De'Longhi wants to establish itself outside the fully automatic coffee machine segment in the wider world of coffee. We launched a global media strategy in over 40 countries, with localized implementations for each country. The roll-out was simultaneous across markets, with a wide reach and country-specific special productions - to democratize ‘Perfetto’ coffee.

Individualization and country-specificities were the pillars of the campaign architecture. We leveraged on a global dashboard to control and measure vast amounts of data and overall complexity. By listening, analyzing, and adapting, De'Longhi was able to successfully target different local audiences, staging targeted special implementations and placements.

De’Longhi is a true global player and a world-leading brand in the field of fully automatic coffee machines. In addition to further growth in market share, De’Longhi wants to position itself in the wider world of coffee as a true expert in enjoyment and quality – beyond the classic coffee machine segment.

The established industry term ‘rich coffee culture’ is both key and challenge: regular coffee lovers hold great potential for brand growth across almost all countries. However, the way coffee is prepared and enjoyed varies greatly from market to market.

De’Longhi must therefore overcome the limits of communication that previously existed in the market and among the competition.

The focus is no longer on product communication, but rather on a communication strategy that creates emotional engagement for the brand and highlights its expertise for qualitative and exceptional coffee enjoyment. The communication strategy must transcend the established categories of coffee machines and fully automated coffee machines in the various countries.

‘The world of coffee’

Consequently, the focus is no longer on the product itself, but on THE positioning.

This is combined with an approachable storytelling that has a positive impact and high acceptance in more than 40 countries with different coffee cultures worldwide, thus contributing to the key brand and growth objectives.

The communication requires a strong ‘vehicle’ that is already globally known and accepted. De’Longhi found it in Brad Pitt.

However, the use of ambassadors in storytelling must go hand in hand with a global media strategy.

This way we can meet the requirement of telling an emotional brand story, whilst building awareness and visibility among coffee connoisseurs and enthusiasts.

Reach is the guiding principle here! The core of the media strategy was therefore a premium moving-image approach across all markets involved.

The communication however still had to take into account the globally heterogeneous media landscape and local specificities. While the key strategic pillars varied minimally in the more than 40 countries involved, markets were still able to tailor the media execution to local needs. An internationally connected and yet individual roll-out of the new ambassador campaign. Or in short: Democratize PERFETTO.

Focusing on the understanding of local coffee culture maturity and consumers, the media execution followed the guiding principle of both HARMONIZING as much as possible and CUSTOMIZING as much as needed.

Harmonize: All-integrated video planning

The requirement of the moving-image strategy was adapted in each country - in line with the target groups of classic TV, digital video and predominantly digital OOH.

In addition to the ‘classic’ placements in the individual channels, attention-grabbing special TV-formats and implementations were used and contextually empowered.

A central global dashboard ensured the skillful positioning of the brand messages, taking the respective national market conditions into account. Adjustments were made almost in real time.

Customize: Expand into local coffee moments

In order to increase the reach and emotional visibility of the campaign, the execution also included numerous fully fledged special stagings, such as a branded newspaper kiosk in Milan and pop-up store in Warsaw.

The global ‘Perfetto’ campaign Thanks to our global central coordination and dashboard-based targeting, we managed to generate a perfect international campaign launch for De’Longhi in over 40 countries.

With a ‘perfetto’ outcome.

The international results are outstanding and show an uplift in all metrics:

Website traffic +44%

New users +49%

Online sales +46%

Organic search +45%

Google trends +70%

Brand consideration +10%

Brand perception +19%

Product familiarity in the target group +28%

In addition to the more than impressive results the campaign generated a significant organic reach thanks to a multitude of PR messages as well as social postings.

Many newly won coffee enthusiasts now enjoy their favorite coffee specialty on the couch, while working from home, or relaxing on their own balcony.

The design of the audience-data driven media execution was based on locally extracted insights and centrally automated data analysis.

Local data was used to identify markets coffee culture maturity: how and where (at home or out of home) do they consume coffee, what is the significance of espresso-based coffee making and the level of automated coffee making. We clustered them into 1st – 2nd – 3rd wave markets according to their maturity.

Central data like Google Trends and Analytics was used to understand correlations of consumer search and need for coffee, for example what are relevant contextual fits.

Transferring the data into media execution increased the level of optimization of the reach video planning. Additionally, we were able to identify empowering media execution to address further consumer coffee moments in selected markets. This approach led to an increase of product familiarity of category and the brand perception at the core.

Comparing two different markets – Italy and Australia – in terms of coffee culture and maturity towards automated coffee making demonstrates the impact of the campaign.

With Italy being a “2nd wave coffee market” (= markets where espresso making has been invented), product familiarity of automated machines is low. In comparison to Australia, a “3rd wave market” (=markets where individual coffee making and specialty coffee has been established), the relevant set of brands in the automated category is limited.

The campaign reached out in both markets through Integrated Video campaigns and addressed consumers in significant coffee moments: Italy by branded newspaper stands (moment for Italian consumers to get their 1€ espresso), Australia with branded coffee-bags and brand partnerships for at home coffee moments.

As a result, in Italy, the product familiarity increased by more than 15% during the campaign. In Australia, De’Longhi boosted its ranking position by more than 20%.