Following our main concept, we built a campaign entirely made up of stories: the Campari Red Diaries. The first story we wrote narrates the special night in which a legendary bartender created his masterpiece cocktail: “Killer in Red”.

We wrote a noir story of seduction, mystery and glamour that would represent the Campari heritage and bring back to the core of their communication the role of bartenders. We revolutionised the classic Campari calendar around “Killer In Red”, making international bartenders, their cocktails and twelve new stories the protagonists of a global holistic brand experience.

The Red Diaries PR campaign was launched in two phases: late October, immediately after producing the shortfilm, and in January, given its “calendar” campaign format.

In October, the PR activities were carried out around a global social-driven content strategy, focused on the BTS of the shortfilm, in order to involve audiences because of Paolo Sorrentino and Clive Owen’s reputation.

in January, the official shortfilm and the bartender’s videostrategy was launched, exploiting different media and approaches.

Firstly, we captured audience interest with a sponsored social-driven content strategy, then we created an online holistic ecosystem made up of the shortfilm teaser, the official trailer, the movie itself and the bartender videostrategy. The audience was captivated by our sponsored content and therefore induced to see the rest of the Red Diaries campaign. In order to maximize engagement, we organized exclusive events around the world for VIP guests, influencers and journalists.

Killer In Red was an unprecedented global success in Campari’s communication history: it reached more than 7 million views in two days and 20 million views within the first two weeks. Sorrentino’s touch gave viewers a brand experience which is totally different from any other classic advertisement, as demonstrated by the reception given to the short movie and by the exceptional retention and view duration rates.

Another interesting and unpredicted barometer of success was that people started asking for the new cocktail all over the world, and therefore many bartenders decided to add it to their official drinks list.

The campaign has generated over 170 million media impressions all around the world, and over 1200 articles spontaneously appeared in newspapers, TV news, blogs and social media. At the time of writing, our estimated earned media value is of more than 7 million euro.