The Italian way to events, so Venticento expands abroad

Forget Englishisms or high-sounding names. To mark the difference in one of the most internationally competitive sectors, one can also go by Italian distinctiveness. More, Milanese. But being anchored to a city does not prevent one from also looking far afield, scaling global markets. This is the story of Venticento, a creative agency specialising in the conception, design and execution of live and digital experiences for global brands. "The market has always been populated by international brands with names and payoffs with a global scope, I, on the other hand, initially focused on the value of being Italian. And at the end what pride to propose international campaigns starting from our postcode'. So says Antonio Lazzaro, managing director of Venticento. This forty-seven year old from Taranto by birth and Milan by adoption, with a degree from Bocconi University in his pocket, managed premises with a university target until his thirties. Then the change of life and the opening of the agency. In 2017, the turning point with the entry of international brands and new partner Matteo Ferioli, a past in world sports events. Among the brands that have chosen Venticento are the giants Google, Diesel, Heineken and Armani. Plural company.

Because this company, which has its headquarters in Via Coni Zugna, near the Solari Park in the heart of the city of Milan, collaborates with creative agencies to realise major events. Numbers that leave their mark: currently the turnover is 6.4 million euro for a staff of twenty people in addition to external collaborations and an aggregate growth rate of +290%. Enviable position at the top of Statista and Il Sole 24 Ore's Leader of Growth 2025 ranking, i.e. in fifth place. The team is multi-disciplinary, composed of long-standing professionals who integrate vertical expertise and a deep understanding of global dynamics. It also experiments with technological innovation, with those solutions based on artificial intelligence to be applied in all project phases and which allow scaling up. "We develop chatbots in a pioneering way and started working on artificial intelligence a long time ago, well before this technology became widespread. Ai is a co-pilot: it supports us in the scalability of projects. It is important for us to experiment and train on internal systems. Technology is an enabler, but it must be perceived as invisible. For our customers it is there, but you cannot see it,' Lazzaro concludes.