Istat research in 2019 showed high levels of water wastage in Italy, with Italians among the largest culprits in Europe. Moreover, almost 80% of Italians pre-rinse dishes before dishwasher use.

That’s why Finish, thanks to the performance of its products that avoid pre-rinsing and save up to 38 litres with each wash, has been fighting against domestic water wastage for years with the "Acqua nelle nostre mani" project.

Water conservation has become increasingly relevant in the last few years due to climate change, causing progressive droughts all over the Italian peninsula. What's incredible is that Italians did not know about this desertification phenomenon in the slightest.

Thus, the aim of this project is to create awareness of water scarcity and drought effects in Italy and to encourage a more conscious and responsible use of water.

Finish – which has been fighting against water wastage for years with the project “Acqua nelle nostre mani” - created the first “Travel Guide to the Deserts of Italy” to urge Italians to face a frightening reality head-on: the progressive desertification of Italy.

Not just a thought-provoking gimmick, but an actual detailed guide to the 13 Italian deserts, including landmarks and routes, along with the stories of local people who have lived there since before their desertification.

Italy is the worst country in Europe for water waste (220 litres per person per day VS 165 liters of the European average) but nobody is aware of this. Moreover, 2022 has been one of the worst years of drought in Italy, which suffers clearly from severe water scarsity.

This is our ground-breaking awareness campaign revealing that there are indeed desertified areas in Italy.

Since no one was even aware of the existence of desert areas in Italy, we approached the widest possible target.

The target audience identified was consolidated during the last 4 years of the broader "Acqua nelle nostre mani" purpose project: all the Italian public - youth, adults, students, consumers and KOLs - without distinction, from North to South, regardless of age or gender.

We created the Travel Guide to the Deserts of Italy in collaboration with Italy’s most controversial and provocative photographer of the last 30 years: Gabriele Galimberti. With him, we traveled across Italy from North to South to provide a harsh picture of national desertification, including precious everyday tips on water saving.

The guidebook was also printed and made available as a PDF version on the web. It was also featured in an exhibition where we displayed photos of deserts taken by Gabriele Galimberti and collected in the guidebook. We then chronicled the journey on the Instagram page @acquanellenostremani.

Ipsos “Brand Health Track” research for Finish showed an increase in Spontaneous Consideration (from 36% in Jun-Jul 2022 to 40% in Sept-Nov 2022) and in Brand Used Most Often (from 30% in Jun-Jul 2022 to 31% of Sept-Nov 2022) KPIs.

Achieving a strong impact on Brand Image attributes:

-Finish “Give excellent results without needing to pre-rinse” increases from 55% in Jun-Jul 2022 to 64% in Sept-Nov 2022.

-Finish “Help me to save water” stays at 58% (strong distance from Pril - 42%)

Over 50 million people were reached via over 280 articles and 9 tv news outlets as part of the campaign.

Ipsos research in January 2023 shows that 77% of Italians try to reduce water waste (74% in 2022), 41% of Italians are aware of increasing water scarcity (25% in 2022) and that desertification in Italy is perceived as a serious problem by 66% of Italians (62% in 2022).