BACI – Buenos Aires Cine Italiano

An Italian festival overseas

First edition: 17 – 23 November 2011
Second edition: 5 – 10 December 2012

The aim of the event was to accredit Telecom’s Argentine branch with the government authorities as a high-quality and “system” player.

To reach the goal Casta Diva Events used a high-quality asset, the Italian cinema, as a means of attracting the public and making the Argentine authorities aware of Telecom’s importance, and at the same time achieve good media success with minimal invested resources.

Insights: affective and historical links between Italy and Argentina, few Italian films in distribution, the good quality of recent Italian film-making.
Solution: bring our movies, an “emotional” art, to a public hungry for all Italian things, present the client as a leader and create lasting relationships with the authorities. Put emphasis on the “regional characteristics” of the films shown and fascinate the Argentine descendants of the Italian immigrants from those regions. And lastly an acronym, BACI (“kisses”), that touches the heart.

Casta Diva Events managed the conception of the format, the film selection, the contacts with producers and distributors, actors and directors, VIP guests, created the website, organised the gala event, distributed programmes and informative/promotional materials in cultural centres, coordinated outdoor media, TV, radio and Web campaigns with social development on Twitter and Facebook, and PR that had resonance in the press and on TV (150+ articles).

Results:

3,400 spectators;
400 outdoor advertisements (value €100,000); TV, radio and Web campaign (value €250,000);
BACI site over 58,000 views and more than 9,300 unique visitors with an average visit longer than 5 minutes; over 7,500 followers on Facebook (+750% with respect to the first edition) and all extremely active for an average of 1,000 visits per day, 1,632 on Twitter;
90% of interviewees declare the festival “excellent” or “very good”;
visibility and cultural prestige for Telecom Italia with a limited investment.
Budget breakdown: for Casta Diva Events “new communication” means Titanium events: so original they multiply media coverage for free.
The budget, 100% spent to realize BACI, was multiplied tenfold by spontaneous interest and by the partner media (posters: +130%; radio, TV and Web: +330%; press: +400%).

Credits:

Festival artistic director: Barbara Nava
Festival selection committee: Giancarlo Zappoli, Maurizio Di Rienzo, Barbara Nava
Creative director: Andrea De Micheli
Institutional relations: Cecilia Felgueras
Art director: Manuel Ehrenfeld
Copywriter: Maurizio De Rienzo
Photography: Manuel Ehrenfeld
Production and post-production company: Casta Diva Pictures Buenos Aires
Partners: Telecom Italia, Gancia Argentina, Italian Embassy in Argentina, City of Buenos Aires, INCAA, Cinecittà Luce, Italian Film Commissions, SNGCI (National Union of Italian Film Journalists), MyMovies.it, Grupo Infobae
Festival theme: New Rant