ABOUT

Our objectives were to speak to any authentic Italian pizza chef and they’ll tell you. The only authentic ‘00’ grade pizza flour to use is Caputo. Caputo. Caputo. Caputo. It’s what their Nona used, their Nona’s Nona. Their Nona’s, Nona’s, Nona. But when the pandemic hit, Italian pizza chefs struggled to import their beloved Caputo. That’s when Wright’s stepped up. In partnership with a top Italian pizza chef, they developed an ultra-fine, high-grade, high-gluten flour, that was not just as good as Caputo. It was better. They christened it Cappella. But, what happens when you discover your Caputo-killing Neapolitan pizza brand translates to ‘bell end’ in Italian? Laugh? Cry? Well, Wright’s decided to turn to us.

Cygnus was tasked with the challenge of rebranding and relaunching Cappella, targeting Italian pizza chefs in particular, convincing them that British Flour stands up to it’s Italian counterparts, driving trial, and in turn boosting sales to wholesalers and pizza chefs/restaurant owners. Where Cappello looked like a cheap knock-off of Caputo, Sonata was a premium brand, featuring rich black and white reportage photography, bold and contemporary yellow typography and a slick dark navy and dough colour palette.

The project grew arms and legs. What started as a simple rebrand and launch, became, social media management, pizza school launch and environmental design.

Our strategy? Italian pizza chefs buy Italian. In their eyes, Italian is best. Whether it's mozzarella, tomatoes, salami, even down to the flour. For over 150 years, Wright’s has been milling some of Britain's best-selling flours. However their Neapolitan-style ‘00’ pizza flour, Capella, was being dominated by Italian competitor Caputo in the market. We needed to create a brand and launch-campaign that proved flour milled in the UK is not only as good as its Italian counterpart but better.

We knew Cappella had to go. So we rebranded the flour ‘Sonata’. Wright’s already had flour brands named Bravo and Maestro among their pizza flour range, so a musical name was preferable. Sonata worked nicely. It was an Italian word for starters, but translating as ‘ composition for soloist’ it resonated with the solo talent of the Italian pizza chef. A new brand identity was created, featuring reportage black and white photography, bold yellow typography and a playful, but premium ‘Britalian’ tone of voice.

After conducting interviews with Italian pizza chefs it became clear that they were a stubborn audience. The Italian pizza chef and wholesaler community is tight-knit. They’re like the mafia. If we had any chance at all of convincing them that our British product was worth trialling, we needed some respected names to vouch for us.

We advised Wright’s to update their packaging in line with our new identity, elevating the flour to a more premium level, giving it standing out amongst competitors. Featuring renowned pizza chefs Ricardo Regalado and Giacomo Apicella, the packaging provides prestige to Sonata, helping appeal to Italian pizza chefs as well as the wider market.

We had the name and packaging, now we needed to launch it. The Italian Roots, British Made campaign drew on parallels between the product itself and Italian pizza chefs. Both have Italian Roots. (The flour was milled the Italian way alongside Marco Fuso). But they're both 'made' in Britain. These Italian chefs have made a life for themselves here.

The campaign spanned organic and paid social, with two beautifully shot testimonial films at the heart. Featuring Giacomo Apicella of renowned Oxford pizzeria La Smorfia and Umberto Russo of Cambridge-based Al Pomodoro, the film featured conversations about their Italian Roots and experience using Sonata. These did a great job of stating the case for British flour. After all, the flour has a few thousand miles less to travel, which results in a lower price, fewer food miles, and less chance of humidity in the sacks.

We created a launch video to introduce Sonata to the market, giving the brand a beautiful, modern, but exciting visual feel, with black and white and colour footage, Sorrento lemon typography and a thumping beat. We made Sonata a cool flour for wholesalers to stock. And with Giacomo (a wholesaler and influencer himself) singing its praises, demand was high before the bag had even gone to print. These were housed on a brand new Sonata website, again, designed and built by our team.

By taking over the organic management of Sonata’s social media as well as creating paid social campaigns, the slick new look and feel was implemented to update and upgrade Sonata’s social media presence, growing its following among Italian pizza chefs.

Alongside the Sonata flour launch, Wright’s were building a pizza school at their mill. On our recommendation, it was named The Sonata Pizza School. In our mind, this school was the perfect shop window for Sonata. A place where we could invite chefs and the public to trial the flour for themselves. Cygnus created environmental branding to bring the brand to life within the space, as well as promotional materials, and assets including student aprons, chef jackets, interior graphics and more.