MAECI/ITA – Be IT

The Objective

The Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI/ITA) aimed to reshape the country's image throughout the world by launching the world's first nation-branding campaign.

The brand's main priority was to boost the Italian export sector and expand their pool of potential international customers. It also wanted to increase the penetration of Italian SMEs in global markets. To reach these consumers and markets, the brand turned to TikTok for a global digital-first campaign.

The Solution

MAECI/ITA ran an initial “What is IT” teaser campaign set up on TikTok Ads Manager using In-Feed Ads with a traffic objective, to spark their audience’s interest. 

Following the teaser stage of the campaign, the next phase aimed to challenge misconceptions and stereotypes about Italy. Therefore, the "Made in Italy" brand created six themed videos highlighting Italian values: passion, creativity, heritage, style, innovation, and diversity.

The final phase of the campaign built on this work by launching 'TasteIT', 'LoveIT', 'ChooseIT' and 9 other CTAs that highlighted specific sectors of the Italian production chain, including automotive, food, design, aerospace and many other industries with their related categories.

The Results

The campaign received more than 1.5 billion impressions and 30 million clicks, delivering impressive results. Further, the ads that ran on TikTok had a higher click-through rate (1.56%) than the ads that ran on other platforms (1.17%), with some ads exceeding the 5.65% benchmark. The cost-per-mille for the TikTok ads was also 42% less than those of other social platforms.