Brazil is still underdeveloped in terms of branded entertainment when compared to other countries. The agency and media structure is still very conservative and attached to traditional media formats (TV, Print, Radio and Display Media). It is clear that the market still prioritizes reach over content quality. A good example of this behavior is Rede Globo, the leading local TV Channel present in 98.6% Brazilian households, and that concentrates 43% of all media investments in the country. Digital advertising also follows this behavior, prioritizing display media formats over branded entertainment.

Nissan went against this pattern. Instead of following other brands and doing a traditional media campaign to activate its Carnival asset, the brand chose to do a documentary that engages people with the sponsorship in a much deeper level.

The Episode´s release of “A Vida é uma Avenida” (Life is an Avenue) happened though social media activation. A 30 second teaser was the initial kick-off to tease our public about what we were preparing to show. Internally, our employees were indicated to share this teaser on their social media accounts, so that the spread was even bigger. A partnership with one of the main automotive websites was done to have them sharing our content in order to achieve other auto fans.

The partnership between Salgueiro and Nissan is symbolized in the documentary series “A Vida é uma avenida”, that creates a profound parallel between the dedication, creativity and complexity involved in both organizing a Carnival parade and developing/producing cars - a backstage that people don’t always pay attention to. The similarities in design, production, diversity and delivery was explored in the episodes, evolving the spare where Carnival is built and the Nissan Plant in Resende, the most sustainable Nissan plant in the world.

The media strategy was to associate the episodes with videos related to Carnival using the true view media format.

For all episodes the results were higher than expected. We had more than 400.000 views in the first episode and an average of 130 thousand views in the next three episodes. In total we had more than 47.000 people seeing the videos and being directed to the Nissan website. In all episodes, we had more than 1 million views.