Agency: Athena – Canada.
Client: Campari.
Context: A global project aimed to support Campari’s brand portfolio by leveraging its shared Italian provenance and heritage, creating a coherent and distinctive expression of “Italianicity” across brands.
Tension: Italian identity is a powerful and widely recognised cultural asset, yet often expressed through stereotypical and overused representations.
For a global brand portfolio, the challenge was to activate this heritage without falling into clichés, while ensuring consistency across different brands and markets.
Insight: The analysis revealed that “Italianicity” is not a fixed set of symbols, but a system of cultural codes that can be interpreted and expressed in multiple ways.
These codes shape how authenticity is perceived, influencing the emotional and symbolic value associated with the brands.
Implication: This opened the possibility to define a coherent cultural framework, identifying key themes, signs and symbols capable of expressing Italian identity in a contemporary and distinctive way.
By structuring these codes, the brand portfolio could deliver a more unified and authentic experience across touchpoints.
Impact: The project led to the identification of a set of cultural themes, codes and visual elements to guide the expression of Italianicity, providing a practical framework to activate the territory in a consistent and non-clichéd way.