#MISSIONEMONNALISA

Title#MISSIONEMONNALISA
BrandCITROËN ITALIA
Product/ServiceRANGE CITROËN C3
Category B09. Celebrity Endorsement
Entrant HAVAS MILAN, ITALY
Idea Creation HAVAS MEDIA Milan, ITALY
Credits
Name Company Position
Giovanni Porro Havas Milan Executive Creative Director
Selmi Bali Barissever Havas Milan Creative Director
Lorenzo Crespi Havas Milan Creative Director
Michele Sartori Havas Milan Art Director
Anita Rocca Havas Milan Copywriter
Micol Piovosi Havas Milan Junior Copywriter
Sara Poltronieri Havas Milan Tv Producer
Mirco Pugliese Havas Milan Junior Tv Producer
Manfredi Calabrò Havas Milan Client Services Director
Giancarlo Pagani Havas Milan Account
Andrea Cesana Havas Milan Account
Lucia Ferrazzano Havas Milan Social Media Manager
Sara Lattuada Havas Milan Social Media Manager
Production Company Basement Production
Federico Cambria Freelance Director
Francesco Crespi Basement Executive Producer
Alessandro Dominici Freelance Director of Photography

The Campaign

We invented a C3 ‘Mona Lisa’ special edition and used it as a starting point to create a story: the return of the Mona Lisa to Italy. We then chose the most suitable endorser for such a mission: Vittorio Sgarbi. A renowned Italian art critic also known as a major, playboy, irreverent TV star and SNS phenomenon. Our endorser posted regular updates on his journey on the social networks until the final disclosure: the retrieved ‘Mona Lisa’ was in fact the C3 ‘Mona Lisa’ special edition.

Execution

We realized 4 videos, each telling a stage of the endorser’s trip: from the mission statement to the actual journey, until the final goal. The videos were posted on the endorsers’ social network profiles over a 6 days time span and immediately caused a remarkable buzz on both social networks (with thousands reposts and comments) and national media. This is how the return of the Mona Lisa to Italy became, in less than a week, one of the most popular news on a national scale.

During the campaign the hashtag #missionemonnalisa was one of the most clicked over social networks in Italy and it was even used by other brands for their SNS communication. The news spread spontaneously on Facebook, with over 1.1 million interactions by its users, reaching 23 millions people in total. It landed on the main national newspapers, TV news and radios. The results work out at 1.2 million € of free media space. Lastly, the public’s contacts with the brand have increased by 500%.

The Situation

Our creative idea was to provide a striking news which, being launched by a suitable endorser, would automatically catch the media’s attention and therefore spread all over the nation.

The Strategy

The challenge was to draw the public’s attention back to a car intended for a wide range of consumers. In order to reach such goal we created a story, that of the return of the Mona Lisa to Italy, which would spread everywhere starting from the social networks, in order to reach every section of the population. This was made possible thanks to a controversial, but very popular endorser. It was only when the story had reached its attention and engagement peak that the brand intervened, taking such attention over.