Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (CTFK), a US non-profit organization focused on reducing tobacco use and its global impact.

In 2016, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids investigated how major tobacco companies were using social media to engage influencers and creators to induce young cohorts to start smoking. To oppose this, the organization entrusted Prof. Kozinets and Netnografica (a US-based research boutique focused on netnography and qualitative social media research founded by Prof. Kozinets and conducted by him and Prof. Ulrike Gretzel) with a research project aimed at gaining a culturally nuanced, system-level understanding of how social media fosters connections between youth, their culture, and branded tobacco consumption.

The project was a multi-country netnography which spanned ten countries, including Brazil, Egypt, Italy, Uruguay and India, incorporating social media analysis, participant observation, interviews, and industry investigation. For this project, Netnografica hired Labcom scholars Rossella Gambetti and Silvia Biraghi to conduct investigative and analytical operations in Italy, which revealed an intricated tobacco market system including intertwined entertainment events, sponsorships, influencer relationships, public relations and social media marketing, with which big tobacco companies subvert and transform youth culture and activist discourse and practice. The findings of this research were covered in an article published in the New York Times in 2018: SEE THE ARTICLE

ArtCosmetics, an innovative Italian B2B cosmetics manufacturer, partnered with Netnografica with the support of Labcom to study evolving perceptions of female beauty among Chinese consumers.

The goal was to understand how perceptions of female beauty shape cosmetics preferences and cosmetics consumption routines, guiding new product development. Labcom conducted netnographic research, combining social media and mobile app observation with in-depth interviews.

The project, led by Netnografica with the support of Labcom, was based on a netnography combining a social media and mobile apps observation and immersion of both Western platforms and apps where Chinese consumers are exposed to cosmetics innovations, and Chinese platforms.

This phase was complemented by depth interviews with Chinese women and data integration incorporating data triangulation, cultural analytics, social categories generation and hermeneutic interpretation. The project revealed how the various interplays among immigrants’ imaginaries, technology, media, finances, and cultural imagery and ideology shape Chinese beauty ideals, forming global beautyscapes that redefine beauty and self-perception. It also provided detailed insights into product attributes like shades, fragrances, packaging, and messaging, directly guiding ArtCosmetics’ new product development specifically targeted to Chinese consumer.

“Academy da Vittorio” project, a managerial training initiative promoted by the renowned restaurant “Da Vittorio”(three Michelin stars) in collaboration with the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Milan).

The goal was to provide professional development for restaurant staff with courses in Marketing, Communication, Business Economics, Organizational Management, and Supply Chain.

In 2023, the Cerea Family further invested in high-level gastronomic education by opening the doors of the Da Vittorio Academy to its employees.

The project was based on a netnography followed by a creativity lab and strategic consultancy. This was carried out through three main initiatives:

• Identification and analysis of consumer-generated communities and subcultures and elaboration of the consumer insight for each of them
• Elaboration of the identified consumer insight in a Creativity Lab and development of creative concepts in line with the identified consumer communities
• Consultancy for the development of a communication strategy to support the launch of the creative concepts to the consumer communities.