Communications, events and solidarity

COMMUNICATIONS

The communications policy and the development of the Group’s image are managed by the External Relations and Communications Department, which draws up, steers and coordinates communications and institutional, journalistic and commercial information initiatives.

For the main external communications, the Advertising, Brand Image and Events Unit oversees the promotion of the brand, the management of the corporate identity, the implementation of institutional, advertising and commercial campaigns and the organisation of public or institutional events, the development and management of environmental education and solidarity projects, as well as special projects and external events aimed at strengthening the link between Acea and the region, the design and implementation of photographic services and the production of videos of various types according to the needs of the Group, the management of the Group’s modern and historical archive, both documentary and photographic and the development of Acea sites for educational and cultural purposes.

In accordance with the strategic guidelines defined by the Top Management, the Digital and Corporate Media Unit ensures the Group’s correct positioning in the digital ecosystem through the development and management of the institutional website, the websites of the Companies that align with the digital identity and social channels. It manages the processing and updating of corporate, operating and commercial editorial content for the various digital, web and social channels.

In 2019 Acea Communication, the internal communication and media planning agency serving the Group, whose trademark was filed during the year, was further consolidated. The agency was in charge of all phases of the advertising campaigns, from conception to publication and dissemination. Acea Communication’s team of specialists, analysts, art directors, photographers, graphic designers, copywriters and business and media planners has created creative concepts, executive copy, adaptations, multimedia products, logos, image consulting and planning for all Acea’s communications campaigns. This has led to speedy execution and and a significant reduction in production and delivery costs, with a reinvestment of resources in advertising plans that have involved national media.

In September 2019, Acea Communication won the 16th Press Best Campaign Editor’s Choice Key Award for the “Why? – Together for Water” campaign for the following reason: “For the ability to reach the highest level of communication with an evocative image and strong impact able to achieve very high emotional effects by raising awareness regarding an important issue such as saving water”. Among the 2019 advertising campaigns, the first major national television campaign of the Acea Group: in May and July the institutional spot aired on Rai, Mediaset, Sky, Discovery Channels and local TV in Lazio over a thousand times. Also worth mentioning is the campaign “Acea Scuola – Let’s Defend Water!” in the press and on the web dedicated to raising awareness with respect to water, which involved 10,000 students from schools in Rome.

Some advertising campaigns in the press or in the press and on the web were launched in conjunction with major events organized by Acea during the year, and in particular Innovation Day, Sustainability Day (see the boxes in the chapter Institutions and the company and in the chapter Strategy and sustainability of Corporate identity), the exhibition 110 Years of Light in Rome and Acea’s participation in Ecomondo (see the box in Relations with the environment).

Like every year, Acea also welcomed visitors to its facilities who benefited from the generous spirit and expertise the company’s employees. In 2019 2,323 people from Italy and abroad were received during 35 visits. Visitors to the Group’s facilities included university scholars (from the Universities of Rome La Sapienza and Roma Tre, Connecticut and Texas), delegations of foreign institutions (for example the Embassy of the United States of America), journalists for televised reports, numerous schoolchildren and members of the public who visited the facilities during the FAI days.

The Eur Water Centre was also used as a location for a music video.

The Digital and Corporate Media Unit defines the digital strategy and manages communications on the digital channels of the Acea Group. The new website www.gruppo.acea.it went live on 5 June 2019 with a design that reflects the Group’s values, mission and new industrial positioning.

The new corporate website is the result of an in-depth analysis the digital strategy, with a distinctive approach to visual communications and a clear, transparent organization of the content. Its navigation is smooth and intuitive thanks to an original layout and new graphics, completely renewed in line with the Group’s brand identity.

By employing an effective, engaging language and the use of images and videos, Acea promotes its people, skills and daily commitment to the regions it operates in.

The result of the work on the Group’s corporate website and on the entire digital ecosystem made it possible for Acea to be recognized as best improver in the Webranking Italy 2019- 2020. This study assesses the transparency of communications on the digital channels of the main listed companies. Acea was also included in the “gold class” of the first edition of “.trust”, the analysis conducted by Lundquist that assesses the ability of Italian listed companies to tell their story in a clear, engaging way, positioning themselves in the most virtuous quadrant corresponding to “narrators”.

For each initiative and press conference of the Group, press releases, pages dedicated to the events, a photo gallery and videos were published in the Media section of the website www.gruppo. acea.it. Therefore the main events and significant initiatives of 2019 have been promoted on the Group’s website, including with the creation of dedicated web pages. In addition to the events already mentioned, Acea’s participation in Maker Faire Rome also enjoyed broad visibility and highlighted events of great resonance that the Group has long associated its brand with through sponsorships, such as the Rome Marathon and the Film Festival. For activities aimed at the educational world, the section “Acea School” dedicated to Acea’s school programme was updated on the website with an “immersive” project focused on sustainability and water conservation.

One of the main new developments introduced in the institutional website was a section dedicated to innovation, which describes Acea’s commitment to this area: from the services offered to the public to the development of skills and new solutions that can improve people’s lives. The section includes a hub dedicated to Acea’s innovation stories, which represent a new way of narrating business activities, people’s work and company initiatives for the community and the territory.

