SAY with Italo for the fourth consecutive year: SEO, AI and Brand Awareness at the heart of the project

Italo S.p.A. confirms its collaboration with SAY S.p.A. for the fourth consecutive year. SAY S.p.A. is a marketing and communications agency based in Padua and Milan, with over 70 employees organised into three divisions: Creativity, Performance and Relations.

The assignment – involving SAY’s Performance division – aims to strengthen brand awareness, including internationally, and organic visibility at a time of momentous change for the search world, consolidating Italo’s position as the first choice for high-quality, affordable travel, both for those travelling to discover Italy and for business.

The strategic project devised by the client together with SAY enhances content marketing, defining the editorial plan for the official blog dedicated to the local and international markets, and then handling the production and optimisation of articles and landing pages in direct proportion to the significant growth in Italo’s commercial offering, thus accompanying the introduction of new destinations, services and travel opportunities.

To respond to the evolution of SEO in the context of changing search engines, this year SAY has introduced an observatory dedicated to analysing the impact of generative artificial intelligence and various LLMs (Large Language Models) on search methods, with a particular focus on new forms of AI-driven visibility.

Off-site SEO coverage also continues, including digital PR activities and monitoring of vertical search features, such as Google Flight – Transit and Maps.

All activities at SAY Performance (the division focused on measurable quantitative and qualitative KPIs) are guided by Italo’s rigorous attention to performance indicators. The results tell a story of success that translates into revenue. In terms of organic performance, the UK website, for example, saw an increase of over 40% in sessions and double-digit revenue growth over the last year, expanding the brand’s organic presence in the United States and supporting international growth. 

During the same period, organic clicks on the blog increased by almost 200% (early 2025 vs 2024), thanks to the positive response that Italo’s high-quality editorial content seems to be receiving in AI search engines as well.

“This renewal gives continuity to a project that has been built step by step together with Italo. The success of the SEO project stems from a genuine collaboration between the agency and the Digital team,” says Giacomo Callegari, SEO Director at SAY. “We have worked side by side to bring data, content and technology together, transforming SEO into a tool for growth, and we continue to do so with constant research that sees AI playing a leading role on both the agency and user sides. This synergy has allowed us to combine strategy and operations, bringing concrete results in terms of visibility, traffic and sales, especially in the US market, which at the end of the funnel translates into turnover.”

“With SAY, we continue to evolve Italo’s SEO from a technical lever to a strategic lever, capable of integrating data, content and artificial intelligence. The goal is to dynamically expand the organic coverage of routes and services, accompanying the growth of the commercial offer and intercepting new search behaviours, even in AI-driven environments,” explains Pellegrino Carfora, SEO Specialist at Italo.