I tend to think of myself as a forward observer…

All week I’ve been intrigued by the Brazilian market. It all started with a great conversation I had with a Denver advertising agency. A great question was posed to me by the Creative Director. Where do you see the general and Hispanic markets going in the next five years? My thoughts are we’re going to see just more integration, soon enough the debate about language will disappear. There will be more bilingual people, but in the end English will still dominate. We’re just going to see cultures merge in an almost natural way…kind of like Brazil. (Have a Treaty of Tordesillas theory behind this, if we ever meet, ask me about it.)

Over the last few years, the Brazilian domestic market has adjusted and is poised to fulfill its long touted economic potential. U.S. brands, and specifically  international action sports ones, can definitely learn and gain financially from what’s going down there now. Yes, there are some violence issues to contend with, but in the long run not enough of a reason to ignore the place Brazil holds in global youth marketing.

What the Brazilian youth market has going for it, like the U.S. urban market, is a large pool of young people. The youth population was 27.3 of the population in 2008. Throw in a healthy advertising/marketing environment and you can begin to see a flow of creative energy necessary for an international brand’s growth. It certainly doesn’t hurt that there’s more than 8,000 km of coastline producing a lot of surf talent and a strong skate scene. Heck even the snow side of action sports can play too…Take a look at this site.

Just something to think about as the future rapidly arrives…     

Imagens em Super 8 da Rua Maria Angélica, no bairro Jardim Botânico, Rio de Janeiro (RJ), filmadas por volta de 1974. A rua, criada em 1896, virou “point” de skatismo e outros esportes no início dos anos 1970.

Super 8 images of the Street Angélica Maria, in the Botanical Garden neighborhood of Rio De Janeiro (RJ), filmed around 1974. The street was created in 1896, becoming a “destination point” for skateboarding  and other sports at the beginning of the 1970s.

Tags: action sports, Brazil, Latin America, skate, snow, surf, Youth Market