Campari’s Italian leading brand, Crodino, which is a non-alcoholic drink for the aperitif time, has been associated with the character of the Gorilla for over 10 years. The Gorilla is a Roman, funny, outspoken primate that appears in all Crodino tv ads and in different situations: i.e. with his human girlfriend, on holidays with friends, at the bar with other celebrities…

The tv ads are based on jokes, each scene is 20 seconds of stand up comedy, thanks to the great quality of the scripts.

The client came to us with the objective of creating a project around the Gorilla, that could help the character ‘live’ beyond the tv screen and get in touch with real people, in a witty, funny, unconventional way.

I came up with the idea of the hairy book: “Let’s pretend the Gorilla has written a book full of funny jokes and real life situations and now is on tour across the major Italian bookstores to sign books for his fans.”

So we engaged the top comedy editorial label Kowalski and commissioned the book to a professional writer, that worked side by side with the tv ads scriptwriter. The book was sold in Italian bookstores during Christmas. The book was also used as a promotional gift in groceries stores (if you bought the product, you would receive the book at the register.)

And the Gorilla toured in major bookstores, to have Crodino aperitifs with his fans.

The response was massive, stores were full of crowds and sales went up 20% during that time.

This was an award winning project @ Stella del Marketing e Pubblicita’.

The book still exists!