Itaipava, one of Brazil's biggest beer brands, sponsors nine major Carnaval festivities, including the one in Rio de Janeiro.

Every year, more than 50 million barely clothed people take to the streets during Carnaval, usually in very hot days, and a new trend: covering their bodies in glitter for the fun.

Unfortunately, while the festivities happen, Brazil faces an epidemic of Dengue, Yellow Fever, Chikungunya and Zika Virus. These diseases are transmitted by the Aedes Aegypti, which proliferates with greater speed at this time of the year. With so many mosquitoes and so many people on the streets, the increase in the number of infected people is inevitable.

Itaipava´s main objective was to activate its sponsorship and to protect those enjoying Carnaval outdoors, ensuring that nothing would get in the way of the fun. That´s why the beer brand developed an exclusive product for this party.

Carnaval, with millions of people on the streets, lots of skin on display and no worries, creates the perfect setting for Aedes Aegypti. The increase in recorded cases of mosquito-borne tropical diseases is considerable at this time.

No one remembers to use repellent to prevent bites, but everyone always remembers to spread glitter all over, the new trend of the Brazilian Carnaval. Therefore, the official beer of Carnaval distributed a unique product, the Glitter Repellent, which combines the biggest trend of the party with the need for protection.

Its formula has biodegradable glitter and Merck 3535, a repellent recommended and certified by ANVISA (National Agency for Sanitary Surveillance). It´s a fun, effective solution. With a single use, people would glow and be protected to have fun all day long.

The main goal of the Glitter Repellent is to protect people who are enjoying the Carnaval celebrations sponsored by Itaipava. Thus, its target was composed of the people who were in those places, focusing on men and women between the ages of 18 to 35. They are all considered an easy target for the mosquito and, consequently, for the diseases transmitted by it.

Our strategy was to carry out the activation in the events sponsored by the brand in an innovative way, by providing a service to the attendees, who could then protect themselves from the diseases transmitted by the Aedes Aegypti. THis way, we built a closer relationship with the target audience, while informing them about the importance of being protected from the mosquito bites during the festivities.

The first step in the implementation of the Glitter Repellent project was to develop the product. For months, several formulations were tested until we found the final formula that would guarantee both the glow and the protection against Aedes Aegypti bites. With a truly effective product in hands, we followed the schedule and produced it in large scale.

Since the product was developed for Carnaval, we defined the moment of the party as the ideal to carry out the activation with promoters. We trained the team to distribute individually and to warn the target audience of the importance of protection against mosquito bites at this time of year. Then, we went to the streets during the festivities, when there is a huge concentration of people exposed to the bites.

Itaipava beer sponsors nine major Carnaval parties in Brazil, among them, the traditional Carnaval street parties and the one in Rio de Janeiro.

Glitter Repellent was developed to achieve the following results: activating the sponsorship of Itaipava during Carnaval and protecting those present in our events. These objectives were surpassed because, in addition to activating the sponsorship in an innovative way, protecting the local public and alerting about the risks of Aedes Aegypti, we also guaranteed Brand Presence, thus achieving the expected return on the investment for these events.

The initiative was welcomed in the places where it happened, also generating an immediate return of use, information and, most importantly, creating another point of contact with the brand.

This sponsorship delivered the following results:

• + 20.94% references to the brand when compared to the previous year

• + 50,468 followers on Instagram

• 98% of positive or neutral comments