Tenute Piccini launches major TV ad campaign with Covid-19 focus

Tuscan wine group Piccini has launched a major television advertising campaign with Italy’s largest media group to reassure the industry that it will survive Covid-19.

The campaign, which was launched on Easter Sunday, includes a 32-second advert, which is being run on all Mediaset television and digital channels.

Featuring images of empty cities interspersed with shots of Tuscan vines, the ad carries the message that “all will be fine” and the “courageous Italian heart” will triumph over Covid-19.

Shown during prime time viewing, the advert is intended to be a message of hope for the whole country, the estate said in a statement.

Based in Castellina in Chianti, the Tuscan producer has already donated 30,000 masks to authorities in Tuscany, Lombardy and Liguria and has partnered with e-commerce channel Tannico to donate €1 from the sale of every bottle from its Torre Mora estate in Sicily to the Sacco Hospital in Milan.

CEO Mario Piccini is continuing to invest in the company’s vineyards and staff, maintaining full production and avoiding redundancies.

Piccini said: “We have kept all the production sites active, respecting the rules of the Decree of the President of the Council of Ministers (DPCM) in order to continue to guarantee the communication of our products, of our Made in Italy message, both in Italy and abroad. We consider ourselves extremely fortunate to have been able, in our small way, to maintain high levels of employment without activating tools such as the redundancy fund”.

Workers are now operating in shifts and have been divided into two separate teams, which are kept isolated from one another.

In addition, new vineyards have been planted at both Fattoria di Valiano, the Piccini family’s estate in Chianti Classico, and at Tenuta Moraia in Maremma.

Piccini added: “Together we will succeed in overcoming this difficult situation, and we at Piccini want to give a sign of hope to the whole of Italy: together we will start again. After all, we are the country that has dedicated centuries to creating masterpieces of excellence, masterpieces that today more than ever must inspire our actions.”

Piccini produces around 16 million bottles of wine a year, turning over €64 million in 2018. It owns five wine estates across Italy and last year acquired historic Chianti cooperative Chianti Geografico, saving it from bankruptcy, in a deal worth €7.2 million (£6.2m).