4 Latin American Brands That Will Inspire Your Content Strategy

Imagine you’re going to the bathroom and when you go to dry your hands, the paper towel has breaking news printed on it. That’s a fairly common occurrence in the malls and offices of Mexico City thanks to Más por Más, a free Mexican newspaper.

Seeking an innovative way to reach new readers, Más por Más designed and made a paper towel dispenser that connects to their newswire and uses special ink to provide people with the latest news. Each print had a QR code that drove people to their site. (The video above shows how they built it.)

According to Más por Más, after the first two weeks their unique visitors increased 37 percent.

This is just one example of the many engaging media and marketing strategies coming out of Latin America. These companies don’t waste their time begging for retweets; instead, they bring tremendously unique experiences to the public. Let’s examine some other inspiring examples:

CNA: Speaking Exchange

CNA is a Brazilian-based language school network that launched a program, Speaking Exchange, that connects young Brazilian students to Americans living in retirement homes.

“The goal of the Speaking Exchange project is to transform lives,” said CNA’s marketing director, Luciana Fortuna, to Agency Spy. “Our students have the opportunity to practice English with people who are willing to listen. During the chat sessions, the students discuss ideas and information from their lives in Brazil with the American senior citizens, many of whom have never had contact with anyone from Brazil before.”

The conversations are posted on a private YouTube channel so the teachers can evaluate each student’s progress. But when CNA wanted to get the word out, they compiled those videos into a heartwarming piece of viral gold that has been viewed over a million times and won a Lion at Cannes and a Clio Award.

Beldent: Almost Identical

Does chewing gum make you look better or worse? In order to answer this question, Beldent—the Argentine version of Trident—held a live art exhibition at the MALBA (Museum of Latin American Art in Buenos Aires). The exhibition featured five sets of twins with only one of them chewing gum. They asked people to answer questions about their personality by simply looking at them, and 73 percent of respondents favored the twin chewing gum.

While it isn’t surprising that people had a better perception of the twin in subtle motion than the one still and blankly staring, I still love that Beldent turned branded content into art and made museum goers became part of the experiment.

The video has over 7 million views on YouTube and won eight Lions at Cannes. Describing the ad’s success, Saatchi & Saatchi boasted: “Above all, it turned gum into a topic of conversation for our target, something that had never happened before in a category where the only thing that used to be communicated was the intrinsic attribute of the product, e.g. freshness.”

Coca-Cola: Friendly Twist and PhotoCoke

Who doesn’t remember how awkward the first day of college was? To help freshman out—and create a viral hit—Coca-Cola Colombia and Leo Burnett placed vending machines filled with their new bottle design on the first day of school. The bottle is designed so it can only be opened with another bottle. Which means that once the student picked up the bottle, they had to break the ice with a fellow freshmen in order to enjoy their Coke.

Concluding Thoughts

Engaging audiences in person through unexpected ways is more meaningful than any Tweet or Facebook post. By creating truly authentic and enjoyable experiences, the brands above made tremendous strides towards building relationships with people—which is any marketer’s ultimate goal.