Costa Cruises, part of the Carnival Corporation & plc group, said it is launching a new international advertising campaign, to be aired on TV, social media and the Internet, with superstar Shakira back in front of the cameras.

It will start with a teaser trailer on 18 December in Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. The full-length advert will instead be broadcast from 25 December, the company said in a statement.

Shakira will star in a mysterious love story with a twist, set in Amalfi. The style will be very film-like, with clear allusions to Italian arthouse cinema, in particular Federico Fellini. In a dreamlike atmosphere, the images will show some typical elements associated with the Italian lifestyle, such as elegance, beauty, charm and joy, evoking the emotions that you can experience on a Costa cruise. The music will also be an explicit reference to Fellini, using the most famous theme from the soundtrack composed by Nino Rota for the film Amarcord.

Luca Casaura, SVP Global & Strategic Marketing of Costa Cruises, explains: “With this new campaign we have introduced highly innovative features compared to the communication methods used in the tourism industry up until now. We have created a fully-fledged short film with a very distinctive Italian style, drawing on the emotions and the dream aspect our cruises offer, in an evocative, playful way. Of course, there are elements that carry on from the last campaign, which was a great success. This explains why we chose a great star like Shakira to take the leading role and why we decided to continue with the slogan: “Benvenuti alla Felicità2”, which accurately conveys the promise we make to people choosing to go on holiday with Costa”.

 The film, which will be shown in 120", 60", 30", 20" 15", 10” formats, was directed by Jaume de Laiguana, who has created some of Shakira’s most famous music videos in the past. The launch will be extensive, using mainly TV (in Italy, France and Spain) and social media (in all countries), as well as the Internet, digital advertising and DEM. The campaign will also be adapted for point of sales materials at the cruise line’s main travel agency partners, with themes drawing on the new creative concept.

Costa Cruises’ new communications campaign was mounted in partnership with creative agency Young & Rubicam Spain, and was led by executive creative director Manu Diez. The Global & Strategic Marketing Department contributed on behalf of Costa Cruises