Luxury ice-cream brand Antonio Federici is gearing up for warmer weather with new listings, NPD, a £2m media investment and a spoof election-themed marketing campaign.
Since its launch a year ago, the Antonio Federici range has only been available in Sainsbury's but will roll out across Waitrose stores nationwide and Ocado from this week.
The London-based company also launched a new espresso flavour exclusively into Sainsbury's this week, taking the range to four variants.
As part of a £2m marketing spend for 2010, Federici is capitalising on election fever with a series of spoof online ads and outdoor publicity stunts that feature Italy's controversial Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi as head of its fictional Gelato Party.
In the run-up to 6 May, Federici aims to raise its consumer profile and attract press coverage by sending a Berlusconi-lookalike and bikini-clad 'candidates' to "hijack" election meetings and media gatherings with the campaign slogan 'Change Your Ice Cream, Join The Gelato Party'.
"Politics is like ordinary ice cream. Dull and unexciting. We want to inject the colour and fun of Italian politics and get people to understand that a vote for change is a vote for gelato," said a spokesman. "Super-premium ice cream has been de-valued and undermined by competitor brands such as Ben & Jerry's and the sheer number of bogofs and discounts they feature," he added.
A sampling campaign where opera singers dish out the ice cream across supermarkets nationwide also kicked off this week.
Since its launch a year ago, the Antonio Federici range has only been available in Sainsbury's but will roll out across Waitrose stores nationwide and Ocado from this week.
The London-based company also launched a new espresso flavour exclusively into Sainsbury's this week, taking the range to four variants.
As part of a £2m marketing spend for 2010, Federici is capitalising on election fever with a series of spoof online ads and outdoor publicity stunts that feature Italy's controversial Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi as head of its fictional Gelato Party.
In the run-up to 6 May, Federici aims to raise its consumer profile and attract press coverage by sending a Berlusconi-lookalike and bikini-clad 'candidates' to "hijack" election meetings and media gatherings with the campaign slogan 'Change Your Ice Cream, Join The Gelato Party'.
"Politics is like ordinary ice cream. Dull and unexciting. We want to inject the colour and fun of Italian politics and get people to understand that a vote for change is a vote for gelato," said a spokesman. "Super-premium ice cream has been de-valued and undermined by competitor brands such as Ben & Jerry's and the sheer number of bogofs and discounts they feature," he added.
A sampling campaign where opera singers dish out the ice cream across supermarkets nationwide also kicked off this week.
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