How CNA Idiomas Used Fortnite to Democratise English Exchange for Brazilians
Gaming Exchange is a 2024 digital and direct campaign created by CNA Idiomas and agency Tech and Soul that places Brazilian English-language students inside a custom Fortnite map to simulate a real cultural exchange experience in the United States, connecting them with native English-speaking gamers entirely free of charge.
CNA Idiomas operates more than 700 schools across Brazil and serves approximately 100,000 students. Despite that scale, the network confronts a structural barrier that no classroom alone can resolve: in Brazil, only one percent of the population achieves mastery of English, a disparity that the brand's own communications directly attribute to social inequality. For millions of Brazilian families, a traditional study-abroad programme in the United States represents both a career milestone and an economic impossibility, particularly after a decade of declining middle-class purchasing power.
Gaming Exchange addresses that gap by building the first in-game exchange programme in history. Launched in January 2024 across the Brazilian and United States markets, the campaign centres on a fully playable Fortnite map, accessible via code 8157-6016-0263, according to Portaldapropaganda Com Br. The map recreates emblematic American settings, including scenarios evoking immigration, tourism, work, and visits to landmarks in New York and Los Angeles, as reported by Correio24horas Com Br. Brazilian students navigate these environments alongside native English-speaking American gamers, practising real conversational English inside a cultural context that mirrors what a physical exchange would provide. The Fortnite server, map, and all associated challenges were made publicly available free of charge by February 2024, per correio24horas.com.br. The campaign was created for CNA Idiomas by agency Tech and Soul and sits within the digital and direct media category. Clapboard Score: 72/100.
CNA Idiomas identified Fortnite as the most played game in Brazil at the time of the campaign's conception. That single fact anchors the entire strategic rationale: if the audience already inhabits a shared virtual world, the most effective way to deliver an English exchange experience is to meet students where they already spend time, rather than asking them to adopt an unfamiliar platform or travel to an unreachable country.
The underlying consumer insight is precise. Study-abroad programmes in the United States have long functioned as a class marker in Brazil, accessible to upper-income families and largely out of reach for the middle class that forms the core of CNA Idiomas's student base. In Brazil, the language-education market is estimated at more than four billion US dollars annually, with approximately 20,000 language schools competing for enrolment, according to teflheaven.com, though that figure is treated as an indicative estimate rather than a verified statistic. Globally, the online language-learning segment was valued at approximately 22.1 billion US dollars in 2024, with a projected compound annual growth rate of around 16.6 percent through 2030, according to skyquestt.com. That growth context intensifies competition across both the Brazilian and United States markets, where platforms such as Duolingo and brick-and-mortar networks including Wizard by Pearson directly contest CNA Idiomas for student attention and enrolment.
Gaming Exchange responds to that competitive pressure not by competing on price or course breadth but by creating a category that did not previously exist: the in-game cultural exchange. By integrating language practice into Fortnite gameplay, CNA Idiomas converts entertainment time into productive learning time without requiring any additional investment from the student. The digital and direct media execution also ensures the campaign reaches audiences in both Brazil and the United States simultaneously, building bilateral authenticity into the experience rather than simulating it.
Tech and Soul built the Gaming Exchange creative concept around immersive environmental storytelling rather than traditional advertising formats. The agency, working with gamers agency DBM2 for map and scenario development, constructed a Fortnite environment that sequences players through the experiential arc of an actual study-abroad trip to the United States: immigration and arrival, workplace encounters, tourist landmarks, and urban exploration across settings inspired by New York and Los Angeles, as reported by correio24horas.com.br.
The creative leadership team shaping this execution includes Chief Creative Officer Flavio Waiteman and Creative Director Brunno Barbosa of Mr. Da Vinci, as documented by portaldapropaganda.com.br. Their approach treats the game map not as a branded skin but as a functional language-learning environment, one in which every challenge and scenario serves a conversational purpose. The production infrastructure supporting the campaign extended well beyond visual design. Audio production was handled by Jamute, with James Feeler serving as executive sound producer and contributing to music production alongside Leck Gomes, per portaldapropaganda.com.br. Sound engineering credits belong to Otávio Bertolo, Siri, and Marcelo Filho. Motion design was executed by Leonardo Neiva, with editing and visual effects by Theigor Dhudli, and overall production direction by Rogerio Gonçalves.
