When the past makes news. Cultivating media relations through brand heritage

The paper deals with heritage branding, investigating communication and PR models pro-moted by historical companies representing Made in Italy in the global market, in orderto focus on their distinctive approach to media relations strategies and related practices.The study has adopted a multi-method approach, involving a panel of companies in thefood & beverage sector. In-depth interviews from PR professionals highlight the potentialof heritage branding to develop an authentic form of storytelling, based on quality brandedcontents and the strategic management of corporate history, thus cultivating long-standingrelationships with the media.