Our series of interviewing exciting people within our industry in Europe continues. We have now reached a country, which are kicking some serious football at least if you look at a world map.

We are talking about Italy the home of the Pizza, Berlusconi, Dolce & Gabbana, Ferrero Rocher and Alessandro Del Piero.

We got the chance to talk with Sandro Moretti who is founder & Partner at Simple Agency located in the city of fashion Milan. 

What is the story behind Simple Agency?

It is the story of three managers who worked for years in digital marketing for one of the biggest groups in the world, and one day in 2008 they decided that they could provide a better and more innovative service. That was the start of Simple Agency, which today has a young and talented team of 20 and is the “data-driven” media agency in Italy.

Can you give us a short overview of the Italian display advertising market?

The display market in Italy is dominated by a few worldwide communication groups. They manage the largest accounts and so they “drive” the market. Hence, the fact that Italy has one of the lowest average CPMs in Europe and a slow pace of evolution… is almost meaningful. The role of small and medium agencies and “brave” advertisers is to innovate.

What are the trending topics in digital marketing and what do you think are their perspectives in the market?

The most circulating keyword in the market is social. Sometimes players consider it to be a medium, while the huge prospective for it is connected to the environment in which media could and must be plugged into. It is not a subject you can deal with as other channels: it needs a bigger focus and dedicated resources in order to obtain an advantage for brands and clients.

We have seen a lot of growth in Italy in many areas of online advertising, which areas do you think are still overlooked by marketers?

Indeed Mobile. In Italy there is a disconnect between the penetration of devices and the usage that the advertising industry makes of them. Companies are now beginning to think about their mobile strategies and opportunities. Also publishers, networks, technology providers and agencies have at times been caught unprepared.

How big is rich media in your local market today?

Market share is growing fast: since 2009, when we launched in Italy, the so-called lternative television, video formats have become common and there is a generation of interactive formats that now compete with television channels.

Do you execute RTB campaigns today? What is you experience so far?

We started last year, after a few months of training and testing the different platforms. Technology, building blocks, features and possibilities are changing very fast in this special “market”: every month there is something very new and relevant to consider.

How do you see real-time bidding evolving over the coming years in Italy?

The key success factor will be “data”. A single impression can be worth nothing or can be pure gold depending on the ability to profile the target of the browser/user in the most fast, exclusive, privacy compliant way. If data providers can deliver this key service, then volumes will move to those platforms.

In your view, do today’s creative solutions utilise the full potential of online display advertising in Italy yet?

Today we are leveraging only 10–20% of the combined potential of RTB and dynamic creative optimisation. The level and accuracy of data that players will be able to store in the future will be a huge resource for planning with no dispersion and precise goals in terms of visibility, awareness and marketing performance.