The decision to use Fortnite's existing infrastructure rather than a proprietary platform is itself a creative and strategic choice of significance. Fortnite's Creative mode allows custom map builders to distribute experiences globally at no cost to the end user, which makes the promise of a free exchange programme structurally credible rather than merely aspirational. The map access code, publicly documented by portaldapropaganda.com.br and correio24horas.com.br, ensures discoverability beyond CNA Idiomas's own student network, extending the campaign's reach into the broader gaming community across Brazil and the United States.
Gaming Exchange earned recognition at two distinct award bodies in the period following its January 2024 launch. The campaign was shortlisted at the New York Festivals Advertising Awards in 2024, as reported on a LinkedIn profile associated with the campaign's creative team. Separately, the campaign received a Bronze Award at the PNHX Adforum in May 2025, specifically in the Digital — Social and Influencer Campaigns category, also as reported via LinkedIn profile documentation.
No verified third-party performance data covering reach, enrolment uplift, or in-game participation figures for Gaming Exchange is publicly available at the time of writing. What the structural mechanics of the campaign do confirm, however, is that the barrier to participation was deliberately minimised: the Fortnite map was free to access, required no additional software, and operated within a platform that already commanded a dominant share of gaming time in Brazil, per correio24horas.com.br. That architecture positions Gaming Exchange as a campaign with genuine scalability, capable of reaching students across Brazil and the United States without a media budget proportional to its ambition.
The dual-market execution, connecting Brazilian students with American gamers inside a shared game environment, also creates an organic word-of-mouth mechanism that paid media alone cannot replicate. For CNA Idiomas, a network competing against both Wizard by Pearson and digital-native platforms in a crowded Brazilian language-education market, the campaign's award recognition confirms that the creative approach registered as genuinely novel rather than merely tactical. Clapboard Score: 72/100 reflects a well-constructed concept with demonstrable originality and measurable industry validation, tempered by the absence of publicly available audience or conversion data.
Gaming Exchange is a 2024 CNA Idiomas campaign that created the first in-game cultural exchange programme inside Fortnite. Brazilian students access a custom map using code 8157-6016-0263 and play through scenarios simulating a United States exchange trip, practising real English conversation with native American gamers at no cost.
CNA Idiomas selected Fortnite because it was the most popular game in Brazil at the time of the campaign's development. The platform's global reach and free custom-map infrastructure allowed CNA to connect Brazilian students with American English speakers without requiring financial investment from participating students, directly addressing economic barriers to language access.
Tech and Soul created Gaming Exchange for CNA Idiomas, with Chief Creative Officer Flavio Waiteman and Creative Director Brunno Barbosa leading the creative work. Gamers agency DBM2 developed the Fortnite map and scenarios. Audio production was handled by Jamute, with James Feeler as executive sound producer, as documented by portaldapropaganda.com.br.
Gaming Exchange was shortlisted at the New York Festivals Advertising Awards in 2024, according to a LinkedIn profile associated with the campaign team. The campaign also received a Bronze Award at the PNHX Adforum in May 2025 in the Digital — Social and Influencer Campaigns category, also as reported via LinkedIn profile documentation.
The Gaming Exchange Fortnite map was made publicly available free of charge by February 2024, per correio24horas.com.br. The map access code is 8157-6016-0263, as documented by portaldapropaganda.com.br. CNA Idiomas has not publicly announced a removal date, and the code remains on record across multiple published sources covering the Brazilian and United States markets.
Only one percent of Brazil's population achieves English fluency, a gap CNA Idiomas attributes to social inequality and the high cost of traditional study-abroad programmes in the United States. Gaming Exchange removes cost as a barrier entirely by delivering a simulated US exchange experience inside Fortnite at no charge, using a platform already embedded in Brazilian student culture.
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