Twenty years together with Anes

On November 26, 2015 during the celebrations for the twentieth anniversary of the Italy’s National association for the technical, professional and specialist press (Anes), Promaplast (publisher of MacPlas) was awarded a prize along with other long-standing partners. Claudio Celata, the then CEO of Promaplast, had the foresight to become associated with Anes from the time it was founded in 1995, to work together with other publishers on a new marketing idea based on the strength of Italian companies. Prior to celebrating Anes's important anniversary that bears the slogan "The beauty of ideas, the strength of communication", on November 26 the "Forum Anes - special edition for the twentieth anniversary, was held at Teatro Litta in Milan.

The event was presented by Antonio Greco, president of Anes, who outlined the association's work and presented the “Anes figures”. Since 1995, the national association of companies operating in the technical, professional and specialist press has proven to be a key community for traditional and digital publishers who provide informative and educational content to specialist companies, professionals and target categories. Through its structure, Anes provides its members with services and instruments needed to carry out business on a market which is undergoing deep changes.

Today the association represents: 156 publishers, 24 affiliate members and 20 digital communications companies working across 28 industrial sectors (96% of the total), 520 traditional publications (for a total of 9 million copies a month), over 300 digital editorial products and 50 product and service providers. Anes members represent 70% of a sector with over 2800 direct employees and more than 6000 overall. Anes is also part of Confindustria, which Assocomaplast is also a member of (with Promaplast as its service company).

It might not be very well known fact, but technical publications have contributed to the fame of some important Italian artists. This truism gave light to the beautiful works "The beauty of the technical world: an Italian story" by the author, dramatist and performance artists, Luca Scarlini.

Already several futurists, including Umberto Boccioni, have designed covers for technical publications since the early twentieth century.

Among the various specialist publications, Scarlini cited the corporate magazine of Snia Viscosa, with covers by Gillo Dorfles and which, together with Montecatini, also launched Michelangelo Anonioni as film director with his first documentary that illustrated the production process for synthetic fibres.

A cover of the “Linea italiana" magazine launched the debut of plastic jewellery in the 1970’s, right about the time polypropylene was invading Italy thanks in part to Moplen advertised on television by the comedian Gino Bramieri. (Scarlini himself also put on a stage play about Moplen, presented for the first time at the Polytechnic of Milan in 2013 for celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Nobel Prize for chemistry won by Giulio Natta.) 

This connection between art and specialist press continued through the ties between Giudo Crepax and the publication "Tempo medico", for which he did as many as 100 covers.

An impressive 58,000 specialist magazines were published in Italy in the twentieth century according to the National Central Library in Firenze, which keeps a copy of all the daily newspapers and magazines published in Italy together with the National Central Library in Rome.

Scarlini pointed out that great Italian artists have worked for technical publications, but it is not simply a mere question of money, but also the extreme liberty of those magazines to experiment with forms of alternative communication. This is summarised by the words written to Guido Crepax by the editor of “Tempo medico”: "I needed to create a myth around doctors and a photograph wasn't going to be enough."

Scarlini's presentation was followed by "The value of specialist information and its evolution" by Enrico Gallorini, co-founder of GRS Ricerca e Strategica, a business intelligence company specialist in everything associated with customer satisfaction and value creation. In light of some alarming data from across the ocean - today in the United States 200 million people opted to join the “do not call” list (people who cannot be contacted by phone for the sale of goods or services), 86% skip advertising and 80% of direct e-mail marketing (DEM) messages is never even opened - Gallorini has provided some strategies to combat the crisis:

- extreme verticalisation and specialisation, even in niche sectors;

- what customers want is important and it must be provided at the right time when they want it most;

- content is very important and must be: specific, useful and authoritative.

The Anes event then continued with the round table “The beauty of ideas, the strength of communication - companies tell all” moderated by Marco Lo Conte (Il Sole 24Ore), which involved the participation of staff from Fabbri (food sector), Itlas LaborLegno (furnishing and building sector) and Istituto Secoli (clothing sector).