38 FRIDAY, JUNE <strong>24</strong>,<strong>2011</strong> FOCUS ON LATIN AMERICA
f Gisele Bundchen was the star of a Pantene campaign by Grey The beautiful south South American producers and service providers may not be attracting as many foreign shoots as last year, but the internal market is heating up and local agencies are booming. Gary Smith reports BRAZIL’s ascent into the ranks of globally significant economic powerhouses has been much discussed, but one fact less talked about is that President Lula’s administration created 20 million new consumers, which has had a galvanising effect on the country’s advertising agencies and spot producers. Antonio Carlos Accioly, executive producer at Margarida Filmes, is seeing multiple changes on the home front: “Today we are working hard for the local market and in particular for clients such as Unilever, Procter & Gamble and its agencies,” he says. “The influence of the strengthening of the Brazilian economy is manifest in the growing number of multinational agencies entering the local advertising market and the presence of new brands. We have also noticed that Brazil is attracting more films, having recently served as a location for large productions like The Fast And The Furious 5 by Justin Lin, the animated film Rio by Carlos Saldanha, Dawn Twilight by Chris Weitz, The Incredible Hulk by Louis Leterrier among others.” Two of Margarida’s biggest jobs of the last year were car <strong>com</strong>mercials for Citroen and Mitsubishi. “They were very challenging because of the huge structure created to transport the vehicles, the massive lighting equipment and certain particularities of the locations where it was filmed. The Citroen spot was filmed on the road linking the cities of Petropolis and Juiz de Fora, which was entirely closed for filming, and the Mitsubishi Paje was shot in the sand dunes of Arraial do Cabo,” Accioly says. “Currently the challenge we face is to be able to maintain the quality of the films, and increase our base costs while staying active in an increasingly <strong>com</strong>petitive market.” Margarida has a <strong>com</strong>plete post-production and 3D set-up at the <strong>com</strong>pany’s headquarters in Sao Paulo, and more than five affiliates across the country, including Porto Alegre, Curitiba 39 and Brasilia. According to Grey Brasil’s creative director, Guy Costa, and executive creative director, Alexandre Scaff, Brazil is full of opportunities: “It represents half of the economy of Latin America. But what is really worth mentioning is that <strong>com</strong>munication is part of the engine of this economy and culture. In Brazil, businesses and government institutions see <strong>com</strong>munication as a great ally. The Brazilian way is that we use creativity to do business for our clients, including introducing ideas that they don’t even know they need. This means being in tune with the busi- “THE BRAZILIAN WAY IS THAT WE USE CREATIVITY TO DO BUSINESS FOR OUR CLIENTS, INCLUDING INTRODUCING IDEAS THEY DON’T EVEN KNOW THEY NEED” Guy Costa, Grey Brasil ness of our clients to identify all possible opportunities. To do so, the agency has to be creative as a whole. This applies to both local clients and international ones.” Grey’s biggest challenge last year was also the source of Costa’s greatest pleasure: “The Hair Samba integrated campaign for Pantene was a great challenge because it was a new idea. Imagine launching a new dance step in Brazil during the carnival! It involved creating a dedicated samba school and an internet contest, plus the sponsorship of major television networks in Brazil. The result was more than 5,000 people dancing the Hair Samba at the carnival in Rio, $25m of spontaneous media and considerable growth of sales FRIDAY, JUNE <strong>24</strong>,<strong>2011</strong>