Tips and ideas for Canadian brands to communicate better with Brazilians

The text you are reading now was born globalized. One of the partners of the communication company Oficina das Palavras, Ana Paula Ruschel, was in Guimarães, Portugal. Eight thousand kilometers away, in Itajaí (SC), was one of the company’s publishers, Patrícia Wippel. And the reporter writing this piece to you is in the capital city of the State of São Paulo. In a lively phone conversation that lasted about an hour, several themes were talked about. We talked about Pope Francis, Beto Carrero, and even a Maracatu folk group in Toronto. All this was gathered under one umbrella theme: the importance of communication for companies.

This international conversation has a reason. Founded in Santa Catarina, Oficina das Palavras has been prospecting clients in Portugal for a month and a half and opened a commercial unit in Toronto last year. The company has had customers in Canada since 2013. “The difference is that we are now looking for new opportunities and have business targets to meet,” explains Ana Paula, who offers services such as press relations, digital strategies, influencer relationships, and content.

She reminds Canadian-based companies wishing to promote their brand in Brazilian territory that Brazil is a country of continental dimensions, with significant cultural differences between its regions. And that’s where the work of Oficina das Palavras comes in. In addition to being familiar with the Canadian business environment, it is more familiar with Brazilian diversity than most.

This knowledge aids in the success of several issues suggested by the press release team as pieces of news for major media outlets. For instance: once, a travel agency in Canada sought Oficina das Palavras to promote a service focused on the Brazilian Northeast.

The communication strategy was to connect the travel agency’s activities with the Northeastern association, the Tapioca food truck, and the Maracatu group in Toronto. The idea worked and turned into a story published in a major Brazilian media outlet – in addition to boosting the positive exposure of the customer’s brand.

“It is not enough to discover a fact or information. It needs to be communicated creatively,” says Ana Paula as she lists some of the things that set Oficina das Palavras apart from other companies.

Exchanging letters with Pope Francis

This creativity became a stamp on the passport of Oficina das Palavras to the Vatican. This time, the action was performed for the strategy of a customer in Brazil, Círculo S/A, the largest producer of yarns and threads in Latin America. By taking advantage of the amigurumi trend, the traditional Japanese craft technique for producing knitted or crochet dolls, partner artisans of Círculo S/A created a collection representing saints such as St. Anthony and Our Lady of Aparecida.

An Oficina team sent a letter and the doll collection to Pope Francis. The initiative received an answer two months later by means of a letter signed by the Pope. The original letter was framed by the customer and now decorates the wall of Círculo’s plant.

Formula One of the seas: R$ 2.6 million in return on investments

Another one of Oficina das Palavras famous costumers is Beto Carrero World, one of the world’s major amusement parks. One of the most recent projects was the promotion of the newest thematic area of the park, dedicated to Hotwheels.

For three months in 2018, the company was responsible for the press office in Brazil for the Itajaí Stopover of the Volvo Ocean Race, which is considered the Formula One of the Seas. 830 spontaneous media spaces, which is equivalent to R$ 2.6 million in return on investments, were conquered. By creating new social media, Oficina achieved an average weekly overall reach of 210,000 people, 440,000 of which attended the event at Vila da Regata.

The membership with CCBC, executed in May, is an important path for Oficina das Palavras to increase networking with Brazilian and Canadian companies. One of the actions performed with the Chamber was an online orientation for other members of the institution to provide them with tips on using social media to promote companies.

The agency itself has initiatives focused on networking. The MKT Yourself project was launched last year; it is held in Brazil, Canada, and Portugal, and it holds lectures and cases aimed to disseminate information, bring companies together, and facilitate business generation.