Bradesco Bets on Fireflies and Inclusion to Welcome 2020
Bradesco's 'In 2020, Shine Your Own Way' is a three-minute 3D animated film created by Publicis Brasil and produced by Zombie Studio, launched in Brazil in December 2019 as the bank's year-end institutional campaign, positioning Bradesco as a champion of individual empowerment, diversity, and inclusion through an emotionally resonant narrative rather than a conventional finance message.
The campaign centres on Luna, a firefly unable to glow, and Vitinho, a boy with Down syndrome who helps her rescue captured fireflies. The creative premise translates a financial brand's values into a piece of storytelling that avoids transactional messaging entirely. By anchoring the film in a narrative of mutual support and hidden potential, Publicis Brasil gave Bradesco a media asset capable of generating emotional recall at a moment — the cusp of a new year — when Brazilian audiences are naturally reflective and goal-oriented.
In Brazil, the campaign debuted simultaneously on Monday, 9 December 2019 at 8:31 p.m. across 17 exclusive broadcast channels, according to latinspots.com. That placement included four free-to-air networks — Globo, RedeTV!, SBT, Record and Band — alongside thirteen pay-TV channels, as reported by Little Black Book. Distribution extended to YouTube, Twitter, digital out-of-home, major news portals and Globo.com, per Banco Bradesco. The film's soundtrack featured 'Hero,' performed by Brazilian singer Ráae, as documented by latinspots.com. The campaign earned a Clapboard Score of 54 out of 100, reflecting solid craft and clear strategic intent within a competitive institutional-film category.
Bradesco operates inside one of the most concentrated banking systems in Latin America. The five largest Brazilian banks — Itaú Unibanco, Banco do Brasil, Bradesco, Santander Brasil, and Caixa Econômica Federal — held 77.6% of total banking assets in December 2020, down from 81% a year earlier, according to the Banco Central do Brasil. That gradual erosion of incumbent dominance signals a market under competitive pressure from digital challengers, making differentiation through brand perception increasingly valuable for legacy institutions.
Within that context, Bradesco's choice to anchor its campaign in themes of diversity and inclusion was strategically deliberate. Márcio Parizotto, Marketing Director at Bradesco, stated, as reported by adobomagazine.com, that the bank's narrative around concepts such as diversity and inclusion represents an evolution of pillars that have always marked its performance. By surfacing those values in a cinematic animated film rather than a product-led communication, Bradesco positioned itself against competitors such as Itaú Unibanco and Nubank — the latter having built significant brand equity in Brazil precisely by rejecting the visual and emotional conventions of traditional banking. The finance category in Brazil had been moving toward more human storytelling, and the 'In 2020, Shine Your Own Way' campaign placed Bradesco at the centre of that shift.
The campaign also continued a platform, not a one-off creative burst. According to Publicis Com Br, the firefly metaphor was first introduced by Publicis Brasil for Bradesco in 2018, making the December 2019 film the second major chapter of what the agency called the 'vagalumes' — fireflies — platform. Publicis was appointed to Bradesco's institutional communications through a competitive process completed in early 2017, per Meioemensagem Com Br, giving the agency enough runway to build a coherent multi-year brand narrative.
Zombie Studio produced the three-minute film entirely in 3D animation, a format that allowed the creative team to construct a visual world governed by its own emotional logic rather than the constraints of live action. The animated medium gave the firefly narrative a universality that might have felt more laboured in a realistic setting, while still communicating specificity through character design and the symbolic use of light.
Domênico Massareto, Chief Creative Officer at Publicis Brasil, described the creative intent in remarks documented by latinspots.com: the campaign approaches the question of inclusion in a very special way by showing that both Luna and Vitinho see things that other people cannot see, and in doing so they shine even more. That framing — perceiving the world differently as a source of strength rather than limitation — underpins every creative decision in the film, from the visual contrast between darkness and bioluminescent light to the dynamic between the two central characters. The choice to make Vitinho a child with Down syndrome, and to place him as the one who enables Luna's rescue mission, inverted a familiar narrative trope by positioning the character typically cast as vulnerable as the active agent of change.
