In Brazil, a samba is a celebration. The Samba of the World is the story of how people from each of the 32 participating countries competing at the World Cup celebrate on match day. From what they eat to how they dance, their rituals and traditions were captured in 32 short films that showed how every country has their own unique version of a samba.

Musicians from each of the participating countries created the soundtrack for each of the films by recording their own version of the Brazilian song “Maria Caipirinha”, using the instruments and rhythms of their nation.

Each version of the song followed the same structure and BPM, so people could seamlessly flip between the films on an interactive website without missing a beat.

To show how every country has its unique way of dancing to celebrate the World Cup in an authentic way, we couldn’t shoot just one film. So, we divided the budget into 32 Visa Cards (25k dollars each) and gave them to directors and musicians from each of the 32 participating countries to interpret the brief through their national lens.

Directors had 1’30” to show how their country lives and celebrates match day. They had total creative freedom as long as they followed the same narrative structure:

Instrument Reception From Left > Food and Gear > Rituals and Traditions > Historical Moment > Celebration Climax > Instrument Toss to Right.

Musicians were asked to follow the same key, tempo and structure to allow a fluid experience on the interactive site. Lots of well-known artists participated like Sally Nyolo from Nigeria, Didi Gutman from Argentina or Diabo na Cruz from Portugal.

Each film passed through the legal of each country and well as Visa legal, FIFA legal and agency legal. To avoid production issues, we created a guideline document that outlined the use of only official World Cup Sponsor Brands, getting all the image rights from extras, locations, celebrities, etc....