Storytelling and promoting tourism, creating a desire to visit Terre di Castelli

Terre di Castelli is a project created to facilitate promoting tourism in the municipalities of the hills of Modena: Castelnuovo Rangone, Castelvetro di Modena, Guiglia, Marano sul Panaro, Savignano sul Panaro, Spilamberto, Vignola and Zocca. Terre di Castelli is also a brand, with a visual identity and an online presence that we have redesigned and extended, proposing wide-ranging and multi-channel storytelling.

Together with our partner agency Btwo Factory, we designed and developed a digital communication strategy that would encourage interest and tourist demand in the area. We did this by means of an open dialogue with the client during a series of workshops, in which we identified the fundamentals of promoting tourism.

We tried to discover the target groups, focusing on their digital diet. We know, indeed, how much an online search for tourist destinations can influence the choice of a location. And for Terre di Castelli, we asked ourselves what content appeals and what themes might interest the target groups. We, therefore, envisaged the ideal tourists not only of the physical destination but also of the virtual space such as the website and social channels.

Developing experiential and multi-channel storytelling is crucial to telling the story of destinations, to standing out from other destinations and shifting the narrative focus to doing, rather than looking.

To harmonise the storytelling spread across various channels, we placed the utmost importance on brand identity, reworking the use of the existing logo and the entire visual layout. The typical merlons of castles become recurring symbols and frames for charming photos. As for the art direction, we organised a workshop with Bunker's graphic designers and another with the photographers Davide Terenzi and Giovanni Danieli to identify what cannot be omitted in the storytelling.

The workshops allowed us to share the strategy with the client, as well as effective ways of promoting tourism. Furthermore, this training enabled in-house employees at Terre di Castelli to work more smoothly and independently.

For Terre di Castelli we oversaw the drafting of digital storytelling as well as the re-adaptation after the initial lockdown in 2020. Posters were created and posted in the Modena area as part of local promotional activities. The sites of castles are depicted as (and are) safe havens in the open air, not far from home. Such features are in high demand during the recovery of tourism.