Italians have been appreciating the brand Venchi for over 140 years, loving its story and its products decade after decade. When communicating the opening of the brand’s first Flagship location in New York though, the challenge was to realize how unfamiliar with Venchi and its heritage Americans are, both because of the little exposure that they had to it and also because of a culture difference in the research for exceptional handcrafted chocolate work distinguishing the Italian industry from its American competitors.

In doing so, the first thing we did was to identify key communication items that we could be using to convey the long history of Venchi back in Italy and yet the innovation and research it constantly puts into adapting traditional flavors to contemporary preferences. In addition to this, the visual aspect of the Flagship’s “Chocolate Waterfall” was very much highlighted when pitching the relevant media, knowing of its potential impact on the consumers/readers being the largest in all of North America.

By finding the perfect balance between traditional values and appealing visual elements, we conducted a communication campaign that resulted in a successful media exposure both on traditional media (newspapers and online publications) but also on national television broadcasting (leveraging on the visual appeal of chocolate and the Flagship’s chocolate waterfall). When introducing a new concept or brand to an unaware public, especially when the brand has such a venerable history behind it, it’s always fundamental to strike the right balance between understanding the brand fully but also understanding what it is that Americans will and will not like/be interested in.

Perfectly understanding both sides of the communication spectrum is key, along with associating an effective social media strategy to then enhance the resonance of the messages put out by the media in order to achieve the highest reach posible.