Cases

Understanding life in Mooca in order to create a housing development closely related to the profile of the neighborhood

Client: Cyrela

The challenge

The Cyrela brand has been present for more than 50 years in Brazilians’lives. Throughout this time its image as the largest real estate developer of the country was consolidated.

To launch new housing developments in Brazil,  every Cyrela property has to be in fact a clear representation of potential clients’ values and ideas. A deep understanding of such values and ideas has a fundamental impact in the architectonic conception of the property and also in planning its launching communication .

This project’s specific challenge was related to the launching communication of a development in Mooca, a São Paulo neighborhood: the “Lights of Mooca” . Our objective was to present a deeper vision of this neighborhood, described by many as one of the city’s most typical. This vision should go beyond superficial stereotypes and peceptions, helping to develop a really pertinent and impacting communication.

How was it solved

We carried out a total of 6 ethnographies with Mooca residents with potential to be Cyrela’s development clients. They involved a profound immersion in all significates related to “living in Mooca” .  This activity enabled us to explore the neighbourhood residents’ colletive imaginary: what they think about life, expectations for the future, beliefs about special attributes of the neighbourhood, what they would like the area to become, among other related issues.

All ethnographies were carried out in residents’homes, and were amply visually documented.  This way we could understand how these values and ideas manifested in practical aspects like decoration and space utilization. Furthermore and fundamentally, we could understand the way a new home should “talk”  to a Mooca resident, and discover how to avoid eventual noises.

Results

“Luzes da Mooca” campaign was launched with great success.

It uses several work insights, such as the proposal of having a communication campaign that included a careful combination of elements like:

“Tradition”, made tangible for instance by the campaign’ jingle (a famous Italian opera song reproduction) and by informing that the development preserves neighborhood icons.

- “Modernity”, made very clear by the campaign’s activation actions, the best example probably being the surprising “sound brochure”distributed in 11/21/2010 with the “Estado de São Paulo” newspaper.

This was an essential combination: while traditional elements guaranteed the connection with the area’ s potential public, its modernity brought the promise of a non-diminished vision of its residents (“Mooca did not stop in time!”) and permitted the display of the property’s differentials.

Film created by Eugenio Marketing Imobiliário.