In July, the two agencies, based in Rome and Milan respectively, merged to form a single company, pooling their know-how, experience and knowledge of the country.
The first seeds were sown in January 2008, with the two companies working increasingly closer together on projects. Then, in July, they merged: See Italia and Contact became the newco Seeitalia&Contact, with the two agencies’ founders Sergio Gamba and Luisa Santacroce appointed as directors of the Rome and Milan offices. One of the shareholders of the new DMC is Staff Italia, an established Milan-based incentive house that previously held a stake in See Italia.
“Integrating our operations is a complex and time-consuming process”, says Luisa Santacroce. “We have so far merged our IT systems, archives and database. Until the end of the year, each office will continue to work on its own outstanding projects, but from the beginning of 2009, every new project will be managed by the newco as a whole”.
Both DMCs worked all over Italy, but with complementary characteristics: for example, Contact specialised on the German market, See Italia on the Spanish one, and both had a presence in the UK. Now, having brought their language skills and customer portfolios together, Seeitalia&Contact will also go after the French business.
“Projects will be divided between the two offices according to linguistic abilities, customer history, and also geographical location” Santacroce explains. “We are not talking about splitting our operations between north and south Italy, but about optimising resources and knowledge of specific regions”.
Seeitalia&Contact manages both small incentive events for 20 people and conventions attended by 700 delegates, and can be highly creative even on a limited budget. “We like to follow the qualities that mark each region: for example, fashion and design in Milan, wine in Piedmont, car rallies on the lakes, and so on. Each Italian destination has its own flair, and we use this to invent the activities that we then propose to our clients”.
October 2008
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