The association was founded in the 1990s by a group of friends with a passion for gastronomy and the art of bien vivre. Over time it consolidated and structured itself as a small but strong reality in the territory, able to propose and support quality messages and events.
Strongly rooted in Genoa and Liguria, with the conception and realisation of the Campionato Mondiale di Pesto Genovese al Mortaio®, the association has set itself the cultural and promotional objective of realising a strong, original and forward-looking event. The Championship is a showcase of international skills and excellence of Liguria, which tells and enhances the qualities of an ancient territory. An event that has become a tradition, with a growing media and emotional energy and an increasingly international involvement.
Pesto, Ambassador of Liguria: Territorial Marketing
Territorial marketing is the ability of a town or a geographical area to become increasingly attractive to businesses and people. It is the only real possibility of development in an increasingly competitive world that offers all kinds of attractions and incentives. In order to market the territory, one must know how to do three things: protect diversity, promote diversity and make diversity accessible.
Protecting diversity means knowing and loving tradition where it makes culture, where it is a sediment of knowledge, history and way of life. It means not accepting homologation. However, defending ‘diversity’ without its ‘promotion’ means isolation, snobbery. In any case, the inability to seize opportunities in an increasingly curious and attentive world. It took 2004 to discover that Genoa is ‘also’ a city of art. For decades – for the non-Genoese of course – Genoa was ‘simply’ a port. The third success factor is ‘making diversity accessible’, i.e. making it approachable: from parking, to hospitality, to information, to stimulating new experiences such as … making pesto with a mortar.
The Campionato Mondiale di Pesto Genovese al Mortaio® is an interesting and complex challenge. The event is aimed, addressed, intended for the whole world. Behind pesto there is history, there is art, there is quality of life. There is a new economy and an extra hope for the future. The challenge is won by Italian and foreign competitors alike. But above all, the winner is Pesto, a healthy, natural and ‘democratic’ sauce. Everyone is entitled to it and everyone can learn how to make it! In terms of quantity, our land of small strips and greenhouses will never be able to compete with the world’s big producers. Just as the balsamic vinegar of Modena produced by big industry did not destroy local production, but on the contrary promoted it in distinction, so it is happening with Pesto produced in Liguria and in local restaurants. The small and medium-sized quality enterprises in the Modena area are thriving today. It will be the same for Pesto: after the first few binges, the palate becomes refined and our products win.
The Brand and Image
Pesto has two new colours: gold and black, which join the traditional green. The colours of the Championship brand become the symbol of this new language, which combines tradition – represented by the green and the mortar – , the word ‘pesto’ in gold – because gold is the colour of the winner – and the aggressiveness of black – which gives modernity and elegance to the graphic sign. The logo becomes a sort of stamp, almost as if to symbolise the same manual skill with which the pestle is used in the mortar, so the essence of this World Championship is enshrined in the symbol that is affixed to all the tools and that reiterates the clear desire to keep this noble sauce alive and up-to-date.
The graphic element is very essential, for the purpose of easy memorisation; the logotype is gestural, with an underline that increases its importance. All the elements combine to focus visual attention on the centre of the logo, where the word ‘pesto’ stands out embossed in gold.
The Championship Organisation
The organisation is the result of the collaboration of different professionals from the areas of territorial marketing, graphics and communication, gastronomy and history of traditions. The president is Roberto Panizza; the board of directors includes: Sergio Di Paolo, Mauro Cavallero, Gianni Arimondo, Sergio Panizza.
More than 5,000 recipients of the newsletters sent via e-mail, dozens of preliminary competitions organised all over the world, reports on the Championship in more than 30 Italian and international television broadcasts, a widespread diffusion of news and curiosities on the event via radio and Internet, thousands of accesses to the website, engaging side events and intriguing gadgets, an outstanding position on search engines.
Behind this enormous media and public success is the commitment of a team of professionals, who day after day work on the organisation of the events, take care of the press and the media, invent new gadgets and new actions, explore gastronomic themes and create culture.
There are three guidelines for the organisation: highly professional marketing, communication strategy and involvement of all the dynamic stakeholders in the area.