The choice of presenting different narratives seeks to involve stakeholders in the life of the company, showing how Acea’s work combines a human dimension, technology and sustainability.

Sustainability is highlighted as a guiding value for the Company on all pages of the website. Indeed, in addition to being discussed in the section “Our commitment”, sustainability becomes a cross-cutting value, with insights and references to initiatives and projects dedicated to each area.

Mention should also be made of the communication of artistic lighting projects for monuments in the capital to enhance their cultural and artistic heritage, and symbolic lighting to raise public awareness of the importance of preventing diseases such as breast cancer, which testifies to the company’s sensitivity to issues with a high social impact.

For the Shareholders’ Meeting, the “Browseable Reports” of the Acea Group were published, which make the Consolidated Financial Statements and Sustainability Report accessible interactively, with open data and multimedia content. The online reports present Acea’s results, values and projects and provide the possibility of capturing the multiple threads that link the two annual reports in a single frame.

The website also performs a service function with the real-time publication of warnings about possible water suspensions affecting the areas the company operates in, providing users with timely updates.

For some years the data related to emissions have been available. They are monitored in real time and concern the two Acea waste-to-energy plants. The main quality parameters of the water supplied by the Companies active in the water segment can be consulted online. It is also possible to view online the emissions data of the plant of Tor di Valle.

Due to the transition from a single Group website to the creation of two separate websites – the corporate website (www.gruppo.acea.it)⁷² and the one related to commercial activities (www.acea.it) – the 2019 statistical data are not fully comparable with those of the previous year. In recent years, however, both the steady increase in mobile access to the website and the concentration of visitors between the ages of 25 and 44 are confirmed^73.

In particular, approximately 23.8 million pages were viewed on the Group’s website during the year, equivalent to almost 5.8 million accesses. The connection methods were 65.4% via desktop (3,778,706 accesses), 31.4% via mobile (1,813,704 accesses) and 3.2% via tablet (184,427 accesses). As regards the Acea Energia website (www.acea.it), during the year more than 2 million visits were recorded, also in this case mainly from desktop (62.5%) and mobile (33.7%).

The website, dedicated to the sale of energy and gas on the free market, offers quick, user-friendly navigation with original, innovative usability features to facilitate customer journeys and interactions with all touchpoints. During the year, commercial offers and information guides were published that clearly respond to the most common demands of the energy market. A section dedicated to stories was also put online discussing issues related to sustainability and innovation in the energy sector.

There were fewer visitors to the website www.servizioelettricoroma. it dedicated to customers of the standard market service, with about 182,000 accesses, 58.7% of them via desktop and 37.6% via mobile.

CHART NO. 28 – ACEA CORPORATE WEBSITE 2019: ACCESS METHODS AND AGE GROUPS

Since March 2019 Acea has been active on the major social media with its corporate channels. An important step to strengthen communication with its stakeholders through digital channels with modern, immediate and engaging language and through the use of captivating images, videos and visuals (see the box for details).

Acea’s communications with the national and local media and managed by the Media Relations Unit are always characterized by timeliness, effectiveness and transparency, with the aim of conveying the correct corporate image and the Group’s position through the media.

In 2019 press releases and press conferences disclosed the financial results achieved, the initiatives implemented by the Group and information of public interest related to the managed services. In coordination with Investor Relations, Legal and Corporate Affairs and Administration Finance and Control, the Media Relation Unit prepares the economic-financial communiqués for the main corporate events, such as the Shareholders’ Meeting, approval of the financial results by the Board of Directors and the publishing of “price-sensitive” news. During the year the Unit maintained relations with the national, international, local and trade media, seeking to establish a mutual respect for roles and cooperation.

Through press articles, television, radio and web services, it provided and increased media coverage of the main events and initiatives carried out by Acea. In particular, it has consolidated relations with the economic-financial press to promote corporate communications, business operations and the Business Plan.

Thanks to a constant exchange of information with the operating companies, Media Relations also provides feedback on reports of inefficiencies that come through emails and direct telephone contacts and those published in newspapers, interacting with the press offices that are available to publish the company’s replies.

Every day, the Unit develops and manages the national and local press review, making it available through the company intranet. This activity is complemented by the transmission of additional and timely information about the Group or relevant to the business managed, thanks to the regular monitoring of press agencies and the web (web news, social media and blogs). Events of particular interest highlighted in 2019 include:

• the press release to formalize the acquisition of 51% of the company “Pescara gas distribution” which in fact marked ’s full entry into the sector;communications on the 2019-2022 Business Plan approved in April;
• the press conference and communications for the launch of Acea Energia’s campaign “Acea like us” in June 2019;
• the press conference and communications on the agreement between Acea, the Lazio Region and Roma Capitale for the renewal of the concession of the Peschiera – Le Capore Aqueduct in July, and in the same month the communications on the acquisition of the company Demap, active in the treatment of plastics;
• communications regarding the inauguration of the Monterotondo Marittimo composting plant, which was expanded in 2019, and in October on the entry into the full scope of consolidation of the company AdF;
• communications about the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between Acea and Google Cloud to accelerate digital transformation, again in October;
• the press conference and communications on the exhibition “1909-2019. 110 Years of Light. Acea and Rome. Passion and innovation”;
• communications in December about the launch of Smart- Comp and the agreement between Acea and Fiera di Roma. 

