PROJECTS

Sixty-nine companies from Molfetta's industrial area under one export brand, with a multilingual catalogue and portal. Concept by Gaetano Armenio.

"This is madness", my colleagues told me. I went door to door, company by company, asking each for five hundred euro and one step back from the ego. Then the project stopped there.

"It's madness!", and indeed it was

When I started talking about molfettaexport.com, the idea was simple and impossible at the same time, bringing together the companies of Molfetta's industrial area to present themselves as one on national and international markets. My colleagues told me "it's madness". I asked each of them to take one step back on the "I" to take a hundred forward on the "we", to set aside distrust and jealousy and build a stronger network. It looked like an impossible mission. It wasn't.

The most exhausting door-to-door of my life

I went company by company, artisan businesses, services, retail, mechanics and manufacturing, from Officina Remec to Puma Conserve, from Globeco to Sistec, right up to the Mongolfiera shopping centre. In the end 69 companies joined. Some stayed out only for lack of time, not of interest. From each I asked a contribution of 500 euros, covering the multilingual catalogue, the portal as an international showcase and the molfettaexport.com territorial brand. For months I photographed the companies, gathered the information, wrote the texts, prepared the layouts. A door-to-door that makes you reconsider even selling vacuum cleaners, but that gives you the measure of how much energy there is in an industrial area when someone puts it into a network.

Territorial marketing: the network becomes a single entity

At the end of the journey, 8 product macro-categories, grouping around twenty different sectors, found themselves under one umbrella. A multilingual catalogue distributed at the main trade fairs, a portal as a permanent showcase, a recognizable industrial area that presented itself to the outside as a single entity and not as a sum of companies. That same year I brought molfettaexport.com to Expo Milan, presenting it before the councillor for Productive Activities of the City of Milan. Then I took on other projects and molfettaexport.com stopped there.

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LA CASSETTA DEGLI ATTREZZI

Concrete vision to share: ask each one to take a step back on the "I" to take a hundred forward on the "we"
Door-to-door, company by company, a network like this isn't built with an email, it's built in person
A 500-euro contribution from each, whoever puts in their own money cares more about the project
Multilingual catalogue and portal, a showcase that speaks the language of foreign markets
I handled photographs, texts, layouts, brand, portal and all the communication
Present the area as a single entity, not as a sum of companies

What I learned

Convincing 69 companies that usually compete with one another to put their name next to their neighbour's was harder than any catalogue or portal. The door-to-door wasn't there to collect the contributions. It was there to make each of them take that step back on the "I". When they did, the industrial area stopped being a list of companies and became a single entity.

video > https://youtu.be/qiv_A3KeNNU?feature=shared

video > https://youtu.be/6yjV_EuzMNA?feature=shared

Ten itineraries for Molfetta, a pocket guide in Italian, English and German and a web portal, 2014. Graphics and communication by Gaetano Armenio.

"Why would a tourist stop in Molfetta? There is nothing here." The project cost twenty thousand euro. The town council put in three thousand, the other seventeen thousand I raised one by one from private operators.

"There's nothing here", famous last words

"Why would a tourist stop in Molfetta? There's nothing here." I heard this repeated often at the meetings with the city's tourism supply chain, while I was working on the tourism promotion project VISITMOLFETTA.IT. Every time I answered the same way, no place on earth is truly empty. Where there's a community there's a genius loci, a story, someone ready to listen to it if you tell it well.

From "there's nothing" to ten itineraries

I started looking at Molfetta as if I didn't know it. Out of the supposed nothing came ten cultural-tourism itineraries, each with a precise soul: "La Via per l'Oriente", "Al Centro della Terra", the Easter events, the September Feast, "il Respiro del Mare", "le Vie del Gusto", "La Vie en Rose", "il Saper Fare", "gli Eventi Culturali", "Bella di Notte". I turned these themes into a multilingual pocket guide, in Italian, English and German, distributed at the main international tourism fairs, and into a dedicated web portal that gathered itineraries, events and impressions. A project designed to prove, in fact, that "there's nothing here" was simply a wrong reading of the territory.

Twenty thousand euros, and only three thousand from the public purse

The project cost 20,000 euros. The Municipality put in 3,000, the rest I raised myself, one by one, from the private operators of the tourism supply chain. Seventeen thousand euros put together by knocking on the doors of hoteliers, restaurateurs and shopkeepers, the same ones who sometimes said "there's nothing here". Convincing those who don't believe in their own territory to fund its story is the hardest work, and the best proof that the story worked.

The guide reaches Berlin

The guide did not stay in the infopoints. In 2014 I took it to BIT in Milan in February, to ITB in Berlin in March and to TTG in Rimini, always inside the Apulia Region stand. That is why I wanted a German edition and not just an English one. The same year Molfetta made it onto national television, with Davide Mengacci and Ricette all'Italiana on Rete 4.

