Dentsu Italy partners with AGEDO for 'Proud beyond Pride'

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MILAN, ITALY — Creative agency Dentsu Italy has revealed a new OOH campaign, “dentsu & Friends” running across Italy in support of LGBTQIA+ values, even after the Pride month of June.

Partnering with AGEDO, an Italian association of parents, families, and friends of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and + people, founded to help families cope with their children coming out, the campaign was inspired by a research study conducted on the Brandwatch web monitoring platform and focused on the volume of online conversations around the topic of “Pride” in Italy.

Dentsu’s research study showed that in 2023, the topic “Pride” marked a peak (over 100,000 searches) starting in late May and continuing throughout June. It dropped dramatically in July and continued for the rest of the year, with an average online conversation volume significantly lower.

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For this reason, “Proud Beyond Pride” was born in Italy. First, it is a digital platform designed to keep the focus on Pride all year round, spreading and encouraging conversation about its values.

The communication campaign officially started on the day of the “Milan Pride Parade” (June 29), when a staff member of Dentsu & Friends was present to collect the participants’ signs. Some of these signs, written by people, became the messages of an outdoor campaign (OOH and DOOH) on air in the cities of Rome, Milan, Lamezia Terme (Calabria), and Catania in Sicily.

In the “Proud Beyond Pride” campaign, billboards that usually spread advertising messages have been transformed into LGBTQIA+ conversation spaces connected to the digital platform through a QR code placed on them.

Thanks to the campaign, the volume of Pride-themed online conversations increased by 72% in the first four months of on-air (source: Brandwatch – period July/October 2024 vs. same period 2023), and more than 21 million people reached by the “Proud beyond Pride” message throughout Italy.

Ilaria Affer, Social Impact Director at dentsu Italy, said, “As a Società Benefit (Benefit Company) we work to promote a communication that can really spread positive values and generate a beneficial impact on society. Pride is an important moment to pursue this aim, but it is not the only one. Because the goal is to educate ourselves and our Industry to talk about inclusion little by little, and continuously. The formula is as simple as it is powerful: a clear message, a strong partnership with various stakeholders, and targeted distribution of the message”.

Stefano Battistelli, Executive Creative Director at Dentsu Creative Italy, shared, “We are committed to turning an awareness-raising message into a platform that can bring to life concrete actions all year round. In this campaign, we have joined our verticalities with the aim of creating a positive social impact and concrete support for the LGBTQIA+ community.”

Marta Danneo, Social Media Manager at Agedo, commented, “As Agedo our commitment is daily and constant in working alongside families with LGBTQIA+ children to learn to embrace diversity, respect and protection of trans/queer subjectivities together. The perseverance of Agedo parents in winning the rights of their daughters/ sons, together with the determination and care that dentsu has put into this project, help to ensure that this work is not in vain and does not just stop at the famous ‘pride month’ in June. Strength is always with Unity.”

The communication campaign, created in partnership with brands Scalo Milano Outlet & More, Shiseido Italy, and Mareblu, and in collaboration with 15 Italian advertising sales agencies, represents a new step in the “dentsu & Friends” project.

A series of communication projects that brings together brands and partners, media and creativity, to support important social causes all around the world.