Real partnerships are built on people

In the world of communications, strategic partnerships are talked about constantly. In practice, most of them come down to mutual visibility agreements — shared logos, coordinated posts. Functional, sure. But rarely memorable.

When our CEO Rossella Rosciano met AWA — Automotive Women Association — she knew immediately she was talking to a different kind of people. The introduction came through Barbara Boni, someone she already knew from working together on the Giacomel 2025 project: an honest, precise, driven professional — the kind of person you meet once and already know the work will get done properly. When Barbara told her about AWA, it didn’t take long to understand it was worth exploring further.

Who AWA is and why it matters

AWA is a non-profit association created to show the next generation what it means to build a career in the automotive world as a woman. It’s not a club, and it’s not a showcase. It’s a project that holds memory and vision together: women who have built careers in a traditionally male-dominated industry, choosing to make their experiences visible in order to open doors for those who come after them. In just two years, they’ve already done concrete things: events in schools, interviews with industry professionals, a growing public presence. Monica Zanetti, the president, is straightforward in the best sense — direct, no frills, with a clarity of vision that doesn’t need amplifying to be heard. They are real people. And in our work, after many years, we’ve learned that this is the most underrated criterion when choosing who to work with.

What we do together

MiRò supports AWA on two specific fronts: media relations and institutional relations. On the media side, the work is about building genuine visibility for the association’s activities — not press releases sent into the void, but a narrative strategy that brings AWA’s stories to the right newsrooms, at the right moment, with the right angle. An association that tells the stories of women in automotive has excellent material. The challenge, often, isn’t what to say — it’s how to make it land. On the institutional side, the work is more subtle but equally strategic: building relationships with public and private stakeholders capable of giving AWA the solidity and recognition it deserves. A young association with a clear mission needs allies in the system, not just followers on social media.

Why this partnership matters to us

Our CEO sits on the board of GWPR Italia and has worked for years on the topic of women’s representation in professional life. She knows how easy it is to do gender communication in a rhetorical way — and how difficult it is to do it in a way that actually changes something. AWA doesn’t do rhetoric. It brings real women, with real stories, into real places — from racetracks to school classrooms. This approach is ours too: the communication that matters is the kind that touches something concrete, not the kind that settles for looking right. Supporting AWA isn’t just a pro-bono activity. It’s a choice of coherence. If you believe diversity is a question of substance and not image, you have to be willing to put in the work — not just add your name to it.

To learn more about AWA, visit automotivewomenassociation.com

To talk about how to build media and institutional relations for your organisation, get in touch.