How does a territory tell in the digital era to a generation that lives online? Friuli Venezia Giulia tries to respond with a bold and unexpected move: land on Fortnite, the most popular video game in the world with over 650 million users. From 20 September, the Region becomes the first in Italy to launch a personalized map inside the game, a tourist promotion project that aims to transform virtual exploration into an authentic travel experience. The goal is not only to be known, but create a bridge between two apparently distant worlds: that of the gamers and that of travelers backpack on the shoulder.
The initiative, born from the collaboration between PromoturismoFVG and the Novo Esports company, is not limited to using the name of the Region as a background. The developers recreated 3D, with the typical cartoon style of Fortnite, five iconic points of interest: Trieste with its scenic Piazza Unità d’Italia and the port area; Udine with Piazza Libertà and the Castle Colle; the medieval village dominated by the castle of Gorizia; the historic center of Pordenone with its bell tower; And Palmanova’s city-fortress, whose nine-pointed star plant lends itself perfectly to become a strategic point inside the game. But the real surprise is in detail: on the map there are also landscape elements such as the lakes of Fusine, the lagoon of Marano and the Tagliamento and Isonzo rivers. To survive and recover energy, players will not find magical potions, but typical products of the territory such as the frico, the San Daniele ham and the grapes, an unprecedented way to make known the regional food and wine roots.
View this post on Instagram
“We are the first region in Italy that presents and sponsors itself through a video game like Fortnite,” said the governor Massimiliano Fedriga, underlining the enormous potential of an audience that only in Italy has 14 million people.
We manage to promote a territory making it known through an active interaction. And this I think it is a new way of exploring the promotion, which is particularly interesting.
The idea is precisely to overcome the passivity of traditional advertising. As Emanuele Acerbis, CEO of Novo Esports, explained, the goal is “to make the fvg and beauties through Fortnite known to the increasingly vast target of video games”.
The project is not an end in itself, but it is built to encourage the transition from virtual to reality. On the map of Friuli Venezia Giulia a permanent tournament will be active: players will be able to accumulate points and climb a ranking. The ten bests will have access to the final to be held during Milan Games Week, the most important sector fair in Italy at the end of November. And the final prize concretizes the mission of the initiative: the first five classified will win not a virtual gadget, but five vouchers for a winter stay of three nights for two people in the Tarvisian, including ski pass. An explicit invitation to leave the game station to discover that the beauty of reality can sometimes overcome the imagination of any video game.
