Mario Gornati: the Chief Marketing Officer of the Azimut Benetti Group

It is difficult to summarize in a few lines the personality, experience and skills of Mario Gornati (1972), the man who for the past year has been Chief Marketing Officer of the Azimut Benetti Group, the world’s leading superyacht manufacturer according to the Global Order Book 2023.

Graduated in Languages and Communication from the IULM University in Milan, he began his career in a major communication agency; as he himself points out “My professional journey started over 20 years ago as Account Manager at the PR and Communication agency Ad Mirabilia in Milan.“

After his experience in this agency, Mario Gornati immediately encountered the boating world and started a long and fruitful work experience at Sanlorenzo Yacht where he not only increased his training and skills but also achieved important results, as he told our microphones during an interview at the last Cannes Yachting Festival:

“Over the past 15 years and in my previous company, I had the privilege of contributing to a very important project. I joined the company when it was generating a turnover of 40 million and left after a successful stock market listing, with a turnover of almost 550 million. I contributed to the market, the development of the brand and its positioning around the world. It was a wonderful experience, which also allowed me to develop the qualities to get on the radar of companies in the sector and to work for the market leader group (Azimut Benetti – Ed.).”

But this is just a new starting point for Mr. Gornati, who now looks forward to other goals and faces new and exciting challenges for the Azimut Benetti Group, of which he is thrilled to be a part:

“When Dr. Giovanna Vitelli offered me the position of Chief Marketing Officer of the most important superyachts builder in the world, I was very happy because I had the confirmation that my commitment, sacrifices and abnegation of these years had paid off. Today with Azimut Benetti Group I have finally landed in the Champions League and I am very satisfied to be able to make my contribution.”

“We have just completed the Azimut brand repositioning project, and now we are doing it with the Benetti brand as well. The shipyard is seen as ‘the house of yachting’, a true reference point for the boating industry, which allows us to confirm our leadership by adding sensitivity to the typically Italian beauty of our boats.”

Azimut has a great history of heritage and knowledge but Mario Gornati is constantly looking to the future, foreseeing what will be the changes in the sector, and also the role that the digital economy will play in this scenario:

“Digital is essential because it answers the needs of boat owners and enthusiasts. It was already evolving, but after Covid, technology quickly became the future. The metaverse and nft will perhaps be the successors of social and we must not be closed-minded at times of transition. These new media also correspond to new targets, to which we absolutely must communicate. We must not underestimate these innovations, the metaverse enable people to communicate in a new way, it is not only the medium that is of interest but also the future target that it represents.”

Speaking of the future, Azimut Benetti has played a truly key role in terms of innovations, bringing boating to be more and more sustainable as early as 2006 with the Azipod hybrid engine:

“For more than 12 years we have included three pillars in our strategy and, every time Azimut studies a boat, it is based on these three cornerstones. The first pillar is the use and study of hulls: we carry out very complex studies to make them better performing and therefore more environmentally sustainable. Here we have set ourselves a rule: the hull of a new model must reduce emissions by at least 20% compared to the previous model.

The second pillar is that of the extensive use of carbon, a material we produce in-house and which costs money, but which guarantees more lightness, hence, a further consumption saving. The third pillar is that of propulsion, where we study and then implement the most suitable solution that we will then use on the market. This path has also allowed us to always be the first to come out with products that are really tested and found to be sustainable.

These are the three factors behind the sustainable approach, a clear snapshot of Azimut’s long-standing and concrete commitment to environmental sustainability.”

“When we launch a new superyacht, we respect these three cornerstones, thus coming out with a model from the so-called Low Emission Yachts class. To date, Azimut production already boasts 12 models that fall into this class; in the next two or three years, the entire range will be certified in this class of sustainability.”

Important goals, looking towards the future, without ever forgetting the 150 years of history that Azimut Benetti possesses. This is how Mario Gornati is carrying forward the vision of a group that has always been the icon of the best Made in Italy in the world.