Italy has launched a new national branding campaign in a bid to boost exports with target countries across Europe, the U.S. and Asia.

At the official launch of "Italy is simply extraordinary. BeIT," Italy's Foreign Minister Luigi di Maio described the approach as unprecedented and ambitious.

"The campaign starts from these six words – creativity, passion, heritage, innovation, style and diversity, around which we will construct a stronger relationship with the world."

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The initial stage of the mainly digital campaign will be to communicate a storyline of a "new Italy" through these key themes that will be adapted for different audiences worldwide.

Franco Pomilio is the CEO of the Pomilio-Blumm Communications Agency, which is at the forefront of the campaign alongside the Italian Trade Agency.

"It's a content-based, informative-narrative campaign leading to millions, and in the high expectations, billions of people interacting with the Italian narrative and discovering the Italian values."

The second aim will be to promote the "Made in Italy" production chains, targeting key export markets in 26 countries.

Efforts are under way to build on China's Belt and Road Initiative and the exchange of heritage products via the European Union's Geographical Indications agreement.  

Lorenzo Angeloni, director general of promoting the Italian system, says China is high on the agenda.

"Last year, the level of exchange was dramatically enhanced, even during COVID. So, we expect that China will be one of the countries where the exchange will grow more and is one of the countries where we want to be more present with this campaign."

This year, Italy's international exports not only returned to pre-pandemic levels but reached a record high.

"From January to September this year, we added an absolute value of around 377 billion euros [$268bn] worth of exports, better than the 356 billion in the same period of 2019, which was a previous record," says Di Maio.

"The rebound has been very positive in Italy and that is also why it is the right moment to present our campaign," reaffirms Angeloni.

The campaign will run until August 2022.