ENIT relaunches Italy’s image with brand ambassadors
The Italian Tourism Promotions Board ENIT, together with the country’s Ministry of Tourism, have recently unveiled a new image campaign aimed at boosting international arrivals to Italy. With a clear objective to rapidly reach numbers seen prior to the Covid crisis. Italy’s new slogan is “Discover the Italy you didn’t know”.
ENIT and Italy’s Ministry of Tourism are aiming to lure a wide international public to come back to Italy. The campaign has kicked off in early May in Milan with the Minister of Tourism Massimo Garavaglia, the President of the Lombardy Region, Attilio Fontana, as well as ENIT’s CEO and President, respectively Roberta Garibaldi and Giorgio Palmucci. Regional but also international events such as the recent Eurovision or the Giro d’Italia are strong partners to promote the country.
The tourism promotion campaign is targeting many countries around the world with the nomination of a range of brand ambassadors representing the excellence of Italy: from sports to art, from food to culture, with testimonials from sectors representing the iconography of Italy, portrayed by pictures of famous photographers.
The new initiative helps to spread the beauty of Italy, but also contributes to promoting a three-year project to support young companies, tourism and culture start-ups to which the ambassadors’ fees and image rights are donated.
ENIT’s new slogan, “Discover the Italy you didn’t know”
“This is an important moment for Italy. These actions aim to strengthen the visibility and positioning of Italian destinations in a global scenario that sees positive prospects for recovery,” highlighted ENIT’s CEO Roberta Garibaldi.
Showing Italy during the Eurovision contest in Turin as well as during the Giro d’Italia helped reach a wide audience. The Eurovision is the world’s second largest TV show in terms of viewers after the Olympics (180 million people). While the Giro d’Italia helps bringing a total audience of more than 758 million viewers worldwide during the 3,500 km cycling race.
The ‘Discover the Italy you didn’t know’ campaign is built around central themes, along a five-month journey. It includes Italian villages and landscapes, slow tourism (walking, food and wine, art and cultural heritage) and active tourism (biking, boating, Nordic walking and outdoor activities for summer and winter). The regions of Umbria (slow tourism), Emilia-Romagna (villages), Marche (active tourism) and Abruzzo (Tourism Digital Hub) coordinate marketing and promotion actions together.
“The ENIT marketing team has defined a truly integrated communication strategy in all target markets with the objective of creating value for both tourists and stakeholders, improving their knowledge not only about already well-established destinations, but also about lesser-known destinations,” explained Maria Elena Rossi, ENIT’s Global Marketing Director.
“We already see the results (…), with extremely promising numbers for the coming summer season”
This campaign is aimed at proximity markets such as DACH countries (Germany, Austria and Switzerland), the Benelux, France, the UK, but also the US and Scandinavian markets. Keywords of the campaign are sustainability, inclusion, diversity and innovation. “We already see the results of our work on the new campaign, with extremely promising numbers for the coming summer season. That makes us very hopeful,” added Rossi.
“It is fundamental for Italy to regain a sense of pride in its own value after difficult years. Taking stock of its grandeur with excellence to show the world, in order to restart this important pillar of our economy that is tourism,’ says ENIT councillor Sandro Pappalardo.
