Empowered by Barbara Musso of Moosso, A Master of Brand Storytelling

barbara musso moosso pr and communications milano

Join us for a peek inside the empowering world of Barbara Musso, founder and managing director of Moosso. A new name in the game but far from a new player, Moosso, formerly Novità Italia, is a PR, communications, and branding firm with a focus on our beloved world of architecture and design.

After 15 years as a consultant for the New York-based Novità Communications, Barbara moved to Milan and founded Novità Italia. Serving the international creative community that Barbara so loves as a boutique agency while still collaborating with its American counterpart, the firm quickly made a name for itself.

Now with its 2022 rebrand to Moosso in full swing, Barbara and her team offer a unique, dynamic, open, and international approach to communicating the world of architecture and design. An approach rooted in the art of storytelling—a passion and beautiful talent of Barbara’s.

Read on and be inspired by Barbara Musso’s eloquent telling of her story in this edition of the Lh Empowered Women Empower series.


Be Empowered by Barbara Musso, Founder & Managing Director of Moosso


barbara musso moosso pr and communications firm milano milan
Barbara Musso (Photo by Silvia-Potenza)

Love Happens: As our name and the tagline of our publisher, KOKET, denotes, at Love Happens, we are firm believers that you cannot achieve any level of success without love. When did your love affair with communications begin? How did it make you feel?

Barbara Musso: I have a background in design, and as a young professional, I worked in the field of product and interior design for several years. I’ve always loved the idea of changing the world around me for the better; and helping people enjoy their living spaces.

When I moved to NY, I started realizing that my passion and competence for design allowed me to see details and nuances and therefore tell engaging stories of the objects and spaces around me. It happened slowly, but looking in retrospect, it was an aha! moment. I felt like I could help identify and confidently amplify messages that brands, designers, creatives, and professionals around me in general struggled sometimes with expressing.

Over the years, I realized I am a natural storyteller and every time I craft a new narrative that resonates with the audience, and engages readers, I feel so fulfilled and energized… in love with my work.

It’s not about adding noise, it’s about creating quality content with care, competence, and passion.

Lh: Tell us about your career path leading up to the creation of Moosso in Milan.

Barbara: I am a globe-trotter. I have lived in Palermo, Modena, Faenza, Leeds, New York, London, passing through Kassel and Lübeck for love. Fuel for the journey: passion. Passion for a great love, a globetrotter too, and for design. I started as a designer, with my hands dirty with slip and glaze, photocopies, and silk. I stumbled by chance into a New York City overflowing with stories and colors, events and smells, and was swept up in a great new passion that may have already been there, but whose name I didn’t yet know: I found out later that it’s called storytelling. Then I realized that telling stories about slips and glazes, photocopies and silks is fun, it’s easy, and it leaves my hands clean ;).

I jumped in and swam back to Italy, to Milan (not swimming), the design city, the gray city, the city without color. Yet the color is there, I just had to find out where it was, like when in detective stories you have to find out who the murderer is. Milan is full of color, a color made of people, creativity, culture, history and the know-how of those who, unlike me, find the greatest passion in getting their hands dirty. This is how it all started.

Lh: What do you believe makes a great communications strategy in today’s content-rich environment?

Barbara: Each brand is unique and therefore has a distinct story to tell, with its unique voice. At Moosso we believe it is key to creatively express and amplify stories that are authentic, deep, responsible, and interesting for the public. It’s relationships that we are interested in creating, not another press release, another news. It’s not about adding noise, it’s about creating quality content with care, competence, and passion.

Lh: How do you describe the perfect PR firm-Client relationship?

Barbara: Open, authentic, fun, responsible. Our clients love our direct and candid approach. They know we constantly do our very best to help them send the right message to the world, in the most creative and meaningful ways.

Lh: Is there one piece of “free advice” you would like to offer to luxury creatives looking to promote their businesses in today’s world?

Barbara: Find your soul first. Understand your unique character, your arena, and act responsibly and with passion.

Lh: What is your favorite part of your job?

Barbara: Equally important are the desire to tell a good story about good design, the brands and stakeholders that represent it, and the pleasure of weaving relationships, of connecting people who I imagine have something to share with each other.

Lh: Who is Barbara Musso, the Woman and the Founder & Managing Director of Moosso?

Barbara: A dynamic, enthusiastic person with a genuine desire to grow, learn and discover. If this happens through people and relationships, I enjoy it even more.

koket rita cocktail table round marble and brass

Lh: If you could give one bit of advice to your younger self, what would it be?

Barbara: Not to be exposed to the sun too much, because environmental damage has made it dangerous even to enjoy our first source of energy. For the rest, I would tell her nothing more, because from every suffering I have learned something that has allowed me to be who I am today, which fortunately still gets along with who I was yesterday.

Lh: What empowers you most?

Barbara: Any form of positive energy: the sea in the winter, an old forest, an evocative exhibition, a good meeting, doing good. I begin to think that working in strategic communication makes me feel good because it makes the people who ask for my services feel good.

Lh: Do you have any mottos or favorite quotes you like to live by?

Barbara: “I feel sincerely grateful”: in my private life, I would say that in the face of any adversity, I think intimately that there is still hunger in the world, and I am lucky enough never to have experienced it. “Be curious, be empathetic”: as a professional, I cannot help but remind myself that if I want someone to read and appreciate what I write, I must tell it in an original, personal, and, if possible memorable way.

Lh: What’s next for Barbara Musso?

Keep pursuing the best balance between my passions, my personal and professional life with dedication and love, of course.

Learn more about Barbara Musso and Moosso at moossopr.com.


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