The data economy knows no tariffs: loyalty solutions as an antidote to the consumer spending crisis

2024 marked a decisive year for Advice Group. We consolidated our position as a benchmark player in Italian MarTech, an ever-evolving industry where technology drives engagement and retention, closing the year with over €15 million in orders. This milestone reinforces a trend of consistent growth: over the past three years, our revenue CAGR stood at around 20%, while EBITDA grew over 30% year-over-year.

These results stem from a targeted strategy that enabled us to deepen partnerships with long-standing clients while earning the trust of major accounts, including DAZN, Illy, Banca Findomestic, FC Internazionale Milano, Panini, WWF Italia, and E.ON Energia. Today, recurring revenue accounts for over 70% of our turnover, powered by our 100% Italian proprietary tech platform, already adopted by more than 50 leading national and international brands.

The marketing data economy faces no slowdown. In response, 2024 saw the completion of our merger by incorporation of tech companies Leevia and E-Leads, establishing a new Business Unit dedicated to performance-based engagement. This unit operates alongside our core loyalty BU, which continues to drive retention across both B2C and B2B trade segments.

We are now equipped to support businesses even more decisively in building proprietary databases and generating qualified leads, leveraging an innovative conversion model perfectly suited for fast-digitizing industries such as finance, insurance, sports, e-tail, the subscription economy, and the non-profit sector.

Throughout the year, we also launched two high-impact initiatives. The first is Loyalty Heroes, a cross-functional team led directly by our CEO Fulvio Furbatto, designed to redesign and revitalize existing loyalty programs, including those not originally managed by us, through cross-disciplinary expertise and an innovative advisory approach.

The second is the latest evolution of Wekit-2, our proprietary platform, which now integrates new microservices to deliver an increasingly end-to-end customer experience. Recent feature rollouts include ESG modules, such as our carbon footprint calculator, alongside advanced e-commerce solutions including:

• "Temporary" promo codes featuring dynamic expiration and geolocation capabilities
• "Frozen" points, which activate upon completion of return windows for eligible purchases

Built for global scalability, WEKIT-2 is now fully equipped to manage multi-country and multi-language logic, underpinning our international expansion roadmap with active operations across the UK, US, and Spain for clients such as PETRONAS, Illy, and Be Charge (a Plenitude subsidiary).

Furthermore, we launched a dedicated Sport & Entertainment Business Unit. The mission is ambitious: helping clubs, leagues, federations, and brands convert "anonymous" social followers into active, profiled fans using proprietary fan-conversion frameworks that break reliance on third-party social networks. This marks a structural shift for organizations seeking to build fully owned sports media hubs powered by engaged, data-enriched communities.

While the market debates how to best leverage artificial intelligence, we have addressed a more pressing imperative for marketers: how to maximize the value of First-Party Data. Data that is increasingly "smart" rather than merely "big", and, above all, immune to external barriers, because no one can ever impose tariffs on authentic engagement.