Canadian advertising legend Terry O’Reilly came to RTA tonight to talk about his passion and work in the industry. As a big fan of his radio show, Age of Persuasion, I confess that the event has been on my calendar since the beginning of the month and I was counting the minutes to see Terry talking about his new CBC radio show Under the Influence. The wait paid off, and the two-hour talk followed by a panel discussion with RTA students Lama Balagh and Erica Shaw, Dr. Charles Davis and John Girardo really inspired me to not only think creatively but also strategically.

I live tweeted the whole session and you can check out the discussion here.

Terry didn’t agree with me when I commented on the lack of diversity inside ad agencies and in the creative produced in Canada. However, I’d love to see him saying yes to this question:

What do you think? Will Terry accept it?

To be continued… (I’m hoping!)

Sim, @SandyLeah é a nova garota propaganda da Devassa e assim como um monte de gente, acredito que a Schincariol mirou uma coisa e acertou outra completamente diferente. A estratégia de gerar polêmica e vender produto como conseqüência é uma prática antiga em publicidade, especialmente no Brasil, onde somos mestres em transformar tragédia em samba-enredo. A atual campanha da Devassa está sim sendo muito bem sucedida na mesa de bar, já que todo mundo concorda ou discorda com a escolha da garota-propaganda da Devassa. O que me intriga é se a conversa de bar irá  traduzir-se em vendas para a Schincariol.

Um dos argumentos dos defensores da campanha é que a Schincariol já esperava a polêmica que a campanha criou. Eu tenho as minhas dúvidas. Se na era digital o objetivo da campanha gerar esse buzz, por que os canais de mídias sociais não estão infestados com anúncios e jogos promovendo a nova campanha da cerveja Devassa? Por que não foi criada uma conta funcional no Twitter para interagir com o público? Por que os canais sociais da Devassa não foram integrados à campanha? Se o buzz era algo esperado, 4764* fãs no Facebook me parece uma meta bem modesta se comparada ao estrago que @SandyFacts, uma conta de humor no Twitter, está fazendo com mais de 20 mil re-tweets.

Polêmica é uma ferramenta perigosa em publicidade. Recentemente, o Groupon criou uma série de comerciais comparando ofertas a culturas e causas. Num dos comerciais Timothy Hutton diz que “o povo do Tibet sofre repressão mas continuam preparando um curry de peixe sensacional”. Sites, revistas e programas de televisão, todos declararam a sua opinião em relação a campanha, o sentimento geral foi negativo. Essa semana, os resultados da campanha de 950 milhões de dólares foram publicados neste artigo da Fast Campany. Mesmo com espaço comercial durante o Superbowl, o Groupon aumentou apenas em 8% o número de visitantes, enquanto o concorrente Livingsocial teve crescimento de 80% no mesmo período.

Se a campanha da Devassa vai ser bem sucedida ou não, só o tempo irá dizer. Por enquanto, ainda me espanto ao ver a reação pública, as memes #SandyFacts e #Tuiteumfilmecomdevassa, e viral mashups sendo mais bem sucedidos  do que a própria campanha. Para mim, “Todo mundo tem um lado Devassa” é uma campanha audaciosa que pode deixar a Schincariol numa situação delicada no mercado, já que os esforços atuais desvinculam a marca da imagem construída nos anos anteriores.

Se você fosse o diretor de criação da campanha, quem seria a sua mulher Devassa? Manteria a Sandy como garota-propaganda?

Photo Credit: Reinaldo Marques/Terra

During his last week in South Africa, Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva attended numerous events promoting my home country. Lula is a great character and one of the most charismatic personalities that Brazil will ever have in the presidential seat at Palácio do Planalto. However, Lula is also known for not following scripts and speaking his mind during public announcements. Every time that I try to imagine my worst PR nightmare, an event where I need to manage Mr. Lula da Silva always comes to mind.

During the release of Tourism Brazil’s (Embratur) marketing campaign last week in Johannesburg, Lula went on and on in a  last minute speech that managed to contradict much of the soon to be unveiled program. After announcing that he would not follow any script prepared by his communications specialists, Lula proceeded with his own off-the-cuff version which included a number of unfavourable stereotypes in his narrative. In an attempt to convince his audience that Brazil is a multicultural country, he goes against the highlight of Embratur’s campaign, a promotional video entitled “Brazil is Calling You – Celebrate Life Here.”

Produced by Fernando Meirelles‘ O2 Filmes, “Brazil is Calling You – Celebrate Life Here” portrays a country that I barely know as a person born and raised in Brazil. Apparently, Brazil’s president was equally unaware of the video’s content as the majority of his speech was based on describing his people as multicultural; a mix between first nations, afro-Brazilians and Europeans. I don’t know about you, but I can count on one hand the scenes starring non-Caucasian people in the video.

For years, Brazil has been trying to avoid the image of an unprofessional country with small urban centres surrounded by jungle.  Embratur’s promotional video addresses this need, however, Lula said that the tourists who decide to visit Brazil in 2014 should also be careful while exploring the Amazon because if they take the wrong shortcut, they might get swallowed by a sucuri. It was an unsuccessful attempt to joke about Brazilian natural diversity.

So how did Embratur deal with the international backlash? Thankfully, the President’s speech was delivered entirely in Portuguese, so the majority of the reaction to Lula’s unscripted speech ended up coming from the Brazilian media and expats who saw a very pretentious president on stage.

How would I handle this situation? Well… once your representative is on stage, it’s virtually impossible to drag them away from the microphone (remember Kayne West?). However, as a communications professional, I would create an opportunity during the same event to address the international media and explain my spokesperson’s jokes. I would also recommend that Lula take a more serious approach while clarifying his message in his next press conference in Johannesburg.

What about you?

This article was written based on information provided by the following Brazilian articles:

Lula comete gafes futebolísticas em discurso sobre a Copa de 2014

Com gafes, Lula faz público gargalhar durante discurso

Discurso de Lula diverte a plateia na África do Sul