Marketing in Brazil: what global brands need to know before investing

Marketing in Brazil, for a global brand, is the work of adapting positioning, media, data, content and operations to a market with its own laws, consumer habits and commercial structure. It is not a matter of translating the global campaign. The country has an agency compensation model grounded in law, a data protection law with its own enforcement authority, active advertising self-regulation and an instant payment system created by the Central Bank.

For multinationals entering the country or expanding their local operations, the risk rarely lies in the creative idea. It lies in imported assumptions: an agency contract written for another market, a consent flow designed for another law, a checkout without the payment methods people expect. This guide sets out what global leadership and the Brazilian subsidiary need to align before investing.

What the Brazilian market looks like: regions and mobile

The 2022 Census by IBGE (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística, Brazil's national statistics office) counted more than 203 million inhabitants across five major regions, 26 states and the Federal District. The regions differ in income, infrastructure, climate and media habits. A plan that treats the country as a single market tends to concentrate budget where the brand is already known.

Digital behavior is mobile. According to IBGE's PNAD Contínua TIC 2025, the technology module of its national household survey, 90.5% of people aged 10 or older used the internet in the three months before the survey, conducted in the fourth quarter of 2025. Among those users, 98.7% went online by mobile phone. The most cited purposes were voice or video calls (95.3%), messaging through apps other than email (90.2%) and social media (84.9%).

In 2025, 52.7% of users reported buying goods or services online, ranging from 35.0% in the North to 61.6% in the Southeast. In part of the country, digital media leads to an online purchase; in another part, it supports a purchase made in store or by message.

How media buying works in Brazil

Law No. 4,680 of 1965 (Lei nº 4.680) defines the advertising agency and establishes that the discount due to agencies is set by media outlets on their rate card prices. The law also prohibits that discount on advertising sent directly to media outlets by anyone who is not an agency or an agent.

On that basis, the market organized itself through self-regulation. CENP (Conselho Executivo das Normas-Padrão, the Executive Council of Standard Norms), which describes itself as the self-regulation forum of the advertising market, brings together advertisers, agencies, media outlets and digital companies. Its Normas-Padrão (Standard Norms) cover four points that affect the contract:

• Standard discount: an agency certified by CENP is entitled to a standard discount of no less than 20% of the amount it forwards to the media outlet on the client's behalf and for the client's account. That amount is agency revenue.
• Negotiable portion: part of the standard discount can be negotiated with the advertiser, on a scale that takes into account annual investment in media outlets that adhere to the norms.
• Fee: fee-based compensation is accepted as an alternative or a complement.
• Incentive plans: media outlets may maintain incentive plans for agencies, known in the market as BV (a volume bonus paid by the outlet to the agency). The norms state that the client may ask whether the agency takes part in them.

The norms distinguish adhering media outlets from those that do not set agency compensation, and the model does not apply the same way to every channel. Before extending a global agency agreement to Brazil, review with local legal counsel how it fits the law and the norms, and what information the company will have about investment by media outlet.

Data regulation: what LGPD requires of marketing

Brazil's General Personal Data Protection Law (LGPD, Law No. 13,709/2018) applies to processing carried out in Brazil, to processing aimed at offering goods or services to people in the country and to data collected in Brazil, wherever the company is headquartered. Enforcement falls to Brazil's National Data Protection Agency (ANPD). Four points weigh most in marketing:

• Legal basis: the law lists ten grounds that authorize processing. Consent is one of them; legitimate interest is another, limited where the data subject's rights prevail. Document the basis for each purpose.
• Consent: it must be free, informed and unambiguous, and given for a specific purpose. Generic authorizations are void, and the data subject can revoke consent free of charge and through an easy process.
• Data subject and DPO: individuals can request access to, correction of and deletion of their data. The controller must appoint a data protection officer (the encarregado) and publish their contact details.
• International transfers: in 2024, the ANPD approved the regulation on the subject and the model standard contractual clauses (Resolution CD/ANPD No. 19).

Sanctions include fines of up to 2% of revenue in Brazil, capped at R$ 50 million per violation. Design data collection, consent and sharing with platforms before launch.

Advertising regulation: CDC, CONAR and influencers

The Código de Defesa do Consumidor (CDC, Brazil's Consumer Protection Code) requires advertising to be identified as such, easily and immediately, and prohibits misleading or abusive advertising. Alongside the law, CONAR (Brazil's National Council for Advertising Self-Regulation) applies the Brazilian Code of Advertising Self-Regulation and reviews complaints about ads.

CONAR's code has annexes by category, such as alcoholic beverages, food, over-the-counter medicines, investments and betting. The Constitution provides for legal restrictions on advertising for tobacco, alcoholic beverages, pesticides, medicines and therapies. Regulated sectors need local legal review before adapting any creative asset.

In 2026, CONAR published the new edition of its Guide to Marketing and Advertising by Digital Influencers. It recommends that advertising content be identified up front, through the platform's paid content tool or with terms such as #publi and #publicidade (Portuguese for "ad" and "advertising"). The guide notes that foreign terms, such as #ad, may not be understandable to the audience. The article on influencer marketing in large companies covers the topic in more depth.

