MARTINI Airs Winning Ad to Remind the World What the Brand is All About

MARTINI’s current European campaign builds on last year’s 160th birthday celebrations. Where that campaign emphasized their impressive heritage and origins – “160 years of Italian taste” – this one signals an evolution into a bold new territory of Italian magnetic style. “Atrevete A Ser” – “Dare To Be” – runs the tagline, with the campaign positioning the brand as stylish, modern, playful, and a little bit mysterious.

Set to a swinging soundtrack by a cult Italian rapper, the ad follows a young woman in MARTINI-brand colours (red, black and white) who gets off a similarly branded streetcar and walks through an Italian city in search of an aperitif. As she goes, other chic young people spot her and follow, converging on the square where she’s sitting, drinking a MARTINI Fiero and tonic. When we see each of them, they’re wearing clothes which match their background just like she was, from the pattern on a sofa to the leaves on a hedge.

MARTINI Dare to Be invites consumers to step out of the ‘everyday you’ and step into ‘your most playful and stylish self. We don’t see what happens when the people come together, but we do see how intrigued they are, and the ad lets us share that anticipation, with the soundtrack adding momentum to the visuals. The Italian city adds a powerful sense of place.

It’s not a typical drinks ad, but few successful drinks ads are. The spirits and aperitifs sector is a category where conventions can quickly change and where new approaches can really make an impact. The report explores various category conventions, old and new, reveals the most useful, and looks at a dozen recent ads which have shown great, highly effective, creative work.

One of the big themes is the idea of conviviality, a trope which shows up again and again in ads, with people dancing, partying or hanging out while they drink. MARTINI gives us an unusual spin on the idea – we’re seeing the moments before people coming together, and the ad leaving what might happen next tantalisingly open. It’s a bold and modern twist on the idea of Aperitivo.

It’s an approach which sparks delight in viewers, scoring 5-Stars in Test Your Ad among a sample of Aperitivo drinkers (we tested the ad across several European markets; these results are from Spain). This is the target audience MARTINI are most interested in reaching, but the ad also gets a strong rating among the general Spanish population. So it’s an ad with an exceptional response among the target cohort but one which has plenty of potential to reach out to new fans. MARTINI’s campaign also includes a strong digital and Out Of Home component, using the same very distinctive, vibrant and stylish visuals.

MARTINI has served up an ad that celebrates modern Aperitivo – quirky, intriguing, but still upbeat and full of positive emotion. It works brilliantly with those in the market for the product, but also scores very well with a more general audience – the balance you need to get right as a brand. And unlike the uniquely styled cast, it’s an ad which certainly doesn’t blend in with its surroundings.