Festival Intelligence: Instilling pride through branded content in Brazil | M&M Global

Festival Intelligence: Instilling pride through branded content in Brazil

The largest economy in Latin America, Brazil is a hotbed of innovation – in terms of scientific research, patents, intellectual property (IP), technology, media and creativity. Described by Thomson Reuters as “the grown up BRIC”, this hyper-growth market offers so much opportunity for advertising growth as brand connections with consumers are becoming more inspired and empowered.  

It’s not just the leading ad market in Latin America, it’s one of the largest ad markets in the world. Statista estimates that ad revenue in Brazil will amount to nearly $12.5bn in 2019. One of the country’s most promising sectors is digital with annual spend to amount to $8.47bn in 2019. Within that, the market’s largest segment is social media advertising with a market volume of $3.21bn. But this digital progress doesn’t come at the expense of traditional media – free TV advertising has grown consistently since 2009, followed by payTV. Plus, print advertising (newspapers) and radio remain important traditional mediums for advertisers across the country.

Brazil was the fourth most represented country of the LatAm region at the Festival of Media LatAm Awards 2018 behind Mexico, Argentina and Colombia. It served up some inspiring campaigns that touched on the topics of female pride and empowerment, and used not just celebrity and social influencers but real people to create more powerful emotional connections.

The 10 Brazilian entries to feature on the shortlist came from the food & drink (four), FMCG (three), fashion & beauty (two) and energy (one) sectors. The most represented categories with campaigns from Brazil were ‘Best Branded Content’, ‘Creative Use of Media’ and ‘Best Integrated Campaign’, with the rest of the entries shortlisted for ‘Best Use of Data’, ‘Collaboration Award’ and ‘Best Engagement Strategy’, reflecting the breadth and scope of work from across the country.

Carlos Ranero, Global VP of Consumer Connections at Anheuser-Busch InBev and Jury Chair of the Festival of Media LatAm Awards 2018, spoke broadly about the creative evolution the LatAm region is experiencing: “There are several countries that have always been really good creatively – Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia – but now I think we’re seeing better cases structured not only around creativity but insights coming from media, collaborations, well structured campaigns, use of data and I think that this is something that we definitely want to see more from Latin America. We’re making progress quickly.”

One of the key themes that we’ve explored extensively in previous Festival Intelligence articles, is female empowerment. While significant strides and progress towards gender equality has been made already in Brazil, LatAm and across the world, Brazil highlighted great examples of TV, social and digital campaigns that put women at the centre of the conversations to instill a sense of pride in their jobs, encourage equality in sports and connect with female drivers. This was all enhanced through a range of techniques including social experiments, web series and collaborations with major media companies.

Another key target for marketers in Brazil was teens and millennials, whereby a different approach was taken and advertisers tapped into consumer passion points, notably digital music, to encourage user generated content and participatory campaigns spanning traditional and new media formats.

Experiential activity displayed creative uses of data, media and real-time targeting. External events played a role in the timing of campaigns, with marketers hooking into relevant international days in the calendar that provided the right canvas and context to associate their message and generate conversations.  

On the whole, content in a variety of forms was at the heart of all Brazilian campaigns – notably branded video content distributed across TV and online (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube). But more than simply creating content for content’s sake, the content had a purpose and a real meaning behind it.

Understanding the purpose and objective of creating content in the first place was something that Flock Associates’ Senior Consultant Maarten Albarda, who led the Content Zone at Festival of Media LatAm 2018, urged marketers to consider: “There’s more content in the world today than we ever had before in the history of mankind; some of it is great, some of it is terrible… The most important thing is: why are you doing it? Is content a part of my business? Is it part of my distribution strategy? Is it part of how I connect with consumers? But the most important question is: What is its purpose within the mix?”

Content, data, context, relevance and timing proved to be the recipe for success for campaigns coming out of Brazil. By providing inspirational storytelling and having real people sharing their own experiences, all brought to life through media and content collaborations, Brazil has shown that creating emotional connections can inspire consumers with a sense of pride, empowerment and, ultimately, loyalty.

We put the spotlight on two Brazilian entries from the Festival of Media LatAm Awards 2018 shortlist, which highlight this trend:

Look at Them | Intimus (Kimberly-Clark) | VML | Brazil

Shortlisted for: Best Branded Content, Collaboration Award (SILVER WINNER)

Summary:

Despite having the best woman soccer player in the world for five years in a row, Marta, female sports still do not have proper visibility in Brazil. Less than 5% of all broadcast sports coverage are destined to women’s sports. As a result, two-thirds of Brazilian women are not engaging in sports and physical activities. Intimus wanted to change that by showing that sport can work as a social tool to help women to pursue their life achievements.

Intimus decided to partner with ESPN W to bring women in sports stories to life, giving it visibility and inspiring other women. Besides that, the platform was perfect for reaching the target of the campaign. The strategy was to give female athletes the visibility and recognition they’ve always deserved. The goal was to highlight amateur athlete’s life achievements in order to inspire other women.

In partnership with ESPN Brazil, agency VML created #OlhaElas (Look At Them), a branded content project. ESPN produced a two-episode web series telling the story of an amateur soccer team called LeSisters. In the series, the players talk about the challenges they have faced and about how sport has helped them to get their life achievements. In addition, a live friendly match was broadcast on ESPN’s Facebook on International Women’s Day, as part of a celebration of women’s sports.

Ciranda 2017 | Natura Beauty Consulting | mcgarrybowen | Brazil

Shortlisted for: The Creative Use of Media Award, Best Integrated Campaign (BRONZE WINNER)

Summary:

Natura is the largest Beauty and Cosmetics company in Brazil with more than 1.4 million Beauty Consultants. Almost all Natura’s products are sold by its Beauty Consultants: about 98% of sales pass through their hands. It was about time the Consultants returned to centre stage in a campaign where they are the protagonists. The strategy was to generate identification, rescue the pride of the consultant’s role and, above all, show that Natura allows them to be protagonists of their own history, empowering her into her environment.

The agency developed an unprecedented product placement project with the character Abigail from the novel A Força do Querer. Abigail became a Natura beauty consultant in Globo’s main prime time soap opera “A Força do Querer” but also had life outside the plot; through her Instagram account, broadcasting branded content on Digital and Radio, going to events and so on. There she shared her knowledge and learning as a beauty consultant.

Throughout five months of the Soap Opera, it followed her evolution step by step, from her first interest in the career until reaching the gold level, the second highest one. To deepen the themes the agency extrapolated the boundaries of television and created a framework in which all the channels of the campaign were strategically connected. All Natura’s points of contact were used to strengthen the consultant’s engagement and identification.

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