WhatsApp and social commerce: what official data supports

PNAD Contínua does not ask about specific apps, but it shows that messaging and calls are among the most frequent uses of the internet in the country. That makes conversation a channel to plan for. WhatsApp's business platform requires companies to obtain opt-in before sending messages, on top of LGPD. Define who answers conversations, how they reach the CRM and how the source of each one is recorded.

On social commerce, PNAD records online purchases without separating purchases made on social networks. Check the methodology behind any market figure on the subject before using it in a business plan.

Payments: Pix and installments

Pix is the instant payment system created by the Banco Central do Brasil, Brazil's Central Bank. It has operated since November 3, 2020, runs 24 hours a day, every day, and completes payments in a few seconds. Since June 16, 2025, Pix Automático (automatic Pix) has enabled recurring payments, such as subscriptions and monthly fees, with a single authorization from the payer.

Installments are the second piece. The Central Bank distinguishes card purchases split into installments by the merchant, with no charges to the buyer, from installment plans financed by the card issuer, with interest. It also notes market solutions that offer credit at the moment of a Pix payment: the recipient receives the full amount right away and the payer pays off the installments with their own financial institution. For marketing, the payment method is part of the offer and needs to be consistent across the ad, the product page and the checkout.

Localization is not translation

The CDC requires product offers to provide correct, clear, precise and prominent information, in Portuguese, about characteristics, price, warranty and risks. That is the floor. Localization goes further:

• Language: Brazilian Portuguese, not European Portuguese. Vocabulary, spelling and forms of address differ.
• Tone: the local voice guide defines formality, the use of humor and what the brand does not say.
• Cultural references: commercial dates, holidays and the school calendar are specific to the country, and across much of its territory the seasons are the opposite of those in the Northern Hemisphere.
• Regions: expressions and habits vary. Test national creative in more than one region.
• Claims: the CDC requires the advertiser to keep the data that supports the message. A claim approved in another country may need new substantiation.

Operating model: global governance and local autonomy

The central question is what headquarters decides and what the local team decides. A starting point:

• Headquarters: positioning, brand architecture, identity, data principles and measurement criteria.
• Brazil: media plan, calendar, message adaptation, partners, creators and offers.
• Joint decision: budget, targets and exceptions to the brand system.

Without this division in writing, every piece of creative becomes an international approval. See the article on brand governance at scale.

For the agency model, the brand can extend its global network, hire local agencies or combine the two. In any case, define who owns the media accounts, the data and the creative assets.

For measurement, define the business metric and the system it comes from before launch. Platform attribution does not separate the effect of media from the natural growth of a new brand. The article on media incrementality explains how to test that effect, and the one on media budget allocation covers distribution across channels and regions.

Hypothetical example: the first year split by region

Consider a hypothetical global consumer goods brand with R$ 20 million in media for its first year in Brazil, in illustrative figures. The company sets aside 70% (R$ 14 million) for the markets where it already has distribution, 20% (R$ 4 million) for geographic tests in two new regions and 10% (R$ 2 million) for local production and creators. The rule is recorded in advance: if incremental sales in the new regions, measured in the commercial system, cover the investment in contribution margin, the expansion budget grows in the second half of the year; if they do not, it goes back to the current markets.

Checklist for the first 90 days

• Days 1 to 30: map the category's rules in law and at CONAR, review agency contracts with local legal counsel and define the legal basis, consent, DPO and data transfer clauses.
• Days 31 to 60: audit global assets, produce the local voice guide, adapt the core creative, open media accounts in the company's name, integrate WhatsApp with the CRM and review the checkout with Pix and installments.
• Days 61 to 90: launch in waves, monitor ad disclosure by creators and take a first read of the tests.

Common mistakes global brands make in Brazil

• Translating the global campaign and calling it localization.
• Extending the global agency contract without reviewing it in light of Law No. 4,680 and the Normas-Padrão.
• Copying another country's consent flow without checking the legal basis under LGPD.
• Accepting #ad as disclosure for creator content.
• Tracking only the national average.
• Judging the first year by platform ROAS while the brand is still building demand.

Frequently asked questions about marketing in Brazil

How does marketing in Brazil work for foreign companies?

Foreign companies that advertise in the country and process data of people in Brazil follow the same rules as Brazilian companies: LGPD, the CDC, CONAR self-regulation and, in media buying, Law No. 4,680 and CENP's Normas-Padrão. The operation works best when it combines global brand governance with a local team or partner responsible for media, content and compliance.

How are advertising agencies paid in Brazil?

Law No. 4,680/1965 provides for the agency discount, set by media outlets on their rate cards. CENP's Normas-Padrão detail that discount, the portion negotiable with the advertiser and the fee alternative.

Does LGPD require consent for every use of data in marketing?

No. Consent is one of the legal bases, and there are others, such as legitimate interest, which has limits. The company must choose and document the basis for each purpose. When the basis is consent, it must be free, informed, unambiguous and revocable.

Do influencers have to disclose advertising in Brazil?

Yes. The CDC requires advertising to be identifiable, and CONAR's guide recommends up-front disclosure, through the platform's tool or with terms such as #publi and #publicidade, in Portuguese.

Why does Pix matter for marketing?

Because it is an instant payment method created by the Central Bank, available 24 hours a day, that consumers compare with other options at the moment of purchase. Offering Pix at checkout, with the terms communicated consistently between ad and store, avoids losing the sale at the last step.

To bring your entry into Brazil into planning, explore our Media practice and our Brand practice.