Laura Gobbi, project manager, marketing consultant, PR, signature of important highly successful food and wine formats, tells us a little about herself and her new projects.
She is a multifaceted professional. How did this journey start?
“Flexibility, adaptation, curiosity, rhythm and speed are part of my character, along with a million other flaws. There was never a real beginning. It all developed by itself. So many experiences, so many pieces put together who today do what they are.In the eyes of some I may seem not very focused, in reality this saved me in moments of market crisis because, having acted in different sectors, each of these has been useful for me to never lose job opportunities. When the others were disoriented and feared change, a permanent job, safety and tried to understand where the slap had come from, they stamped the ticket of another experience for me”.
His work is based above all on the excellence of Made in Italy. Who are his customers?
“I am lucky to be able to collaborate with Italian companies that tell the best part of our country, through food, wine and our territories. The beauty of Italy, its food and wine excellences are our most beautiful expression and our great wealth For years I have been involved in experiential marketing and strategic communication for wineries, producers, chefs, restaurateurs, hotels and entrepreneurs”.
She is also an expert in territorial and experiential marketing. In which sectors in particular have you worked up to now?
“I was born from territorial marketing. I signed projects of national importance that have returned, and continue to return, a great response to the territories where I have worked. I started with DI Gavi in Gavi, a project conceived, written and directed for the Consortium of Great Piedmontese white, to then move on to the redevelopment of freshwater fish with Movimento gente di lago.This project gave me great satisfaction and allowed me to become a Fish and Chef project, a project conceived by Elvira Trimeloni and Leandro Luppi, for to mention the greatest. For the first Italian champagne producer, I signed and directed Champagne en liberté for three years, a highly successful format that helped launch his labels on our market. Today I am working on a very important project that coincides with the 150th anniversary of the death of the great Alessandro Manzoni. For now I can’t reveal more”.
One of his key customers is the excellent restaurant The Manzoni in Milan, a stone’s throw from the Scala with the excellent Executive Chef Giuseppe Daniele. Tell us about it.
“The work I am doing with the chefs Daniele, Fiorino and Gajda is a different job than what one might imagine as a mere press office. Here I bring into play all the nuances of strategic communication and my great passion, as well as a constant source of inspiration, semiotics. Each menu is accompanied by a word that expresses its soul. An alchemical journey that, through taste, sense, memory wants to make the kitchen vibrate on other sensory levels”.
How do you choose your customers?
“I have just turned 51, saying it and seeing it written has a certain effect, also because it seems to me that my journey has yet to begin. The basic criterion is that of no name. I really like working, building, creating, suffering, tending to the goal, sweating and being exhausted by so much adrenaline. Having top players is very popular, it is tempting for everyone, being able to put certain chefs, restaurants or brands in one’s portfolio, raises self-esteem and one’s commercial value. But, if you it gives me the possibility to choose, I prefer, where I can have fun creating the image, the positioning, the identity. My father always told me: “Everyone knows how to sell Ferraris, it’s the others that you have to be good at placing”. I’m right since he speaks with knowledge of the facts. My clients simply arrive by word of mouth. Chefs, producers and entrepreneurs pass my number to each other. So, when they contact me they already know everything, for better or for worse. Pros and cons. Yes self select”.
She is also a creative as she has created and produced a very successful line of eyewear, “Core Mio”. How did the idea come about?
“From a very difficult personal story. I believe in Providence, Karma, Destiny, Fate, everyone can give it the name they think is most appropriate. A pair of heart-shaped glasses, which I was wearing and which I had bought in a vintage stall, literally saved me life. “If they’ve done good for me, they can do it for others too”, I thought, and so the start-up started. With my times, with my size, with my budget. They’re not glasses, they’re a magic wand. They’re good for you, they make you feel good and they’re good”.
Do you think that the way of doing marketing and communication has changed over the years?
“How? Certainly it has changed, we have changed. The last three years have been intense. Personally, I am waiting for the return wave, the one that re-establishes the rules of ethics, seriousness, rigor, professionalism and of the preparation. At that point, all the crap will have to really start to work, and here we will see who will be standing and who will be gone”.
What are your future projects?
“Continuing what I’m doing, because it gives me a lot of satisfaction. In the next five years I would like to see my Core grow and make him walk on his own. My secret dream, however, remains a degree in psychology”.