The music selection reinforced the emotional architecture. 'Hero,' performed by Brazilian singer Ráae, as noted by latinspots.com, provided a lyrical counterpart to the visual storytelling, extending the film's emotional register beyond image alone. The simultaneous broadcast across 17 channels on a single evening, as reported by lbbonline.com, was itself a production and media decision that amplified the sense of event, ensuring the film functioned as a shared cultural moment rather than a passive content placement. Production credits beyond Massareto's creative direction and Zombie Studio's animation work are not comprehensively documented in publicly available sources.
The campaign reached more than 125 million people across Brazil, according to banco.bradesco. That figure reflects the combined effect of simultaneous prime-time broadcast placement across 17 channels and extended digital distribution through YouTube, Twitter, digital out-of-home, and major news portals, as reported by latinspots.com and lbbonline.com. For a single institutional film released on one evening, the reach figure indicates that the media strategy amplified creative investment significantly.
On YouTube, the film recorded approximately 1,139 views and eight likes at the time of documentation, per the platform's own publicly visible metrics. Those numbers are modest in absolute terms and point to a campaign whose impact was weighted toward broadcast and paid digital channels rather than organic social distribution. The relatively contained YouTube engagement is consistent with a media plan designed around a scheduled broadcast event rather than viral content mechanics.
No independent third-party effectiveness data — such as brand-lift studies, recall scores, or share-of-voice measurements — is publicly available for this campaign. Structurally, however, the campaign's decision to extend an established creative platform, deploy a simultaneous multi-channel launch, and anchor the narrative in a culturally resonant inclusion story suggests a communications approach built for sustained brand equity rather than short-cycle performance. The Shorty Awards recognised the campaign, according to shortyawards.com, providing an external validation of the creative work's standing within the industry. The Clapboard Score of 54 out of 100 reflects competent execution and coherent strategy within a category where emotional narrative has become increasingly competitive currency.
Bradesco's 'In 2020, Shine Your Own Way' is a three-minute 3D animated film created by Publicis Brasil and produced by Zombie Studio. Launched in Brazil in December 2019 as an end-of-year institutional campaign, it follows Luna, a firefly unable to glow, and Vitinho, a boy with Down syndrome, to communicate themes of inclusion and individual empowerment.
Publicis Brasil created the campaign and Zombie Studio produced it. The film launched in Brazil on 9 December 2019, airing simultaneously across 17 broadcast channels at 8:31 p.m., according to latinspots.com. Domênico Massareto served as Chief Creative Officer at Publicis Brasil for the project.
The campaign features Luna, a firefly who cannot glow, and Vitinho, a boy with Down syndrome who helps her rescue captured fireflies. The firefly metaphor — introduced by Publicis Brasil for Bradesco in 2018, per publicis.com.br — represents personal light and individuality, with the 2020 film serving as the platform's second major chapter.
The campaign reached more than 125 million people in Brazil, according to banco.bradesco. That reach was achieved through simultaneous prime-time broadcast across 17 channels — including Globo, SBT, Record, and RedeTV! — combined with distribution via YouTube, Twitter, digital out-of-home, and major news portals, as reported by lbbonline.com.
The Bradesco 'In 2020, Shine Your Own Way' campaign holds a Clapboard Score of 54 out of 100. The score reflects competent creative execution and a coherent inclusion-led strategy, balanced against modest organic digital engagement and the absence of publicly verified independent effectiveness data beyond the campaign's documented broadcast reach figure.
Bradesco used the campaign to reinforce diversity and inclusion as institutional brand pillars, as stated by Marketing Director Márcio Parizotto per adobomagazine.com. This positioning addresses competitive pressure from rivals including Itaú Unibanco and Nubank in a Brazilian banking market where the five largest banks' combined asset share declined from 81% to 77.6%, according to the Banco Central do Brasil.
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