The great number of foreign exhibitors from Germany, Switzerland, France, The Netherlands, Belgium, Russia, United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Croatia, Turkey, U.S.A, Hong Kong, China and South Korea made Visual Communication the meeting place for the international modern graphic producer.

One of the highlights of Visual Communication Italy was the presentation of the results of the first market research carried out for the Large Format Digital Printing industry in Europe. The research with which Reed Exhibition commissioned ACNielsen C.R.A. had 3 main objectives:

• To measure the Italian LFDP market in terms of out-put ­ How much does the industry invest in LFDP as publicity media.
• Where is the potential for suppliers for the industry.
• What is the penetration rate of LFDP machinery in the various segments of the market.

With a total investment of 1,5 billion of euro in 2003, LFDP finally has the numbers to gain its right position as media next to TV and magazines. The presence of 2 end-users Luigi Magalotti, marketing director of SAGIT (Gruppo Unilever), Giovanni Federico Imperiali, managing director of Publivisual, Venice, and 2 major Italian media companies Fabio Albanese, president and managing director of Starcom MediaVest Italia and Alberto Cremaschi, vice director of Media Italia made the presentation more then just any conference but a point of departure for the key players of LFDP, suppliers, printers, advertising agencies and media companies.

Advertising expert and managing director of ADVExpress Salvatore Sagone, present at the conference, pointed out that whereas “Advertising investment in Italy has declined since 2000 and has shown only this year a weak increase, the investment made in LFDP as media on the other hand has more than doubled over last year, prove that the big spenders have moved their investment from traditional media to the new media LFDP. Luigi Magalotti, marketing director of Sagit (Gruppo Unilever) indicated: “We are witnessing a new form of creativity, still to be fully developed that will give the market new publicity campaign potential.

POP/POS Point of Purchase ­ Display - The new sector present at Visual Communication Italia:

With the first edition of display SuperstarITALIA 2003 in occasion of Visual Communication 2003 the organizers added a new potential market to suppliers and visitors. The event was organized in cooperation with DISPLAY INTERNATIONAL and 43 displays were on show. Marketing managers and Display experts met to discuss new forms of POP displays throughout the 3 exhibition days. The jury:

Renzo Callegari- Director of production Lowe Pirella,
Katja Sparano ­ Director of production Rotella and Partners,
Giuseppe Andrianò - Business Manager Sony Italia S.p.A. and
Paolo Lanfranconi ­ Division Director of GDO ­ Giochi ­ Artsana S.p.A.
excelled the high quality of displays on show especially due to the innovation forms and use of material.

A special mention was given to the display produced for Dannon Yoghourt, U.S.A. for the Dennimals drink for children. The combination of digital printing and creativity caused that everybody had to stop in front of it during the 3 days of the exhibition. The jury called the display the most “attended” display.

CTP meets PTP during Visual Communication and indicates the entry of off-set printer in the LFDP industry.

Roland Europe hosted the first PTP (Plotter to Plate) application which allows the production of aluminium plates for off-set machinery via ink-jet printers. General printers invaded the Roland stand to witness this innovation application of ink-jet plotter for their industry.

Reed Exhibitions Italia S.r.l.
Via Fratini, 6 ­ 05100
TERNI, Italia
Phone: ++39 0744 400544
Fax: ++39 0744 403708
E-Mail: viscomit@tin.it
Website URL: www.visualcommunication.it