First event in Italy with big splash | Sanremo, Italy
The Sanremo Music Festival (Festival di Sanremo) is Italy’s most iconic and enduring cultural event - an annual week-long celebration of music, television, and entertainment that has shaped the country’s cultural landscape since its inception in 1951. It remains one of the most watched television events in Italy, regularly drawing over 12 million viewers and more than 60 % audience share on prime-time broadcasts - numbers that place it among Europe’s most powerful media platforms and cultural touchpoints. In 2025, the festival’s audience figures were among the highest in decades, averaging around 12.6 million viewers and a 65.3 % share on opening night alone.
Notino stepped into this historic arena for the first time in 2025 as the General Partner of the Sanremo Festival’s Kiss Kiss house - a vibrant, high-profile activation hub for public, influencers, media, and VIPs.
Task
Lead a fully integrated event and communication launch for Notino’s first presence at Sanremo, building the brand’s visibility among an Italian audience and establishing meaningful connections with local consumers.
This included:
Strategic ownership and delivery of the entire Sanremo activation
Contracting and managing the event partner agency
Designing dual activation zones (public + VIP/influencer) within the Kiss Kiss house
Securing a beauty partner to amplify Notino’s relevance
Creating experiential activations tied to Notino’s digital and app capabilities
Challenge
The project arrived with a compressed preparation window - just two months before the festival. Within this tight timeline, we needed to:
Run a rapid agency tender and onboarding process
Concept and produce high-impact activations
Secure and integrate a beauty partner under tight scheduling constraints
Ensure that all elements reflected Notino’s technology and beauty-innovation positioning
Develop and execute a relevant communications strategy for Italian media and audiences
Finding a beauty partner that could fully align with the concept and brand expectations - with limited time to negotiate and integrate - was itself a significant challenge.
Execution
After running a competitive agency tender, I developed the overarching creative and operational strategy for two distinctive Notino zones:
Public Zone - Kiss Kiss House Exterior
Designed to engage the festival audience with Notino’s brand and technology - anchored around a “Magic Mirror” photoshoot experience that mirrored the app’s tech features. Festival-goers could:
Step in front of a fragranced, interactive mirror
Be photographed professionally (approx. 30 sec session)
Receive branded images delivered to their email as Notino magazine-style covers
This experience invited participants to feel like celebrities — an emotional tie-in to the music event and Notino’s beauty identity.
VIP + Influencer Zone - Inside Kiss Kiss House
This area catered to key media figures, influencers, and VIP attendees. It amplified Notino’s premium appeal - creating a space that fit both music-festival glamour and beauty lifestyle culture.
Beauty Partnership
We secured L’Oréal as the partner for both zones and the Magic Mirror experience. L’Oréal products were incorporated into activations, communications, and the app experience - adding credibility and desirability to the perimeter brand story, and earning praise from L’Oréal representatives themselves.
Results
Secured a high-impact beauty partner (L’Oréal), successfully integrating their products into zones, creative, and app mechanics
Dramatic increase in usage of the Magic Mirror app feature during the festival period
Brand awareness of Notino surged among festival attendees and Italian audiences
The target of 10 % of festival visitors downloading the Notino app was achieved and exceeded
ROI was significantly above positive, validating both the activation strategy and digital integration
Cool Facts about Sanremo
Sanremo is one of Italy’s longest-running music festivals, first held in 1951, and served as a blueprint for the Eurovision Song Contest format.
The 2025 edition drew some of the highest television audiences in over two decades, with average viewership topping 12.6 million and capturing over 65 % of the TV share on opening night.
The festival remains a dominant cultural fixture in Italy — discussed broadly across TV, radio, print, and social media throughout its broadcast week.
