San Pellegrino, associated with fine dining and European elegance, faced a challenge in the U.S. market: how to stay culturally relevant and top-of-mind in a crowded sparkling water category increasingly dominated by playful, youth-driven brands.

With the launch of its new flavored line, CIAO!, the brand saw an opportunity to introduce a more accessible, expressive product without losing its Italian heritage.

At this moment, U.S. culture is experiencing a nostalgia wave. The Sopranos, often hailed as the greatest TV show of all time, has re-entered the cultural conversation thanks to streaming, creator memes, and younger generations discovering the series for the first time.

Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa—beloved for their roles as Christopher and Bobby—have become pop culture figures in their own right, hosting a hit rewatch podcast and building loyal social followings.

By casting these two and placing them in a serialized social first short film, “With Love, Italy” let San Pellegrino take on a uniquely American mix of reverence and self-aware humor.

The campaign, crafted for U.S. social platforms, blended Italian authenticity with New Jersey attitude—an intentional nod to the Italian-American identity so familiar to many Americans. This wasn’t just a flavor launch—it was a cultural reset, helping San Pellegrino win attention, build relevance, and get cans in hands.

CIAO! faced a major hurdle: 70% of Americans find sparkling water bland. The strategy leveraged San Pellegrino's Italian heritage and Ciao’s unique Italian ingredients to combat this perception.

The insight: Italians are known for their boldness. 67% of Italian-Americans consider "boldly expressive" a key part of their identity. Our strategy was to position CIAO! as the first truly Italian sparkling water. It's bolder than other sparkling waters, with real fruit juice and Sicilian sea salt.

The campaign targeted the 18M Italian-Americans in the US (that’s almost 4x the population of Sicily) and anyone seeking a bolder sparkling water experience. It solved the problem of blandness with a taste of Italy. And so, "With Love, Italy" was born. It was a powerfully simple idea we could convey in engaging, short-form content across all our key social platforms.

To launch CIAO!—a new flavored sparkling water—we started from the product itself: the incredible real Italian fruit juice and Sicilian salt in every can.

Our idea? “With Love, Italy” it’s a gift from Italy, coming to America. Our two “ambassadors,” Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa, are the ones tasked with sharing this gift. But their reputation as iconic Sopranos characters gets in the way—no one trusts them enough to accept it.

We turned this tension into a serialized, socially-native series, captivating audiences who followed along, wondering if they'd ever successfully deliver their misunderstood gift. This breakthrough approach transcended typical beverage advertising, blending brand, entertainment, and community.

By playing into nostalgia and humor, we kept audiences engaged across episodes, transforming a product launch into appointment viewing.

The campaign culminated in a call for Americans to finally accept the gift, driving both emotional depth and organic traction. The campaign came to life as a 9-part episodic series, launched on YouTube and Instagram— the platforms where our Italian-American audience and culture fans were most active.

Each episode followed Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa as they tried to distribute CIAO!, with their mobster reputations hilariously getting in the way. Our final video called on Italian-Americans to help them finish the job, turning the campaign into a communal effort.

All content was edited natively for each platform, designed to feel like shareable entertainment rather than traditional advertising. To cap it off, the episodes were crafted into a short film, The Nice Guys, extending the campaign’s reach and life beyond social.

It wasn’t just effective delivery; it was story-first, platform-smart, and deeply rooted in community— ensuring CIAO! launched with authentic charm and cultural buzz.ic traction.

Sales are soaring. Year 1 is on track to hit $55M in revenue, far surpassing the $45M target. We’ve recruited 1.2 million households, ahead of pace to hit our goal of 1.5M by year’s end.

This success is directly tied to a campaign that captured attention and drove action.

The campaign went out with a bang. A whirlwind of PR coverage across 59 placements delivered 781M earned impressions. Social engagement skyrocketed +5,538% vs. the prior quarter.

On Instagram Reels alone, fans watched the content for the equivalent of 391 days in just two weeks — making them the brand’s top-performing Reels in five years, shared nearly 65K times. In the first two weeks post-launch, Ciao sales jumped +50%, generating $1.1M — the two biggest sales weeks since hitting shelves. Momentum hasn’t slowed since.

We kept the momentum going all summer long. People kept watching — delivering 1.2 billion impressions YTD, 33% above plan. This attention translated into real purchase intent: search for Sanpellegrino jumped +113%, and on Meta, the creative drove consideration lift 6.3x the CPG benchmark.

With Love, Italy isn’t just a product launch — it’s a sustained growth engine, and the year’s not even over.