Mediastars: SAY wins first prize for Italo Treno’s international SEO

The project “Italo Treno: international SEO strategies, US market”, developed by SAY in close collaboration with the Italo team, was awarded at the 30th edition of the Mediastars Awards, the Italian Technical Advertising Award that for thirty years has recognised the finest projects and professionals shaping contemporary communication.

During the awards ceremony held on 3 June in Milan, the SAY-led project earned First Place in the SEO Category, alongside two Special Stars in Online Advertising, awarded for the strategic and operational solutions developed by SAY as part of a joint initiative with Italo’s marketing team.

Giacomo Callegari, SEO Director at SAY, received the Special Star for Technical & Strategic Direction, while Marco Lanzillo was awarded the Special Star for Advanced SEO Strategy. The awards were accepted during the ceremony by Chiara Ferrante and Viola Zaffuto, Project Manager and Sales Account at SAY, respectively.

The project was developed in close synergy with Italo’s marketing team, who played a decisive role in defining objectives, sharing data, and ensuring continuous alignment between SEO strategy, business priorities, and the international expansion of the brand, particularly in the United States.

SAY, a communication and marketing agency with offices in Padua and Milan and over 70 professionals, operates through three integrated divisions – Creativity, Performance, and Relations. It combines strategic, creative, and relational expertise to build measurable growth trajectories for brands.

The award-winning work stems directly from this integrated approach. Building on data analysis and business objectives, the team developed a strategy combining technical SEO, content optimisation, international visibility tactics, and advanced analytics tools. Key initiatives included: strengthening non-branded search presence, optimizing visibility on Google Transit and Google Maps, advancing structured data implementation, and executing a content plan dedicated to overseas markets.

The results validated the strategy’s effectiveness. The English-language website recorded a 40%+ increase in organic sessions and a 27% growth in organic revenue year-on-year. Furthermore, the data highlighted a 170% increase in organic clicks on the blog and a 95.7% rise in sessions originating from AI-driven traffic.

in sessions originating from AI-driven traffic.

“This award recognises a collective effort that saw the Italo and SAY teams co-build a solid, data-backed, and result-oriented international SEO strategy. We tackled the challenge of the American market with methodology and vision, and the figures speak for themselves”, stated Pellegrino Carfora, Head of SEO at Italo.

“The Mediastars award confirms the quality of the journey undertaken with SAY: an integrated approach focused on Italo’s international digital growth, combining strategy, technology, and a deep understanding of our brand and business goals”, added Gianluca Marchio, Digital Sales & Marketing Director at Italo.

“Receiving this recognition is deeply rewarding as it highlights work built on diverse skills and a sharp focus on data, in full synergy with our client, Italo, and aligned with their vision and strategy”, commented Giacomo Callegari, SEO Director at SAY. “In recent years, SEO has increasingly become the intersection of technology, content, and the ability to interpret evolving search behaviours. This project demonstrates how an analysis- and measurement-driven strategy can tangibly drive a brand’s international growth. The rise of AI assistants makes SEO interventions even more critical, not just to be found, but to be recommended.”

For SAY S.p.A., this recognition reinforces the value of an approach that integrates creativity, performance, and relations to deliver results that can be observed, understood, and measured over time.

“Awards like Mediastars serve as an important benchmark for our industry,” added Lorenzo Servino, Sales Development Director at SAY. “The achievement with Italo stems from the collaboration between the client and a multidisciplinary team that successfully translated business objectives into a concrete, data-backed, and result-driven project. It is an award we share with everyone who contributed to this journey.”

The recognition achieved at the Mediastars Awards adds to SAY’s ongoing growth trajectory and testifies to the effectiveness of a working model that blends strategy, specialized expertise, and data interpretation capabilities to build lasting value for brands.