Carlos Burle is a brazilian surfer, world record holder of big waves, who recently announced he’d be retiring from competitions. In 2019, Mitsubishi Motors, who sponsored Burle throughout his entire career, wanted to pay tribute to the athlete on Surfer’s Day, which takes place on January 21st. Besides the tribute, the brand wanted to reinforce its strategy of associating itself to the world of surf in Brazil.

Carlos Burle become famous worldwide when he surfed a big wave in Nazaré, Portugal. Specialists measured the wave and came to the conclusion that it had the same size as a ten-floor building. So, why not use an actual ten-floor building to pay tribute to the surfer? A giant poster was placed on the side of the building, measuring exactly ten floors, and with a photo showing the real size of the waved that Burle rode. The best way to pay tribute to the athlete was showing the actual size of the biggest feat of his career.

We needed a building with exactly ten floors in order to truly represent Burle’s photograph. After finding it, we produced the billboard in one of Brazil’s biggest cities, reaching an expressive audience. Besides this, we also created a film that told the story of the tribute and showed the result on the side of the building. The film was uploaded to the Mitsubishi Motors social networks as well as Carlos Burle’s. This was enough to catch the attention of the specialized media. Consequently, it increased the affection of the surfing public for the brand’s cars, which was one of the goals of Mitsubishi Motors Brazil.

First we found the building that had the exact ten floors that we needed. The giant photo was placed on the side of the building on January 21st, Surfer’s Day in Brazil. On this same day, the tribute was filmed, edited and uploaded to the social networks of both Mitsubishi Motors and Carlos Burle himself. This caught the attention of specialized media and guaranteed a lot more visibility to the action.

Over 2 million people were impacted. Thousands of views, likes and shares on the Mitsubishi Motors social networks. 98% of positive reactions on the internet. The tribute reverberated on specialized media which guaranteed earned media for the brand. And most important of all: the brand gained even more affection among the public that keeps up with surfing in Brazil, which was one of the goals of the brand in the country.