Let's Summer: Havaianas & AlmapBBDO

Keka Morelle
Executive Creative Director AlmapBBDO
AlmapBBDO
Werbung/Full Service/ Integriert
São Paulo, Brasilien
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Havaianas keeps on spreading the spirit of Brazilian summer in its new global campaign, created by AlmapBBDO. This time, the concept Let’s Summer/ Partiu Verão, inviting people from different countries to dive into this laid-back way of life – light, vibrant, and happy – is expressed in a variety of invitations, encouraging people to make the most of the spirit of the season. The brand is a spokesperson for summer across five continents, no matter what time of year.  

The campaign shows that you can experience all these sensations from wherever you are, just by putting on a pair of the original Brazilian flip-flops. The main message – of diving into the spirit of Brazilian summer – is expressed in themed invitations that encourage people to liven up, make friends, dance samba, and enjoy every moment, among other suggestions. After all, Brazilian summer is about more than just sun, beaches, and the sea: it contains an entire world of vibes, styles, and expressions that have made it unique and world-famous.

The invitations themselves are illustrated and Risographed, presenting a colorful, lively universe. In both static and animated forms, they can be seen in posts on social media, digital media, urban installations, billboards, posters, point-of-sale material, and print ads that interact with different formats in publications across the world. The campaign also includes initiatives featuring local influencers, which are adapted to help each country best understand the spirit of Brazilian summer.


Tell us about your role in the creation of this work.

I’m the executive creative director for the campaign.

Give us an overview of the campaign, what is it about?

Every year Havaianas launches a global campaign, reinforcing its stance as the brand that best understands the spirits of Brazilian summer. In addition to showing off its products, the brand always comes up with a topic that will allow it to dialogue with consumers across a variety of media.

To do that, we developed a campaign inspired by classified ads, describing the different things people could do to really get a feel for Brazilian summer. The invitations ranged from traditional events related to dance, the beach, and nature, to sports and everyday activities.

The invitations were spread across all the media where consumers might come into contact with the brand, from points of sale to posters, banners, and vignettes on social media, even including physical creations like pins, appliqués for clothes, stickers, etc. This is a global campaign, and it went into effect in the world’s leading fashion capitals.

 

Tell us about the details creative brief, what did it ask?

This year, the client asked us to keep working with the concept we created and presented in the previous campaign: Let's Summer. But moving forward, we were challenged to explain what the “Summer” concept is. For Havaianas, it is much more than a season. We wanted to make that even clearer, using the brand’s distinctive visual language and approach.

This was a complex brief, because both consumers and partners around the world needed to understand what summer is like from a Brazilian point of view. The partners were expecting a campaign that was dynamic and that could take in all product portfolios.

 

Which insight led to the creation of this piece of work?

The understanding that Brazilian summer is so many things, and that there’s not one single event that defines it. It’s much more than one of the four seasons. With that in mind, we created a campaign with more than 80 invitations that reflect the spirit of Brazilian summer.

 

What was the greatest challenge that you and your team faced during development.

It was definitely creating something that connects to many different cultural realities. This huge campaign had to embrace the whole world. Havaianas has always invited the world to be more joyful, to see life with a Brazilian soul. 

Havaianas has put out many beautiful and smart campaigns over its history, but this was definitely the greatest challenge we’d faced yet.

I love the fact that Havaianas has this visual approach. To sum it up, it’s a beautiful way to describe the brand in just a few words.

 

What did you enjoy most about seeing this campaign through? Did you learn anything new from the experience?

I really believe that this campaign is like a master’s in art direction. This is my second time I’ve been involved with this specific job, and I can say, this is a milestone for any career.

With so many specifications, cultural differences across five continents, millions of format adaptations, budget challenges and high craft demands, the creatives involved have grown a lot after these 8 months of hard work.