Promoting Milan. Even to the Milanese

"We have been working for years to make Milan attractive for those arriving from outside. Now we must give priority to the Milanese, to the territory, inviting the people to recover a daily relationship with the spaces and functions of the city".That's how Luca Martinazzoli, general manager of Milano & Partners, introduces the town's new reopening campaign, which is underway as we write. In the video, shot during the last days of the lockdown and accompanied by trapper Ghali's narration, we see images of four typical Milanese citizens as they rediscover everyday life. They representat various aspects of the city's essence, its soul. Filmed as they leave the house at the end of the quarantine, they regain possession of their own corner of the urban stage.

"The challenge ahead is gigantic," says the 39-year-old manager, a Bocconi graduate in Economics and Management for art, culture and communication, with a Master in Urban Planning from UCLA and a considerable stint working at Nike. "In recent weeks the city has emptied itself, and not just of people. In cities like Milan, but I also think of New York for example, the population is an integral part of the spirit, the landscape, the soul of the city. Without them, streets, squares and buildings are devoid of meaning. For this reason, today we must give shape and substance to the city again, and communication takes on an even more strategic role in its succeess. It makes me recall that at the beginning of my career I wanted to become an urban planner, then I did marketing - but perhaps today the two are not so far apart. "

Even before this emergency, in reality, Martinazzoli had redesigned the story of Milan by promoting the creation of an "official" agency of the city, Milano & Partners precisely, which would absorb the marketing department of the Municipality by integrating the Chamber of Commerce of Milan, Monza , Brianza, Lodi and many other protagonists of city life. "The basic idea is that the image of Milan cannot be only within the municipality," explains the manager. "With the Yes Milano brand, we started to lay out the city in a different way, dividing it by week and by city in order to tell about all the different spirits that make it up and to welcome everyone's contributions on the platform. This latest campaign also pursues this idea, trying to be the voice of the city as a whole. in the next few days we will have to start this path again, but it does not scare me. We will have many things to tell, and it will be an opportunity to enhance the many neighborhoods of the city, which will become central to the post-Covid transformation ".

The ability to start over and reinvent yourself is part of the city's DNA and also of Martinazzoli's personal experience, after passing into public administration after seven years in marketing for Nike . "Compared to marketing in the private sector, marketing work for a city is much more stimulating. In companies you often have the feeling of being able to dominate the product and therefore partly also the consumers. Here instead you serve your brand as a meal to consumers who chew it and rework it continuously, so everything is more fluid. You never get the feeling of having a stable substance, but rather to give meaning to a continuous movement of souls ".