Soaring To New Heights With Brazilian Ad Campaign Prédio Pra Você

While success comes when one is prepared for the opportune moment, there are degrees to success; ones which reward for the moment and ones for those who go “all in” so to speak. This is as relative for Etco Ogilvy’s “Prédio Pra Você” campaign for Magazine Luiza as for those who won the massive prize awarded. 2014 brought the FIFA World Cup to Brazil and one-hundred-ninety million television viewers along with it. This is only a part of the media coverage that included radio, print, online, and others. Brazilian megastore Magazine Luiza wanted to capitalize on the frenzy surrounding the games and the almost unprecedented viewership; Etco Ogilvy more than delivered with a campaign which was truly life changing for prize recipients. Leticia Valença was the creative strategist who helped steer Prédio Pra Você to a stratospheric level of attention which saw increased sales of nearly one-quarter compared to the previous year. The campaign combined two things which Brazilians love, football and a great deal.

Etco Ogilvy understood that the viewing audience for the World Cup would be unprecedented. The best way to capitalize amid the cacophony of advertisers was to create something so enormous that the discussion would cause its prominence to increase exponentially. Cars and other incredible prizes had been given away in promotions before but Ogilvy’s campaign “Prédio Pra Você” is literally translated as “A building for you.” Magazine Luiza requested the Ad Agency to come up with some bigger than ever before and they accepted the challenge by producing Prédio Pra Você. Coupons were awarded to consumers who had spent more than one-hundred dollars in physical or online stores. These were available for every purchase of this amount, no limit. Each coupon served as a raffle ticket for the two grand prizes, one building for each of the winners.

Valença, Etco Ogilvy’s creative strategist for Prédio Pra Você explains, “The biggest challenging of this campaign was to have it sustained for eight months. A long campaign like this usually happens in phases. First, we launched it with TV commercial, radio spot, direct marketing, and print ads. The campaign was everywhere. Once the prize became known, the TV commercial stopped being aired because word of mouth was strong enough to carry it. Magazine Luiza also publishes a weekly ‘newspaper’ with offers. As one of the eight official sponsors of the World Cup transmitted by Rede Globo, we had vignettes during the games and the TV commercial was back on air.”

There’s a lot of psychology behind a campaign this big. Even the choice of personalities featured in the television commercials was not as simple as placing famous footballers in the ad. Leticia reveals, “The big challenge of this campaign was to choose the right soccer players, who the people love, who wouldn’t get in trouble or get involved in any controversy while the campaign was aired. There were a lot of details to think about, a lot of knots to tie. Everything should be flawless.” The stars of the TV spot were beloved retired Palmeiras goalkeeper Marcos, known as São Marcos ("Saint Mark" in Portuguese), and Fred of the current Brazilian national team. São Marcos played for Brazil in the 2002 FIFA World Cup while Fred has been a striker from 2005 on for the country’s team. Free of controversy and committed to Brazil’s football lineage, the duo created a sense of union for football fans of the past and current day.

By all measures of success, Prédio Pra Você was an immense accomplishment. As a result, Magazine Luiza’s sales growth reached an all-time high of 24.5% increase compared to the previous year and an increase of 44% in e-commerce sales grew 44%. Brand recall rose from 25% at the start of the campaign to 45% by it’s conclusion. Beyond its repetitive use by Magazine Luiza, Etco Ogilvy also received a silver Effie Awards and was featured in national and international media. The campaign was ultimately a watershed moment in Brazilian advertising. While the community and her peers lavished praise on Valença for her role and the success of the campaign, her most vivid memory concerns a moment before any of the public acknowledgment transpired. Leticia recalls, “During the initial pitch to Magazine Luiza, I’ll never forget the client exclaiming ‘Are you crazy!’ almost immediately followed by wide eyes and ‘We love the idea! Let’s do it!’ At that time, I knew we were making something big.”

Written by Kelly King