Communication takes flight
Innovative communication has always been a priority for Mandarina Duck.
Throughout the past, there have been many examples of this innate attitude and the Eighties were host to many original happenings!
The relationship between Mandarina Duck and Giorgione can only be described as either an erupting volcano or an overflowing river, not just regarding ideas but also facts, events and news.
Back then, one of the most outstanding activities was the joint marketing campaign with Pan American World Airways, better known as Pan Am.
In 1981, Mandarina had an opportunity to meet with Pan Am’s upper management thanks to the Italian journalist Franca Sozzani, who had direct contact the airline’s European PR officer.
The first meeting was in the Pan Am building in New York. Paolo Trento was struck by the look of the executive that they were dealing with. He was very self-assuredly wearing a business suit with a cowboy hat and belt.
The marketing idea was to combine the two company logos for an advertising campaign in Italy. The aim was to promote the value of traveling, which was and still is the core of Mandarina’s DNA. The Pan Am executive liked the joint-venture proposal and he put Mandarina in contact with Pan Am’s Communication Manager in Italy to feel out the Italian market.
Mandarina’s logo was famous in Rome thanks to the downtown store of Ceresa, where we had already mounted a beautiful display, as I already mentioned in one of my previous posts. Paolo and Giorgio went back to New York a second time and concluded the deal.
They got a lot of cheap airline tickets and decorated Pan Am offices with posters bearing the slogan: “Mandarina Duck flies with Pan Am”. They also set up a display in an American airport for the first time ever. The innovative display was in the Pan Am terminal in New York. It was a row of alternating male and female figures in neon lights lined up in a 6-meter long, transparent Plexiglas box.
When the neon lights were off, the focus was on the bags and the suitcases. When the lights were on, the shapes of the people were highlighted.
There was also a very amusing PR stunt involving hot-air balloons.
To promote the opening of new Mandarina franchises (at that time, only Benetton had franchised stores in Italy), Paolo and Giorgio wanted to organize a surprise event for the press. As well, that sport had become their latest passion! So, they bought a balloon from Cameron Balloons and put the Mandarina logo on it. The journalists were taken up in the balloon and flown over the most important squares in Italy, where the new stores had just opened. They departed from Piazza Castello in Milan, then went to Santa Croce in Florence and finally landed in Piazza del Popolo in Rome.
The event was a huge success and the journalists published a lot of articles on our products.
Technorati Tags: Pan Am, New York, Franca Sozzani, balloons
17 August 2008 at 05:48
Thank-you for the informative article.