Happy birthday, DUAL!

Turning another year older is easy: you just wait and let time pass.
Pausing to say “well, quite a few years have gone by, and we actually have plenty of reasons to celebrate” is a different story altogether.

This year, DUAL turns 25, and there are countless ways we could celebrate this milestone: a big in‑office party with a “my 25 years” theme, a drastic new haircut. Or, better still, tearing down walls and floors, modernising and reorganising all our offices with larger workspaces, common areas, training rooms and much more…

For now, though – since speeches usually come before candles and surprises – we decided to start with a series of interviews. And the first one could only be with Giuliano Bottelli, Founder and CEO of DUAL.

Interviewer: Let’s start right away with the key question: how was DUAL born?

Giuliano: DUAL was born as an inheritance, in the sense that my father, before Francesco and me, had a communication agency that he opened in the late ’60s. I started working there as a teenager, and then officially joined in ’95/’96. The big turning point came in ’98, when my father decided to step back from the operational side, leaving that responsibility to me and Francesco.

At that moment, however, I decided I didn’t just want to inherit my father’s business; I preferred to inherit the idea, the care for what we offer to clients, without carrying on the same brand. So we closed Viscontea – that was the agency’s name at the time – and DUAL was born.

I: So it was more an inheritance of ways of doing things than of material assets, but it was also an inheritance of mindset?

G: I definitely inherited the entrepreneurial vision – the idea that I wasn’t meant to work for someone else, and that I liked the idea of building a company, a business. To be honest, I had imagined doing a couple of years’ experience, maybe in a big corporation, but my father’s sudden decision forced me to decide quickly. Either I grabbed that opportunity right away, or I would have let that inheritance slip away.

I: Closing one company to open a new one under a new brand is quite a bold move. It’s a strong signal of change and a risk, especially with clients. It’s like saying, “we’re the same, but we’re no longer the same”, which is not easy to communicate.

G: At first, we told clients that we were exactly the same, but with a lot more young resources. We tried to reassure them. But while I was reassuring the clients we had brought over from my father’s company, I also wanted to explore new horizons. Many of those attempts failed, some worked, and others went through different cycles.
For example, we had managed to build a solid partnership with a consultant who structured a promotional merchandise offer. She had excellent contacts in China and worked as an intermediary, allowing us to offer a wide range of customised production services: suitcases, clothing, accessories. Thanks to her – and a much shorter chain of contacts – we could get items that really made a difference at events and in business relationships, both for us and for our clients: Italian design, quality production in China (which is possible if you know the territory).

Then the whole web side of things started to grow. We were in the middle of the dot‑com bubble and I had joined a company by taking over the shares of a partner who wanted to step out. We even had a research centre in Switzerland and were working on streaming, with encoders for file compression and other tools that, honestly, today are pure archaeology. Our software looked a lot like what Google Meet is now: there was no need to install anything, it all ran via browser. There, we got the timing wrong; we were wary of certain investments, and we were holding something that didn’t yet work perfectly at a time when the need for that service was still invisible.

I: You’ve talked about design, graphics, promotional items and web – but what about the events side?

G: Events were already in my head and in my heart, because organising them was one of the first things I did with my father, and it was great fun. Even before we had a dedicated events department, between brand identity and communication work, there were always events for clients.

For us, events were a testing ground where every dimension of the agency could bring out its best: creativity in all its forms (graphic, organisational, experiential, production…), production capabilities, technological innovation, the ability to relate to everyone from the entrepreneur and the manager to the salesperson and the hotel cleaner, clarity and a sense of fun. That’s still very true today. The tools and the mix have changed, but in the end our versatility and adaptability remain fundamental.

Then there was the whole area of promotions and dedicated events, which played out on two fronts: prize competitions aimed at the sales force on one side and consumer‑facing activations with hostesses, brand ambassadors, etc. on the other.

We also started developing, with an external partner, the idea of a company dedicated solely to managing promotions. In short, one thing led to another and we ended up with four companies, all very small – three or four people each – except for DUAL, which already had 14 or 15 people.

I: And then what happened?

G: In 2004, I realised everything had become too chaotic: companies within companies, boxes within boxes, one business project inside another. Mentally, it was unsustainable. So we brought into DUAL all the skills and activities we really wanted to focus on, and we sold or closed the companies that were no longer relevant.

I: Looking back over these 25 years, which changes have really been significant – both for DUAL and for you? Changes that happened in DUAL and led to a personal shift for you, or vice versa.

G: First of all, I’d say the opening of the Marsala office, which pushed me to accept the idea of having employees and collaborators working remotely in a place I knew nothing about. When Laura Doro, who had already been working with us for some time, told us she wanted to move back to Sicily, I had two options: either lose an extremely valuable collaborator or embrace that change and, in doing so, change myself too. That’s how I learned the importance of delegating to people who want to challenge themselves and embrace change, and also the importance of seizing opportunities as they come, without waiting for the “perfect” conditions to take a big step.

Another major shift was when Alessandro Rosti joined the company as a partner, because from that moment on, DUAL stopped being just a “family thing” between my brother and me.

Then came Feliziano Crisafulli, and with him our work on neuroscience and Emotional Intelligence. There’s one episode linked to this that really changed me: in 2000, we were invited to a masterclass in Mexico. Feliziano and I went as total newcomers, into a room full of big names in the coaching world. I remember that whenever I spoke – because we were encouraged to participate and share – people listened. I realised that everything we were saying about archetypes, new marketing models and Emotional Intelligence applied to marketing was genuinely interesting to those listening. That awareness helped me believe in myself much more.

International meetings with some of our clients have also changed me a lot, because stepping out of your comfort zone and speaking a foreign language to people from a different culture, in that kind of context, really leaves a mark. In general, encounters change me – people change me. The three meetings that have shaped me most deeply were with Joshua Freedman, Yvette Bethel and Alison Lalieu.

Another important turning point was the decision to let younger people lead the agency’s digital area. I realised it was better to rely on people with less experience but far more up‑to‑date, full of energy and immersed in that world, rather than on someone with lots of experience but culturally and generationally distant from our day‑to‑day counterparts (partners, clients, suppliers…). It was also a bit like admitting that I, too, needed to step aside.

I: Questioning your own position and role at that point isn’t easy. Saying “ok, it’s no longer my moment to hold this kind of role; it’s better if I evolve into something else so that someone else can evolve too”. Saying “I have to give myself the chance to change and grow, but to do that I also need to transform the environment around me so it can welcome the change I want to be”. That’s a big step.

Last question: today, in light of everything we’ve talked about, what do you see as DUAL’s biggest challenge?

G: I’d say there are two challenges. One is internal and has to do with everyone being on board with a bold project – dreaming together and making that dream happen. On average, there’s a lot of focus on getting things done efficiently and less on setting and pursuing long‑term horizons. There’s also the challenge of being One while preserving the authenticity of each part, valuing individual uniqueness – without flattening out the people who make up the whole – and enjoying the journey together.

The other challenge comes from the outside world, from the market: we need to be big enough to invest in ongoing training and growth and to seize new opportunities. The real challenge is to grow in scale at a reasonably fast pace without losing our distinctiveness, while staying clear about our positioning. That is a very big challenge.

After 25 years, I can see a consistency in the path we’ve taken that carries us into the future, built on three key dimensions: relationships – stable, deep connections; strategic, intentional thinking that looks at the world with trust and courage; and the desire to always have an evolutionary impact on the growth and development of companies, brands and people.