Brazilian consumers are looking for brands to believe in, and not just the glamour purchases fuelled by the country’s faltering decade of economic growth.

That is according to Marcio Callage (pictured), president at Porto Alegre-based DM9Sul, part of Grupo ABC and DDB Worldwide’s global agency DM9.

Callage said the three-year-old business was committed to a “unique” method of working for a Brazilian agency, valuing paid, earned and owned media equally.

The agency has just launched a campaign for its founding client, local sportswear brand Olympikus, which it believes embodies these principles.

With Brazilian consumers obsessed with global powerbrands like Nike and Adidas, they find it difficult to comprehend that a domestic player is able to match those standards.

To shine a light on the quality of Olympikus, as well as telling a story which aspirational consumers can buy into, they launched a competition putting the brand’s shoes into the hands of expert users.

A first video put a literal spin upon the concept of a “blind test” (see below), with blind Paralympic athletes sampling the shoes alongside those made by Nike, Adidas and the like. Subsequent executions showed running clubs in Jamaica and Japan testing Olympikus products, as well as Nike and Adidas devotees.

Best of all, says Callage, is that Olympikus shoes did not come out on top in those tests: “In the digital area, transparency is key. We like to work with the truth, so when the director of products at Olympikus told me that product could compete with any product in the world, we decided to prove that.

“We were in the middle, not the worst but not always the best – it depends on the feet of the runner. It made us happy as we didn’t want to prove it was the best – just that Brazil can compete on the same level.”

Storytelling

The campaign attempts to tap into Brazilian consumers’ longing for brands with more to say than just basic product information. A digital and mobile revolution is in full swing in the market, and the impulse purchases made during Brazil’s recent economic progression no longer satisfy.

“People in Brazil are starting to look for something else than the product itself,” says Callage. “Brazil had very good growth in the last 10 years, and people start to buy things for the first time. In the first wave, they wanted to have a new fridge, a new TV, and the reason was the product.

“The brands that are starting to get a special place are those doing more to give consumers a reason to buy the product. Technology is available for everyone, it’s not only about innovation – we have to tell a story.”

Driving this change in attitude is the slow evolution of Brazil’s media scene as a result of social giants like YouTube and Facebook. Globo’s dominance of the local traditional media market is well known, with its broadcast channels attracting almost all available viewers, but, says Callage, “not all companies have the budget” to compete in this field.

As a fairly new business, he claims DM9Sul is well placed to help smaller brands utilise digital media and take the fight to big-spending global advertisers. Olympikus, for instance, was able to leverage its two million Facebook fans to amplify the new campaign and make the most of its modest media budget.

“Digital is becoming amazing in Brazil these last two years. Every agency is starting to review their business model because it is changing fast, and we are happy about this. We were born thinking hybrid, not only about TV and double-spread ads,” says Callage.

“You need to buy media to reach people, but we were very tactical to find the right people that would like the content and share and watch it. People don’t want to watch advertising, they want good content and entertainment.”