SITUATION: In Maranhão, a state of the northeast of Brazil, people have a peculiar and curious way of speaking, informally called Maranhês, it’s kind of a dialect of Portuguese. In this context, we needed to launch Magnífica, the first beer born and raised in Maranhão.

BRIEF: We needed a low budget idea to launch Magnífica, with production and distribution only in Maranhão, a low budget beer for middle and low-income consumers. It was very important to show that this beer is from Maranhão like everybody else there.

OBJETIVES: Our objective was to generate talkability around the brand in its first days, spreading the message of its positioning: a beer born and raised in Maranhão, to value the local culture and celebrate the Maranhão way of life. Another important objective was to do this with a low budget idea, because of a restricted amount of investment.

The way of speaking of people from Maranhão is a striking feature of the local culture. The expressions of Maranhês are cheerful and funny, just like beer. To show that Magnífica Beer is from Maranhão like everybody else there, we created a collection of Whatsapp stickers in the shape of a beer cap with expressions that only someone truly from Maranhão could ever understand. When people started using the stickers in Whatsapp groups, social networks began to be taken for memes and mentions to the brand. This caught the attention of the press, which began to make stories about the new beer in newspapers and on TV. As we prepared to turn the stickers into real caps in the beer bottle, the best thing happened: people started to ask for it on social networks, which increased the impact of the idea.

INSIGHT: If Magnífica is a beer born and raised in Maranhão, the brand communication needs to speak in the same way as the public to connect with people and to transmit the truth of the brand. With a genuine content that values the local culture, we have the element needed to generate talkability around the new beer.

KEY MESSAGE: Magnífica has arrived. The first beer born and raised in Maranhão.

TARGET AUDIENCE: People living in Maranhao, 25+, middle and low income beer consumers.

CREATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF ASSETS: On the day of the launch we executed our strategy of viralization: we fired the contents to the sales team of the brewery, which sent to the owners of the bars and restaurants, which sent to their clients, who spread to the entire Maranhão in a few hours. The stickers reached even the journalists and creators, which was a strategic objetive.

On the day of the beer launch, there were two planned strategic events: the first was aimed at the brewery sales team early in the morning. The second was aimed to the press in the late morning. We use these two occasions to implement the idea and reverberate the content. At the event for sellers, we took the opportunity to send the stickers of the caps to the entire team, directing them to send for more than their 5,000 customers, the owners of the bars and restaurants, which sent to their customers, that viralized the content. At the end of the morning the second planned event for the day was held: a press event attended by 89 opinion leaders and the Governor of Maranhão. At that moment the caps were already gaining fame and the press began to be impacted by the action as well.