Title	ESINO LARIO ON SALE
Brand	EOLO
Product/Service	EOLO MISSIONE COMUNE
Category	F02. Challenger Brand
Entrant	DUDE Milan, ITALY
Idea Creation	DUDE Milan, ITALY
PR	COMMUNITY Milan, ITALY
Production	DUDE Milan, ITALY
Additional Company	H48 Milan, ITALY

Name	Company	Position
Livio Basoli	DUDE	Chief Creative Officer & Partner
Lorenzo Picchiotti	DUDE	Chief Creative Officer & Partner
Andrea Galanti	DUDE	Copywriter
Nicolò Andrea Ales	DUDE	Art Director
Elena Panza	DUDE	Account Director
Giorgia Marchelli	DUDE	Account Executive
Mirko Mantellato	DUDE	Digital Executive
Andrea Italia	DUDE	Producer
Cristina Fichera	DUDE	Event Manager
Martina Augelli	DUDE	Event Manager Assistant
Seba Morando	DUDE	Post Production Supervisor
Marco De Benedictis	DUDE	Motion Designer
Giulia Cosma	DUDE	Film Editor
H48 -	H48	Digital Agency
H48 -	H48	Digital Agency
Community -	Community	PR Agency

Why is this work relevant for PR?

The "sale" of Esino Lario became a national conversation that activated thousands of Italian, including influencers, journalists, politicians and opinion makers, not only to join the conversation about the issue of depopulation and ultimately discovering EOLO's mission of bringing fast connection to small cities all over Italy, but actively proposing and voting digital development projects for hundreds of small cities all over Italy on the Brand's digital platform "Missione Comune". The news was covered by newspapers, TV News programs, Daily Shows and Talk Shows, news websites, satirical programs, influencers and, of course, discussed by the Italians.

Background

In Italy, 9.937.212 people live in cities with less than 5.000 inhabitants that, year after year, are dramatically depopulating. This is why EOLO, an Italian internet provider committed to connect small cities all over the country, decided to donate 3 million euros and launch Missione Comune, a digital platform aimed to enhance and support Italy’s smallest cities. We were tasked to bring as much attention to this initiative, reinforcing the brand's commitment towards small and often forgotten regions of Italy, by generating earned media with a very limited media budget.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

In partnership with the small city of Esino Lario (747 inhabitants) and his mayor, we decided to stage the first sale of an entire town. We launched our PR stunt with a print AD on major Italian newspapers and a video message from the mayor to the Italian institutions and media, communicating the upcoming sale and pointing to increasing depopulation and lack of fundings as the reason. We created massive price tags across the town and even engaged influencers to amplify our teaser campaign. The campaign was covered in all mainstream media outlets, digital, paper and TV. As soon as the conversation had reached the four corners of the country, it was time to take credit for it using the spotlight to introduce our "Missione Comune" platform, through another round of print campaigns and a Press Conference, even invited journalists by sending a "sample" of the city of Esino itself.

Describe the PR strategy (30% of vote)

EOLO's core audience all live in small cities and most of the companys' business comes from people who might not need EOLO's services anymore in a few years if they all move to a big city. They tend to feel abandoned by institutions and, ultimately, they do too leave for good. We set out to find a story that we knew our audience would react to and then we divided it in two phases. We started from creating a spotlight that we could later step in. First we created an unbranded PR story to set up the rest of the campaign in the most provocative way to make everyone realize just how serious and close the issue of depopulation is. Then we leveraged on the earned media that we had conquered, and used it to present Missione Comune and the Brand to the whole Italy.

Describe the PR execution (20% of vote)

A simple video message from an unknown mayor in a forgotten city in Italy started a national debate and conversation. The website, the print campaign and all other touchpoints in the teaser phase were crucial in building buzz and awareness about our stunt. The invitations sent to the journalist to take part at the press conference was pivotal in connecting our reveal phase with the teaser.

List the results (30% of vote)

The campaign was a massive PR success and the news of Esino Lario on sale was covered by all mainstream media outlets in Italy, wether digital, paper or TV. As a result: - The Missione Comune Platform registered more than 1.3 million votes since its' launch. - 65 Million total impressions - Esino Lario trending topic on Twitter. - Google Searches for Esino Lario went up 1567% during the campaign. - Propaganda Live, one of Italy's most important comedy shows did an entire segment registered in Esino Lario on the night before the sale was supposed to happen. Only to realize that the sale was not going to happen.

Please tell us about the challenger brand and how your campaign challenged / was different from your competitors

EOLO is a small and local internet provider in a market dominated by massive players like Vodafone, Fastweb and Telecom Italia. Its reduced communication budget and peculiar positioning made it necessary to rethink our communication efforts focusing on earned media and a purpose driven communication platform. Where most competitors are simply conducting a battle of pricing between them, using big budgets to hire testimonials, EOLO has decided to commit to a cause and show that a little provocation, with a smart use of media, could actually generate more attention in a way than any of the other players on the market could never do.