La Cassetta degli Attrezzi

Concrete vision to share: no place is empty, every community has a genius loci waiting to be told
Look at your own territory as if you didn't know it, it's the only way to see what the locals no longer notice
Give each itinerary a name and a soul, "Bella di Notte" sells better than "evening itinerary"
A multilingual guide for the international fairs, speak the language of those who buy, not only your own
Take the guide where the buyers are, BIT, ITB and TTG inside the Apulia Region stand
Raise 17,000 euros from private backers and 3,000 from the Municipality, don't wait for the public tender to start
I handled the communication, the graphics, the guide and the web portal of the project

What I learned

"There's nothing here" wasn't a description of Molfetta. It was the way those who lived it every day looked at it. It only took a change of gaze to find ten itineraries where others saw a town you pass through. And those who said "there's nothing here" ended up reaching for their wallets to tell its story.

website > www.visitmolfetta.com

video > https://youtu.be/fLA4y8BhDes?feature=shared

In 2014 Associazione Opera became Pugliautentica, a tourism brand for Apulian popular traditions. Concept and visual identity by Gaetano Armenio.

I did not invent the name at a desk. "Autentica" was the word most searched by people looking for Apulia online. Then the buyer meetings at the Fiera del Levante and the stand at Teatro Margherita in Bari.

A word discovered by chance

At a meeting reserved for cultural tourism operators, a company closely tied to Google presents the search data. The most searched word by tourists looking for Apulia online is one, "autentica", authentic. I wrote it down and never forgot it. For years I had been running a tourism promotion path with the Associazione Opera, my cultural association active since 2003. The work was there, the ideas too. But it lacked a name that said clearly what I wanted to do for Apulia. That word was the answer.

Why I renamed an association that worked

I turned the Associazione Opera into Pugliautentica. Not a rebranding, a positioning choice born from real data. An association with professional skills at the service of the territory, to qualify and promote Apulian popular traditions and the intangible heritage made of rites, festivals, memories. I hadn't invented the name at a desk, thousands of tourists had already written it in the search bar.

From the brand to the meetings with buyers

The first thing was to build the tourism brand, I designed the association's visual identity and the itineraries to tell. Then I took Pugliautentica where things get decided. Meetings with tourism buyers in Sannicandro di Bari and at the Fiera del Levante. An exhibition stand at the Teatro Margherita in Bari. Meetings on responsible and sustainable tourism. Not conferences for insiders, but tables where the Apulia of traditions met those who actually sell the tourism packages.

La Cassetta degli Attrezzi

Concrete vision to share: tell Apulia as a borderland between East and West, where tradition and innovation talk to each other instead of excluding one another
Start from real data, "autentica" was the most searched word on Google for Apulia, and build the name on it
Transform an existing association instead of founding a new one, the Associazione Opera was the base to start again from
I designed the tourism brand, the visual identity and all the communication
Take the project in front of the buyers, not just in front of the institutions

What I learned

Changing the name was the quickest gesture. The rest, the meetings, the stand, the buyers to convince, was the real work. An association isn't worth what it writes in its statute. It's worth the tables it manages to sit at. From this base came the association's most ambitious project, the PUGLIAUTENTICA.IT portal.

website >  www.associazionepugliautentica.it

In 2013 the business association of Molfetta's industrial area was founded, eighty companies. Visual identity and communication by Gaetano Armenio.

"Gaeta, call the others in. You can do it." The phone call came on a Saturday morning, after three workers died in the industrial area. I had already tried years earlier with ZAPP IMPRESA, and it had not worked.

"Gaeta, call the colleagues together. You can do it"

It was a Saturday morning when Rino Grossano of Grossano Arredamenti called. Tense voice, no preamble. "Gaeta, did you hear the Mayor? Unacceptable. Call the colleagues together. You can do it." In the days before, three workers had died in the industrial area, and the Mayor's words had touched a raw nerve. Rino didn't just want to vent, he wanted someone to do something. And that someone was me.

The first attempt had already failed

It wasn't the first time I tried. With the magazine ZAPP IMPRESA I had already tried to network the companies of the industrial area and set up an association, a shared vision, a shared story, a first core of representation. Between my own naivety and a few colleagues seduced by the usual politician of the moment, the project dissolved before taking shape. In 2013 the context was different. What had happened had shaken everyone, and collective anger is worth more than any business plan when it comes to convincing entrepreneurs to sit around a table.

How you build an association from scratch

I dug out the old statute and, together with Loredana Lezoche of Globeco, we called the first meetings at her company Myster Chef. The Associazione Imprenditori Zona Industriale di Molfetta was officially born. For a few months I was its President.

La Cassetta degli Attrezzi

Concrete vision to share: give the companies of the industrial area a single voice, a representation they didn't have before
Recover the material you already have, even if dusty, the old ZAPP IMPRESA statute was still good
Call one by one, don't send a circular or an email
Hold different characters together without flattening the differences
Speak their own language, then your credibility does the rest
I handled the visual identity of the association and the communication

80 companies and a new project

Around 80 companies joined. The association became the base on which to build the next project, MOLFETTAEXPORT.COM, the first attempt to take the companies of the industrial area onto a national and international market.

What I learned

Entrepreneurs come together when they're afraid or when they're angry. Sharing a vision comes after, if it comes. Starting from anger isn't the ideal method, but it works.

video > https://youtu.be/yraH91SfVmM?feature=shared

Cycle tourism routes from Gargano to Salento, with workshops and bike-friendly places checked on the ground. BICIPUGLIA by Gaetano Armenio. 

