Costa Cruises Celebrate Eurovision’s Diverse Musical Culture in Sponsorship Campaign

This weekend the final of Europe's favourite sing-fest - The Eurovision Song Contest - returned to our screens in a musical celebration of the diverse range of music across 40 competing countries, hosted by the 2021 winning nation, Italy.

Eurovision’s sponsor, market leading Italian cruise company Costa wanted to create a sponsorship campaign aimed at engaging a younger audience, an audience hungry for travel, and to show that Costa can help them discover the world, cultures, cuisine and of course music!

For the TV spots running on 10th, 12th and for the final on 14th May, independent creative network DUDE created ‘Eliovision’, a spoof contest with a variety of performances of French Rap, Finish Glam Rock, Brit-Pop, German techno, Irish Folk music and Spanish Latino-Pop - a musical array of European culture. The six different spots mimic the style of a live Eurovision style broadcast directly from the impressive flagship ship, the Costa Toscana.

One of Italy’s most iconic and eclectic music artists, Elio e Le Storie Tese, performed the songs and transformed themselves into six different versions of themselves poking fun of music clichés and repurposing one of their most successful songs, ‘La terra dei cachi’ (The land of the persimmon) originally about Italian clichés.

Francesco Muglia, vice president global marketing: “The Costa-Eurovision activation is a benchmark of “creativity” both in terms of content and in terms of media approach. Standard advertising spaces have been transformed into a brand entertainment series. In a company of pioneers and explorers by definition, like Costa, exploring new routes is a must.”

Livio Basoli, chief creative officer & partner: “This was such a unique project. Not only did we get to spoof one of the most iconic music events in Europe, but we did it by turning classic 30” TV Ads into a branded entertainment experience. A creative idea tailored on the sponsorship and an innovative media strategy ultimately made possible by a bold client ready to take their brand in new, uncharted, seas.”

Media was handled by Mindshare Italy.