Banco Itau CMO Fernando Chacon said the bank recently got a
letter from Brazil's president, Dilma Rousseff, praising a new
blockbuster Itau spot by Africa that transforms
the entire country into an immense stadium as Brazil prepares to
host the soccer championship and welcome the world.
"Africa transcends the role of a creative agency," said Mr.
Chacon, whose bank has been a client since day one. "They
participate in discussions about strategy and positioning, and
their provocative creative differentiates us from other brands in
the market."
Itau's popular hashtag #thischangestheworld (#issomudaomundo)
looks at how peoples' lives, and the world, can be changed for the
better, he said. Brazilians have adopted the hashtag to identify
and share moments that make a difference, and 65% of the Brazilian
banking industry's share of voice in social media belongs to
Itau.
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Why the name Africa? "We wanted an international name with
Brazilian roots," said Sergio Gordilho, Africa's co-president and
chief creative officer. "And a big part of Brazil's population is
of African descent."
In a country where advertising quickly becomes part of popular
culture and everyone is social-media mad, P&G sought out Africa
several years ago to do something different digitally and get
closer to Brazilian consumers, Mr. Gordilho said.
Africa's work for a P&G shampoo brand is Brazil's most
popular brand video on YouTube, with more than 24 million views
since its July 2013 debut. Last year Africa noticed how hard it is
for Brazilians to pronounce "Head & Shoulders" and decided to
tap Brazilian soccer coach Joel Santana, who became famous for
giving TV interviews in fractured English that he appeared to make
up as he went along. In hilarious iterations, Mr. Santana
exuberantly concocts a bizarre mix of Portuguese and English to
explain the shampoo's name and how to use it. His fractured phrases
have led to Twitter memes -- and a 13% increase in market share for
the brand.
For P&G's Gillette the agency created a video -- now with 10
million views -- that looked at "What if Roger Federer were
Brazilian?" It explored what a great soccer player the tennis star
-- and Gillette razor user -- could have been.
In other P&G hits, Ariel detergent (Tide, in the U.S.)
teamed up with a fashion designer to create a collection of stained
clothes that revealed their bright colors after being washed in
Ariel. And branching out into stunts and PR, Africa launched Oral-B
3D White toothpaste by signing up Brazil's leading Ultimate
Fighting champion Renan Barao to wear a gleaming LED mouth guard to
a fight. "People ask how my teeth are so bright!" he says. His
answer: Oral B.
"No one thought we'd use his mouth guard as media," Mr. Gordilho
said.
Africa, Brazil's seventh largest agency, is owned by Brazil's
Grupo ABC, which is ranked the 19th biggest global agency company
by Ad Age's DataCenter and also owns San Francisco shop Pereira & O'Dell and a stake in DDB
Brasil. Africa's revenue grew by 8% in 2013.
One growth area is product design at Africa Lab. One of its
inventions, the Buddy Cup, created for Budweiser, turns two beer
drinkers who click Buddy Cups in a bar into Facebook friends. The
gadget rated a mention on "The Colbert Report."
