In March 2020, following the COVID-19 outbreak, a lockdown is proclaimed in Italy. The municipal administration of my town, Barzago (LC), decides that something must be done not only on an operational level, but also on a psychological level. I am asked to collaborate.
A Pro Loco association founded at the worst time for a Pro Loco
In March 2020 in Italy the lockdown was proclaimed throughout the whole country. This meant that even the town where I live, Barzago (LC), began to live the nightmare of social distancing and limitation of travel.
The municipal administration had this idea: since you can't get out of Barzago, let's make the citizens appreciate Barzago more.
So the purpose was to found a pro loco that tells about the hidden beauties of our town so that the hard months of lockdown could pass more pleasantly.
In a few days a whatsapp chat, a name (BZG) and a logo (the one you see above) were born.
At this point the challenge was: how to let the inhabitants of Barzago (Barzaghesi) know about the initiative? That's where I came into play.
My challenge: to let as many Barzaghesi as possible know about the project.
The name, BZG, kind of calls the airports back. MXP is Milan Malpensa, LHR is London Heathrow and so on.
The idea behind the name was: just as a large airport rises close to an important destination, so BZG is "the airport" through which we want to get visitors to an interesting destination like Barzago.
So, we asked ourselves, why not play on the theme of the airport also for communication?
As a marketer, however, my point of view was: let's try to understand what makes people feel good, what they want and what they are doing at the moment. Let's use this information for a successful communication.
Some insight on lockdown
What we knew was that people in the first phase were dedicated to:
- walking with pets
- cooking
- household keeping
- playing with children
- movies and tv series
On a more intimate, psychological level, through conversations and phone calls we understood that what was most problematic about lockdown was the sense of seclusion, particularly acute in those who have smaller and crowded houses.
The other big problem was the lack of space for oneself. It's nice to spend more time with the kids, but when can you be alone for a while?
It was therefore inevitable, getting into the heads of the inhabitants of Barzago, to think that they would give god-knows-what to be in another place, maybe on holiday, possibly covid-free.
At this point we had all the insights to proceed.
The communication: where do you come from?
First of all we distributed a special gift in all the houses: a plane ticket with departure from a big city in the world and arrival in ... Barzago.
In order to activate it they needed to scan a QR code. This led to a mysterious website with a countdown set for 6 pm on May 4th.
That day the QR code would open the access to the facebook page of the BZG association. Here the Barzaghesi would find this video:
As you can see in the video we tried to respond to the desire for escape and open and solitary spaces that we knew were common desires of people at that time.
The communication was successful: the ticket in the mailbox generated a certain word of mouth that we were able to monitor on Facebook. Moreover, less than a week after the launch of BZG, more than 10% of the inhabitants of Barzago had seen the video and subscribed to the facebook page. Today, after several months, this figure is close to 20%.
Organizing events during lockdown
What else is missing during lockdown? Easy answer: see your friends and go to the stores you are fond of!
Thus, the events organized had one watchword: people in the center.
So we organized video interviews with interesting people living in Barzago: shopkeepers, people who have interesting travel stories, photographers.
Our aim was to make everyday life continue in virtual mode.
The chosen tool was Facebook Live Broadcast. Easy, effective, accessible to everyone.
Below you can see an advertising post
...and a screenshot of a live broadcast
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