventor of the Vespa, for the Pomilio aircraft factory in Turin attracted the attention of the US Air Force. This is how the Pomilio Brothers Airplane arrived in Indianapolis. In 1920, Ottorino and Umberto Pomilio founded Pomilio Elettrochimica and invented the process of extracting cellulose from sugar cane, which the Treccani reports as the ‘Pomilio method’. The system guaranteed a low economic and environmental impact. A few years later, Amedeo Pomilio founded the Aurum distillery. It was Gabriele d'Annunzio, a relative on his mother's side, who chose the name.
In 1963, Oscar and Gabriele Pomilio founded Pomilio Idee, which later became Pomilio Blumm. The advertising agency worked with several companies, including De Cecco, Sangemini, Ferrarelle and Alfa Romeo. Between 1990 and 2010, with the arrival of Franco Pomilio, the company began to look beyond the private sector, producing several campaigns for public administration clients, such as Inps, Istat and Inail, and for large companies such as Trenitalia.
'We designed the brand for the Frecciarossa for its launch. Then we supported Inail, which wished to explain how it transformed its cash into investments, and ISTAT, for which we reported on censuses. When I started thinking about public communication I also reflected on art, which anticipates social changes, Pop art in the American system sublimated commercial advertising: in the reproductions of Andy Warhol or Roy Lichtenstein we understand how art and industry are linked.'
In Europe, arte povera of predominantly Italian and German origin took over. It was a conscious, responsible art, which sought to recover, recycle, reuse. The spectator began to participate in the work of art and the first artistic performances were emerging. ‘All this made us realise that there was a European culture that was very attentive to civil society. We wanted to deal with citizens‘ values, moving away from the American model’.
The agency started working first for the regions, then for the Italian government. It reached the main EU institutions, also dealing with complex issues such as migration and health. ‘We have discovered that Europe is all over the world, and is the one that invests the most outside its borders in trade, diplomatic and democratic relations". This year they will manage the planning, organisation and management of the meetings of the world's powerful for the G7, for which they have created a modular table.
The latest maxi-tender won is the EUR 80 million to support the European Commission over the next four years in the organisation of events not only in the EU, but also in the candidate countries, such as the Balkans, and the nations of the European Free Trade Association. Pomilio has opened offices in Fiji and Addis Ababa, where the African Union has its headquarters. It has set up projects in Honduras, Argentina and Peru. It works for the United Nations, the World Health Organisation and the World Trade Organisation. In addition, it deals with monetary policy issues and has worked with the ECB for eight years. It organises the forum of central bankers from around the world, which is held in Sintra, Portugal, every year.
Furthermore, it deals with the issue of human rights: ‘We work for the European Asylum Agency in Malta, we produce micro videos that are made available to migrants to give them basic information, using the different New English forms (Syrian English, Nigerian English). We then work for the gender equality agency with the European agency in Vilnius. And also for the Research Service of the European Parliament, with innovative infographics for the European Union Intellectual Property Office (Euipo) or the European Food Safety Authority’.
In order to communicate with the whole world, Pomilio has created a centre for applied semiotics in Bologna, to study language and improve the way we communicate. Pomilio Blumm's research team also includes experts in neuromarketing, crisis management, visual storytelling, digital ethics and social robotics, intangible economics and space exploration.
Integrated communication agency, specialised in public communication initiatives in the EU and worldwide.
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