Situation:

Argentina is one of the countries with the highest inflation rates, not only in the region but also in the world. Prices change every day, and people find ways to make their money stretch.

Brief:

Promote Mercado Pago, the number one digital account in the region, on the most watched program of the moment, Big Brother, highlighting its investment features.

Objectives:

Leverage the success of the program to reach more people and ultimately gain more users.

In the context of the economic crisis, the biggest reality show in the world, Big Brother, returned to television. It was not going to be an exception and was also going to suffer from the same inflation as all Argentinians. Its prize of $15,000,000 was going to lose value day by day while the participants were inside the house. After four months of competition, the winner would receive a devalued prize (monthly average inflation 2022 was 6%)

This bleak scenario was a good opportunity to promote Mercado Pago and its feature to invest money with a simple tap, earning interests every day. Using this feature, we invested the $15,000,000 prize, earning interest week by week, making sure that the prize did not lose its value and demonstrating how easy it was to combat inflation with Mercado Pago.

We needed to explain Mercado Pago’s investment features in a way that most Argentinians would understand. We partnered with Big Brother, the most watched show in open TV. A show that gets people talking, but also press, influencers and the public opinion. So if we did it right, in a way that didn’t feel like an ad, maybe we could have a much bigger impact.

The idea was simple: Invest the final prize in the Mercado Pago App to show its ability to make money grow.

The strategy included a special segment during Sunday galas, where the progress of the prize was announced, with easy understandable graphics and a lot of suspense.

On weekdays 4 other shows of the Viacom grid covering Big Brother’s best moments would amplify our message. We also partnered with entertainment Influencers as well as economy related micro influencers to broaden the audiences.

The campaign ran during the 4 months that Big Brother was on. It’s central idea: invest the show’s final prize in the Mercado Pago App. The evolution of the prize was communicated to the audience as well as the participants by the show’s host every Sunday, in a special section during the galas. It was probably the only information shared between the house and the outside world. It became a very much awaited moment in the show, using simple graphics and a bit of intrigue to reveal how much the prize had increased thanks to the interests of the investment in Mercado Pago. We reached an audience of 30 million people.

The highest peak of investments ever made with a growth of +43.9% vs. the previous period to the campaign.

A growth of +45.5% mentions vs. the previous period to the campaign.

A growth of +244.78% of impressions vs. the previous period to the campaign.

A record of searches for “Investments Mercado Pago”.

And a final prize worth +$4.442.132 argentinian pesos.

PR generated was valued at $1.1M

More mentions of “big brother prize” than in any previous edition of the

show.

28% Traffic Increase to App during show airings