Filippo Berio Olive Oil Launches Largest National Advertising Campaign in 150-Year History

As the $1 billion olive oil retail category continues to experience a period of high growth, Filippo Berio Olive Oil, the leading U.S. brand, is capitalizing on the industry's expansion by asserting itself as the category leader with a new $7-9MM national advertising campaign. Greater recognition of the health benefits of olive oil and the awareness of the Mediterranean diet, of which olive oil is a staple, are just some of the factors contributing to the increase in domestic olive oil consumption. This has led the United States to surpass Greece in the rankings of olive oil consumption - only falling behind Italy and Spain. Filippo Berio's national campaign, launching the first week in October, is the largest consumer marketing investment in the company's 150-year history.

For a century and a half, producing high quality, delicious olive oil based on the principles set forth by their founder - Filippo Berio - has remained the company's sole focus. Filippo Berio grew up in the countryside of Lucca in the Tuscany region of Italy, where Filippo Berio Olive Oil is still produced today. Inspired by the Olive Groves that surrounded him, young Filippo took on the formidable task of making olive oil worthy of some of the most demanding and critical cooks in the world - his neighbors. Filippo devoted himself to becoming a master of his craft, carefully selecting the finest olives and pressing them with exquisite care to produce the most delicious oil, thus earning the reputation as the unquestioned olive oil virtuoso of his time. The new campaign, set to run through September 2014, focuses on bringing this story to life through television, print, and online advertising featuring the new tagline "The First & Last Name in Olive Oil."

"Extensive quantitative and qualitative research revealed that consumers recognized Filippo Berio as the only olive oil brand with two names - signifying that there was an actual person behind the product - but they craved additional historical information on how Filippo established himself as the olive oil expert within his Italian community," said Dave Scheiber, VP Marketing, Filippo Berio Olive Oil. "By bringing our founder's story to the forefront of our campaign we are paying homage to the authenticity, heritage, and craftsmanship that are exclusive to our brand while further solidifying our position as today's olive oil expert in consumers' minds."

The national TV campaign invites consumers to travel back in time to the rolling hills of the Tuscan countryside in 1867 to meet a young Filippo Berio honing his craft to produce an olive oil he thought worthy of sharing with the cooks of his community. After Filippo successfully impresses his neighbors at the town piazza with a culinary creation that showcases his olive oil, the commercial transitions to a modern day kitchen, where a contemporary woman uses Filippo Berio Olive Oil as she prepares a family meal. The commercials will air on a variety of major cable channels including Bravo, Food Network and CNN, giving Filippo Berio 100% share of voice ownership on television for the category.

The print campaign features vintage photos of Filippo Berio hard at work, along with the tagline and a new bottle label design the company is rolling out as part of the national campaign. Filippo's picture, a new addition to the bottle, is prominently featured alongside his handwritten signature, which has been an essential part of every bottle of Filippo Berio Olive Oil since 1867. The research showed that adding the founder's image to the bottles, along with his signature, helped lend credence to the story of the man behind the name as well as trustworthiness regarding the quality of the product. The print ads will appear in national magazines including Cooking Light, Food & Wine and Real Simple. Online, the new creative will be featured in a series of flash banners and rich media units on sites like FoodNetwork.com and AllRecipes.com, driving to the Filippo Berio website and providing access to search and print from a collection of 300+ recipes.

Filippo Berio's significant 2013-2014 advertising campaign, developed by COLANGELO SYNERGY MARKETING of Darien, CT, the brand's agency of record since 2002, is just the start of new initiatives planned for the company. Filippo Berio is also releasing two new extra virgin olive oil flavors, which will be hitting store shelves later this year. Delicato, a mild, light-bodied flavor that provides a smooth, mellow taste, and Robusto, a bold, full-bodied flavor that provides a strong, vibrant taste, will join the brand's current lineup of Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Olive Oil and Extra Light Olive Oil. For more information, visit FilippoBerio.com.