How we introduced a new discerning audience to Campari and helped establish Aperitivo culture

Between 2015 and 2018 we had helped Campari Groupe introduce the UK to an authentic taste of Italian Aperitivo culture with our Aperol Spritz on-trade campaign - turning pubs and bars orange nationwide.

Following this, we worked with Campari to paint the town red in order re-establish itself as the godfather of iconic serves and a classic Aperitivo serve. Ensuring that Campari was the choice of liqueur for Negroni drinkers, whilst also attracting new drinkers to the product.

Our Challenge

With its drinkers largely belonging to an older demographic, Campari wanted to accelerate recruitment of younger drinkers and maintain a recent renaissance that the brand had been enjoying courtesy of the Negroni’s rediscovered popularity . 

Our brief was to build a year long experiential and sampling strategy - and subsequent activation - that would target a very specific demographic: 27-45 year old early adopters with a keen interest or profession in the creative industry. In doing so we could build a credible campaign based on Campari’s long-standing association with the arts.

Since its creation, Campari had always positioned itself as more than just a drink. It was a symbol of modern Italian style and artistic innovation. For more than a century it has enjoyed strong ties to the arts through design, fashion, photography and film and it was this audience Campari wanted to engage in the UK.

Our insight

Our discerning target audience never follow the crowd and are always on the lookout for new ways to expand their palette through drinks with authenticity and substance. Something Campari has in abundance.

However we also knew that this audience wasn’t going to come to us – so we would need to associate ourselves with their passions and become relevant through our presence at events they were already attending. 

In addition to driving awareness and engagement with our target audience, there was also a potential product barrier to overcome.

Compared to Aperol, Campari has a much more bitter and mature taste profile that can take 2-3 serves before it is appreciated. To convert new drinkers, our activation would need to allow for more than one serve (within guidelines) and encourage future purchase.

Our Strategy and Approach

We profiled our audience by interviewing key subsets within the creative industry including gallery curators, architects, photographers and design studios. This illustrated spheres of influence, identifying which early creatives could influence further adoption and helped us build a picture of where they went to immerse themselves creatively or fuel their craft. We also took the opportunity to get their perspective on the brand and its serves, allowing them to sample in the process.

For our interviewees, Campari was synonymous with the Negroni. It was recognised as an iconic serve, and would be a welcome drink to sample but perhaps more suited to later in an evening. We needed a second serve more appropriate to the Aperitivo moment, but one that would not cannibalise the ongoing Aperol movement.

At this time, gin was at the height of its own resurgence, with bars and pubs offering multiple G&T serves with varying mixers and garnishes. It presented consumers the perfect opportunity to try Campari within a familiar serve and one that may not be overpowered by the more bitter taste profile.

Our Solution

With our audience findings, we built a tiered and targeted experiential plan for the yearlong activation. Using a 70/20/10 model to reach specific subsets within the audience we created a plan to reach bullseye target audience and sample volumes.

The plan encompassed very intimate and specialist galleries (10%), larger creative and VIP evenings (20%) and industry events and exhibitions (70%). All locations were focussed on and frequented by the creative, art and architecture industries.

This structure of activity, also allowed us to create a tiered attendee approach, with an influencer focus out our smallest event, through to creative industry professionals, and then a more mass creative audience at our largest events. With our influencer activity further amplifying the brand online organically.

To drive awareness and stand out at these locations, we designed and built two sculpted bars that played on Campari's long standing association with the arts. Taking inspiration from Leonetto Cappiello's iconic 1921 poster, Spiritello, we created a bar that brought to life the famous, spiralled orange peel and would be attractive to our audiences discerning eye.

The fascia of the bar was made from gilt wood blocks, set at different heights to resemble the texture of orange peel. Illuminated brand logos emblazoned the front of the bar whilst a bottle display was built into the central support pillar. 

At each venue consumers were served a free Negroni or a Campari G&T, both served as a perfect serve, in their respective glassware, over ice, complete with a garnish. Following allocated free serves, we operated a paid for bar in various locations. And to further close the loop, our collateral featured an offer to drive to the Off Trade.

In order to continue the conversation with the consumers, the bar media featured a QR to access a short survey to collect data on first time vs repeat drinkers. Along with their event location, in order for us to assess where we could reach the most new drinkers in future events.

The Results

In 2019, we created a plan that delivered on 23 events and 38 live nights, educating consumers on the perfect serve of the two drinks, showcasing Campari's creative credentials and delivering on 25,000 unique serves. 

Strong social media coverage was achieved across the influencer focused activity, with one event achieving content from 85% of influencer attendees.

The campaign successfully engaged a new, younger and artistic audience beginning Campari’s reclamation of its status as the symbol of Italian style across the UK.

Whilst the Campari G&T served well, we learnt that consumers who had been drinking Aperol Spritz for a number of years were ready to move on to the Campari Spritz and this became the secondary serve as activity went on.

We found film and screen industry professionals greatly overlapped our arts focussed target audience and this allowed us to broaden our targeting approach as the activity continued.  

The first year’s success meant that the activity was run for a subsequent two years, albeit activating within COVID restrictions where & when possible and safe to do so.