The myth of Italian fashion was born from a magazine cover

What publicity is

Publicity is about gaining public visibility or awareness of a brand, a product or service, or the company itself, through the media. Its subjects include people, goods and services, organisations and entertainers looking for media space. It is the publicist, the person who works in the PR office, who creates it through public relations: they help an organisation communicate by establishing and maintaining contact with journalists.

We have seen negative publicity with Brioni's art director savaged by Corriere della Sera. Here is the positive kind.

A Time cover

The myth of Italian fashion was born from publicity and public relations, without buying advertising pages. It was born when Time put Giorgio Armani on its cover with the headline “Giorgio's Gorgeous Style”. Time also gave Italy a cover, when we were still a growing country: “Italy vs China, what happens when old-world manufacturing faces Asian competition”, with David against the dragon. Italy is luxury and China is cheap: positive publicity for an entire country.

The photo of Michael Douglas wearing the loafers, published in the American media, made Tod's rich and famous, when in the mid-1980s it was not an important brand. Richard Gere pointing at the Armani label in American Gigolo. And publicity isn't only for personal brands: Botox has never been advertised. The manufacturer worked on the press without ever buying pages. “Turn back time”, “reimagine yourself younger”: today in the United States more people get Botox than go to the dentist.

How an SME gets there

Here is our story. A double page in Repubblica, so high value, obtained through in-house work following Ries's strategy:

Until you can afford a press office, work from the inside by telling stories to journalists.

We told the story of the Italian company that goes to New York and makes beautiful homes, with the photos. At that moment the journalist needed that piece. We got lucky, but it was also the only time.

You can also play on your client's publicity. I don't have a press office or a person in New York in touch with the New York Times, but my client does. There are photos of the product with a caption saying it's ours, but we weren't the ones who made contact: the client brought me into the press, which in turn makes me known. The same with the Wall Street Journal, and with Florida Design, which featured kitchens and bathrooms in an oceanfront villa: a client who has three of our kitchens in the house. If you have high-profile clients and top-quality photography, make use of their public relations.

Then, since we've had a PR person, magazines have published us thanks to her contacts: a London magazine with a James Bond special, Bond's watch and next to it our all-black bathroom. We have never done product placement in a 007 film, but the magazine suggests to its readers that if you want Bond's style, you need that bathroom at home. With our address and the list price.

Editorial is free and worth more

Corriere della Sera, il Giornale with 180,000 copies and a photo of yours truly, German newspapers, Fortune sent to clients in the United States. Buying a page in Corriere has a set cost; editorial coverage is free and gives you more credibility. The journalist, accompanied, came to the showroom for a chat, and the article came out of that. It didn't cost us a cent.

The date of the article is not a problem. In the press reviews you send clients you should also use pieces about projects from years earlier: the more publicity you have, the better. Nobody cares that an article is old; the need for constantly fresh content applies only to the blog. When we go out to do business-to-business we take the New York Times, Florida Design and the Wall Street Journal, which are well known, and the Italian papers too, explaining in person what they are. That they're two years old doesn't matter: mass and volume count, ideally printed on thick colour card. Internationally, if I tell a client “your project was in an Italian newspaper”, I don't have to explain that it's a local paper.

In class someone asked me: doesn't an article from 2016 become a tombstone, telling everyone you haven't done anything since? No. The more you have, the better, even old ones. The client leafs through them and doesn't look at the date; they look at the masthead, the photo, the fact that someone wrote about you. The press office should give you continuity, and ideally you'd appear every month, but publicity can't be planned like a campaign: it has its own variables. What you can plan is to use everything that comes out.

Interviews, and when they ask you about politics

An interview with Tiscali: “I'll explain why Italian products are the best in the luxury sector”. The expert talking to the online crowd. At the time there was the question of whether Italy should stay in the euro, and the journalist asked whether I was for or against. It's risky, because you're taking sides, but if you stay fairly neutral, without offending anyone and still saying what you think, it can be acceptable. If the journalist asks you explicitly, you have to answer. I framed my answer in business terms: why should I go back to worrying about customs and borders, when today I deliver to Ireland by lorry as if I were in Italy?

And does publicity pay? There's a simple method: take your annual PR cost, take the pages published and value them at the newspapers' own advertising rates, and compare cost and benefit. That's how you find out whether your PR activity brings value to the company. The press office should guarantee a constant presence, but you don't appear in Repubblica every day: unlike a paid campaign, it can't be planned. That's why it's worth more.

From my book Direct from Milano and my classroom courses. Figures and examples updated to September 2026.