What happens is that one day you decide to write down a list full of all those things that you are beginning to miss in this complex and intricate period: “then I would like to go to the beach”, “then I would like to take the train and go to the aquarium”, “then I would like to open my new shop”, and you realise that perhaps you are not the only one to have the desire to return to appreciating the simple things, those that you had taken for granted. You call your sister, Sofia, and tell her that maybe there is someone else out there who needs to read and share what they would like to do or who they would like to be after this moment of isolation. She likes the idea, so you involve your other sister, Lidia, and she too is immediately enthusiastic. Together you decide to open an Instagram account, to collect not only your dreams, but also those of everyone with the desire to tell them out loud. It is 29 March and Elena, Sofia and Lidia Caricasole expect everything but to reach a loyal audience of 230 thousand followers in just twenty days. Poivorrei quickly became the point of reference for users from all over Italy who decided to dedicate a special place to their thoughts, to give value and substance to all the wishes they had had to temporarily lock away in their drawer, but which can now find new energy and a new look to be brought to light. This is how poivorrei was born , a simple project of great humanity, brilliantly realised and developed, which is able to unite the nostalgic thoughts of thousands of people of all ages every day. We interviewed Elena Caricasole, who told us what has been happening in the last month on the poivorrei Instagram account.
Simple but necessary question: how did the idea of poivorrei come about? Who is behind the project?
It came about a bit by chance. I was making a list on the computer of things I would like to do once I come out of quarantine. One day, out of the blue, with the list in front of me, I said to myself: ‘But it would be nice if it was a participative list’. I proposed it to Sofia, my social media strategist sister, briefly explaining to her what I had in mind, and she too was immediately enthusiastic. In short, we put together the identity of the project, the website and defined the layout of the posts. The most fun aspect was having to cope with the limitations of this period: I have been at home in Verona for a month without a camera, Sofia lives in Sweden and only had with her one of those mini-printers to use with a smartphone, which actually print out receipts, so we had to get creative to produce the first photographic material. We wanted it to be all ‘out of our own pocket’, without having to resort to impersonal stock prototypes. Luckily I had just bought a small projector, I said to myself “Why not use it? I’ll give it a try!” and from there I started projecting the lettering you see in the photos.
That’s how we started, and we immediately noticed a positive response: after the first week after the launch we had already reached a thousand followers. The first turning point was when Sofia pointed out to me the message of a boy who said ‘I would like to go to a Cesare Cremonini concert’, an artist that all three of us sisters appreciate . So we decided to make a graphic of that poivorrei and post it tagging Cesare. That same evening Cremonini liked the post, and the next morning when I woke up I found myself with my smartphone going crazy with a sea of notifications, because he himself had written a beautiful post about it on his page, and this gave us enormous visibility, allowing us to reach an even wider audience.
We thought that might be the maximum we could achieve. My accountant, who was also enthusiastic about the project, had asked me: “Elena, what are your forecasts?” and in all honesty my answer had already seemed like a gamble: “At most we will reach 80 thousand. Today we have arrived at 224 thousand almost without realising it.
The question now arises: what forecast do you have today?
[Smiling] At this point I think we will reach 300 thousand. I wonder, though: will people get tired?
How many do you expect per day?
On the site we get about 15 per minute. I can’t tell you how many there are in total in a day, but I can tell you that 37,000 forms have arrived since the start of the project. In the early days we were able to pick them out one by one and put the most original ones on the site; after the first boom of messages we came up with a system that would direct the answers to the form into a spreadsheet, which we could check more quickly. We did not want to automate the process precisely because there is a risk of offensive or tasteless phrases being posted.
Analysing the messages you receive, what do you think are the biggest wishes behind the wishes of the people who write to you?
We are a romantic people: many people would like to go back to see the sea or hear the doorbell ring followed by ‘I’m down here’; many would simply like to go back to sleeping together. We see a multitude of small needs making room, no exaggerated desires. All of this reflects the current condition:in these moments we return to appreciating the value of small things and simple gestures.
