Cupidity was born from the observation that the Cornetto audience (teens worldwide) don't watch a lot of TV anymore but do spend vast amounts of their time watching content online. The campaign is global in reach and therefore the development of branded entertainment varies widely. There are certain areas where the appetite for content, especially content as a form of social capital, is extremely high, such as Turkey. The 16-25 year old audience in Turkey is highly active on social networks and very open to the branded experience. We have balanced this with markets such as the UK, where there is also a huge appetite for content (especially video-based) but the audience is much less accepting of the branded experience and want narrative authenticity and emotional engagement above all else. This campaign is presented by Cornetto but brings complete storytelling authenticity and showcases love through a teen perspective, making it a powerful yet still branded experience.

The Cornetto brand has always been associated with love, but we needed a new way to engage with teens in a new world – if they’re not watching TV, it doesn’t matter how much money we spend on TV, we know we can’t reach them. So we created Cupidity, an authentic anthology of teen love stories. Not the Hollywood version but the real highs and lows, nerves and euphoria of being a teenager navigating your way through the minefield of falling in love.

Last year we brought 4 love stories to life, along with a number of branded music videos and other content created from the footage. In 2014 we’ve made seven love stories, cementing Cornetto’s role in the world of short film and content for teens. The anthology is based on authentic, local teen insights and we have crowd-sourced the scripts from young directors all over the world. We commissioned our favourites in partnerships with certain lead markets (Turkey, Mexico, Russia, Italy etc). The filmmakers are given total creative freedom to shoot the short film they believe in but the narrative must reflect the ‘Enjoy the Ride, Love the Ending’ proposition of Cornetto and feature a Cupid as a catalyst who helps the teens overcome their barriers and dive in to love. We helped source a fantastic soundtrack of music from up-and-coming as well as popular artists and also brought locally relevant celebrities to the project.

The whole program is surrounded by social content and amplified by teen influencers in market. The perfect way to engage with an audience who love content but don’t necessarily love brands in their space…

A mixture of retargeting from last year's campaign and targeted online media buys. Footage from the films was used to create exclusive music videos for original compositions by known artists (Yalin in Turkey and T.A.T.U in Russia) and for an exclusive remix of the new Empire of the Sun track, ‘Celebrate’. These are used by markets to drive awareness of the stories. Celebrity/influencer amplification also fuels awareness – e.g Robbie Williams tweeting and sharing one of the films. Celebrity icons (Lily Allen, José María de Tavira, t.A.T.u and Yalin) also starred in the films, bringing with them their own reach.

This year's films already look set to eclipse the success of last year's, with over 15 million views achieved by day 17 and full media support still to come.

Last year's films have been watched over 50 million times with a 45% view through rate (which YouTube uses as an example of how perfectly matching the type of content to the audience and their appetite for authenticity in an always on world can achieve unprecedented levels of brand engagement). One of the music videos was the most shared branded music video of 2013 and is the 13th most shared piece of branded content ever. The media investment was less than €500m, meaning huge ROI for the engagement. Anecdotally, commenting on YouTube indicated a media savvy audience who appreciate that this is a branded experience and love it because rather than in spite of that. They appreciate that Cornetto has put storytelling and connecting with them first and their brand second. Comments such as ‘this has made me consider whether to ever skip a YouTube advert again’ show that teens are switched on but happy to have a brand in their space as long as it’s done with authenticity and transparency.