Akzonobel - Coral Paints

While working on AkzoNobel’s "Coral" brand's Crisis Prevention and Management team, I was also responsible for monitoring the brand’s reputation across digital channels. One challenge in particular stood out:

Luciano Huck, Brazil’s most famous TV show host, is known for adapting popular U.S. television formats. One of them was “Lar Doce Lar” (“Home Sweet Home”), where he would renovate someone’s house. To be selected, participants had to send in letters describing their hardships in the saddest, most emotional way possible - hoping to move the show’s producers (or, as they imagined, Luciano himself). These makeovers were always sponsored by brands, and in this case, our direct competitor was one of them.

Through social media monitoring, I identified a curious phenomenon: audiences began to associate paint not as something to be purchased, but as something to be “won” through emotional storytelling. We coined this behavior “The Luciano Huckization of consumption.”

Comment sections on our posts turned into contests of personal tragedy, with users pleading for paint by showcasing how much they “deserved” it.

The strategic solution was to reposition the brand away from this expectation of charity. Instead, we associated Coral Paints with creativity, street art, and decorative expression, shifting the narrative from necessity to inspiration.

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