Media Relations also provided media coverage of the main events and initiatives carried out by Acea through press articles, television, radio and web services, including those in the field of value liberality and sponsorship.

EVENTS AND SOLIDARITY

The economic value distributed to the community in 2019 is equal to € 6 million⁷⁴ (€ 3.9 million in 2018). Of which about 2.7 million were allocated to sponsoring cultural, social and sporting events. The appropriations in the form of donations for major initiatives were equal to € 1.36 million (327,000 in 2018).

Acea provides its services, such as the supply of electricity and water or turning Public Lighting on or off during events that attract a large turnout, of a cultural or sporting nature, or in particular circumstances of a solidarity and symbolic nature. In 2019 these services, called “technical sponsorships”, were worth a total value of 240,760 (€ 116,650 in 2018).

Every year Acea participates in the main events related to its business activities and supports – including with sponsorships – initiatives considered of high cultural, social and sports value for the development of the areas it operates in and for the benefit of the community (see also the boxes at the end of the section). The Sponsorship and Value Liberality Unit has the task of instructing and managing requests from the entire region and from the Group’s corporate structures, to submit them to the Executive Committee, a body with responsibility for Institutional Relations, Sponsorships and Donations. The sponsorship initiatives approved by the Executive Committee are subject to an Integrity Due Diligence, for an ethical and reputational assessment of the proponents, according to best practices.

Among the main events organized in 2019, we highlight the initiative aimed at celebrating 110 years since Acea’s founding and its link to the region it was born in, with the great exhibition “110 Years of Light. Acea and Rome. Passion and Innovation” inaugurated in October at the Montemartini power plant, the first public power station in the capital for the production of electricity (see the box in the Communications sub-section) and the already mentioned initiatives on Innovation and Sustainability, which will be repeated annually to underline the importance that the Company attaches to these two issues. Specifically, Innovation Day, a day dedicated to the new frontiers of artificial intelligence and the use of data that have changed the way of doing business, was held together with some of the main Italian companies in the energy sector, workers, industry press, students, startups and the main protagonists of the innovation ecosystem.

The Sustainibility Day sought to promote a dialogue between institutions, authorities, the world of research and businesses in order to identify innovative solutions to foster industrial and market policies that are increasingly oriented towards sustainable development.

For the fourth year running, Acea participated at Ecomondo, the international showcase for the recovery of materials and energy, with a Group booth displaying materials related to the circular economy and organizing workshops on the same subject (see the box in Relations with the Environment), and participated in the Maker Faire Rome technology trade show presenting its innovative projects applied to industrial sectors.

During the year Acea participated in two events that engaged thousands of young people from all over Italy: the 49th edition of the Village of the Earth – Earth Day, where it presented the video on water conservation “Let’s defend water” that, with a playful- scientific approach recounts the long journey of water from the spring to the tap at home, and the Roman stage of Sustainability Island, with a space dedicated to workshops and education on composting.

Always attentive to environmental issues and to future evolutions, Acea promoted and took part in important conferences on sustainability and the circular economy, including the technical conference “Closing the Circle: Recover waste to improve Recycling and the Circular Economy in the Paper sector”, organized in Terni by Acea Ambiente, Assocarta and Comieco and held in the historic setting of Palazzo Gazzoli for the Paper and Cardboard Recycling Month. Among the events that have seen Acea at the forefront of promoting the historical and cultural heritage of the city of Rome without losing sight of its innovative and sustainable orientation, we find the hanging of Christmas lights in Via del Corso as part of the project called “Rome by Light Acea” (see the box for details).

In support of youth entrepreneurial initiatives and the promotion of innovation, Acea participated in the Rome Startup Week 2019, the exhibition involving startups, companies, investors, institutions and research centres in support of the startup ecosystem.

On this occasion, an Acea Special Award was presented, also offering the winning team the opportunity to be hosted at the new Talent Garden in Rome Ostiense in a coworking space. In fact, in 2019 Acea launched a partnership with the Talent Garden campus to work together on digital transformation and corporate innovation projects.

In December 2019, Acea also supported the ANGI Prize (National Association of Young Innovators), bearer of a message and a commitment to technological development, giving the award to the winner of the category “Energy & Environment”.

The year also saw support for the main events of national importance related to the businesses managed, such as the Energy Festival and the Water Festival, numerous cultural events and traditional sporting events that Acea has associated the brand with for years, such as the Rome Marathon and the Rome-Ostia Marathon. The following boxes describe the main events supported by the Acea Group in 2019, through sponsorships or donations.

⁷² The new corporate website has been live since 5 June and is active on the same domain as the previous one.
⁷³ Following the publication of the website, it was not possible to track demographics from June to September 2019.
⁷⁴ This item also includes costs borne for “fairs and conventions” but not “technical” sponsorships.