Inspired by Brazil’s genuine ability to embrace other cultures, we made a bold move: convinced VisitBrasil to recognize Portuñol as the official language of summer in Brazil. Since the two languages keep a few similarities (despite all the differences), it's not difficult to assemble words and sentences. The mixed up language that blends Portuguese + Spanish (español) was already a reality in a few small cities at the borders, something that happened naturally and without any interference. Endorsing its spread all over Brazil and making it the core of our summer campaign, made it possible to show the world one of the many facets of our hospitality. And at the end of the day, think about it: what other country in the world could ever do this with the same authenticity?

Visit Brasil launched the initiative using digital, direct and social media channels to activate and engage both tourists and brazilians. In addition to the main film we developed a short web serie starring Consuelo, the Portuñol Ambassador, with language and tourist tips all wrapped up in a fun mood. To spread the message around the continent, we invited 4 digital influencers to visit Brazil and share the experience with their followers through Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. They also encouraged everyone to take part in the Collaborative Dictionary of Portuñol hosted at visitbrasil.com, where users could also find plenty of information to organize their trip to Brazil. At the same time, national and international trade partners received the campaign materials and both brazilians and foreigners were speaking Portuñol before we knew.

During the 3 months of the campaign (december 2017 – february 2018) we reached: more than 65 million views; more than 630 million impressions; an 865% increase in visitors to VISITBRASIL.COM and a 15% increase in the number of tourists visiting Brazil. More importantly, the great campaign numbers became even better results in real life. Brazil registered the best rate of south american visitors in the last 5 years and between January 2017 and January 2018 we received more tourists than during the Olympic Games and the FIFA™ World Cup!

A country adapts its own language in a tourist effort to welcome visitors. It embraces Spanish just to make tourists feel embraced as well. It makes it in a fun, fresh and authentic way. Not only we changed the perception latin americans had about brazilians, but also managed to positively interfere in their travel behaviour. Now, tell us: what other country, if not Brazil, could possibly make a move like this without sounding fake or overly forced?

After we thoroughly investigated the travel habits of our targeted audience (Latin America countries with special attention to South America) and realized that the language difference was a relevant issue for them, we decided to literally change the way we communicated the travel experiences Brazil could offer. Instead of prioritizing landscapes once again, this time we focused on displaying the warmth of brazilians and their commitment in making a trip to Brazil a life changing experience, despite language differences. In a synchronized and integrated effort, we prepared the country to embrace Portuñol at the same time that we worked online in every major social network to deliver the message to our international audience in a fun and fresh way.

For the Summer campaign of 2018, VisitBrasil had a limited budget and a big problem: despite its immense tourist potential, it hadn't been attracting as many latin american tourists as one could imagine. Research showed us that being the only portuguese-speaking country of the continent was one of the main reasons leading to that. Our challenge was to start changing this reality, convincing the neighbor-countries that Brazil had a lot to offer and brazilians would make anyone feel at home even if they couldn’t speak portuguese.