"There's nothing!" an Austrian cycle tourist told me in a masseria, on his way back from the Gargano. That gap became the box set delivered to the Apulia Region. The bicipuglia.it domain is still mine, the portal is no longer live.

"There's nothing!"

That's how an Austrian cyclotourist put it, someone I met in a masseria on my way back from a weekend on the Gargano. I wanted to understand what Apulia looks like to those who cross it by pedal. He didn't think twice, no clear information on cycling routes, few genuinely useful maps, no references for workshops and technical assistance, almost zero indications of bike-friendly accommodation. That "nothing" wasn't a provocation. It was a measurable gap, a concrete problem. For me, a possibility.

The problem was simple

Apulia already had everything, landscapes, light, villages, olive trees, back roads, sea and hills. What was missing was the link between beauty and usability. Promoting without tools is like inviting someone to a party without telling them where the door is. The Regione Puglia entrusted the work to me, informally. Months of fieldwork began, site visits, contacts with local operators, checking the routes, gathering references. I developed the project with a collaborator who handled the technical content.

La Cassetta degli Attrezzi

Concrete vision to share: give Apulia the tools to be ridden by bike, not just the beauty to look at
Start from those who already know the territory, the cyclotourists who have passed through it
Check everything in the field before writing it
Organize the information for people on the move, maps you can read while travelling, not at a desk
Map the real services before promoting them
I handled the visual identity and the communication of the project

The box set delivered to the Region

The result was a system of content organized by province, from the Gargano to the Salento. Each area with its itineraries, its specialized workshops, its verified bike-friendly accommodation. A dedicated web portal gathered it all in a single point of access. The bikepuglia.it domain is still mine. The portal today is not active.

What I learned

A territory doesn't become a destination because it's beautiful. It becomes a destination when someone builds the tools to inhabit it. The Austrian cyclotourist wasn't looking for the perfect Apulia, he was looking for reliable information. They're different things.

website > www.bikepuglia.it

248 photo essays, a jury including Gianni Berengo Gardin and a 5,000 euro prize fund for Holy Week in Apulia. Concept by Gaetano Armenio.

Two days locked in with the jury in the Museo Diocesano auditorium, and me feeling like an amateur next to those names. The winner was Michele Sorrentino from Naples, with the Desolata of Canosa.

A dream that comes true, and me not knowing where to look

There are encounters that don't just happen. You chase them for years, you imagine them, sometimes you fear them. Hosting Gianni Berengo Gardin in my own city was one of these. I had conceived an international photography competition on Holy Week in Apulia, the same heritage of rites I had been working on for years. Next to those names I felt like an amateur in the front row at a legendary concert. I spoke little, listened a lot, tried to memorize every comment and every silence. Close to the great ones you understand one thing, photography isn't just image, it's a gaze that chooses.

The director's move, the right person in the right place

I conceived the competition myself. Then I did the most important thing, I put the right person in the right place. I entrusted the artistic direction to Cosmo Laera, photographer and lecturer at the Accademia di Brera, and the reportages came to him. Without Laera that jury would never have reached so far. I supported the project together with the Regione Puglia, which made the prize fund possible. An originator doesn't have to know how to do everything, he has to know who to call and for what.

Two days locked in the jury, 248 reportages

The competition wasn't a catwalk. 248 photographic reportages to assess, two intense days in the Auditorium of the Museo Diocesano, with a jury that still today is impressive to write out in full.

Gianni Berengo Gardin / Denis Curti (Il Fotografo) / Laura Serani (European Institute of Photography, Paris) / Antonella Gaeta (Apulia Film Commission) / Giancarlo Piccirillo (Pugliapromozione) / Cosmo Laera, photographer / Enzo Quarto (RAI 3 Puglia) / Gaetano Armenio, entrepreneur

Hours upon hours discussing sequences, narrative coherence, emotional force, respect for the rite. Because telling Holy Week in Apulia doesn't only mean photographing a procession, it means entering a heritage of faith, identity and community without betraying it.

A winner and a strong signal

The winner was the Neapolitan Michele Sorrentino, with the reportage on the procession of the Desolata in Canosa di Puglia (bt). The competition also had a concrete structure, a 5,000-euro prize fund. Because quality, if you really want it, you also have to know how to sustain it.

La Cassetta degli Attrezzi

Concrete vision to share: bring Apulian Holy Week before an international gaze, not just a local one
Put the right person in the right place, the artistic direction to Cosmo Laera opened doors I wouldn't have opened alone
A real prize fund, the 5,000 euros tell photographers the competition is serious
Keep institutions, regional bodies and media around the same table
I conceived the competition and handled the visual communication

What I learned

For two days Apulian Holy Week was looked at by those who judge photographs for a living, at the highest levels. It was no longer a rite to explain to a tourist. It was material Berengo Gardin and Denis Curti argued over in terms of sequence and respect. That passage, from the niche to the table of the great ones, I watched it happen in a room of the Museo Diocesano.

website > www.settimanasantainpuglia.it

video > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9T5PJETWJE