Monthly Archives: June 2022

Photo: NaturalTech – disclosure

From June 8th to 11th, 32 businesses that value Amazonian knowledge and ingredients in original, beautiful and tasty products participate in NaturalTech, in São Paulo. Business is part of the movement Amazon at Casa Floresta standing, and offer visitors to the fair chocolate with native cocoa, agroforestry coffee, nuts, juices, guarana, food supplements, farofas, tucupis, jellies, peppers, sauces, oils, fish, biocosmetics, handicrafts, accessories, among other natural products.

The fair is an opportunity to promote the exchange of experiences between producers, retailers and end consumers, which will bring visibility and help to expand the presence of these products in the market. 

“We want to take the idea that, by consuming products from the forest responsibly, we help to keep it standing. These ventures will have the opportunity to show Brazil the power and influence of the knowledge and flavors of the Amazon on the economy, culture and maintenance of life on Earth”, says Guilherme Faleiros, coordinator of the market access program by AMAZ, impact accelerator.

With almost 100 m², the movement's stand will be the largest dedicated to the Amazon, offering unique experiences of flavors and cultures of the largest tropical forest on the planet. Tasting sessions will be held in the morning and happy hours in the late afternoon, which include babassu cake, water lily preserves, tucupi-based sauces, pirarucu carpaccio, organic jambu cachaça, among other regional delicacies. 

The central island of the stand will have snacks developed by chef Carla Pernambuco, who will give a show class during the lecture “Amazon at Casa Floresta em Pé: the challenge is to bring the forest to you!”, which will take place on June 10 at 3 pm at Arena Inspiration, a space dedicated to inspirational content during the event.

“Naturaltech is the largest fair in our sector for natural and sustainable products. Therefore, our expectation is to use it as a great showcase for brands, for new products from the Amazon and especially for consumers, distributors and partners to see forest products as a segment with great potential. We will be farmers, industries, brands and partners that make the entire Amazon product chain happen. And we will be there looking for the client, which in my opinion is the link that completes a business cycle from the standing forest, from sustainable production, to conscious consumption”, says Paulo Reis, one of the organizers of the movement's participation. Amazon in Casa Floresta in Foot at NaturalTech and entrepreneur at Manioca and Amazonique.

NaturalTech annually brings together the sector of natural, integral, herbal and complementary treatments products. According to the organization of the event, a market that grows about 4.4% per year, making Brazil occupy the 4th place in the ranking of world revenue. 

The fair takes place at the Anhembi Exhibition Pavilion, at Avenida Olavo Fontoura 1451. Participation is free, but you must register on the event website. 

Program starts training 2022 Call winners

The market access program Amazon in Casa Floresta in Foot started, in May, the program's practical training journey with the 20 enterprises selected in the most recent edition of the business call initiative, held between March and April of this year. This phase will last six months and includes practical classes, individual mentoring and face-to-face meetings, in addition to participation in NaturalTech. 

Classes are divided into four study modules focused on structuring commercial operations, logistics, marketing campaigns and impact measurement. The objective is to prepare and strengthen the strategies of each brand in the participation of planned campaigns, in fairs and events, as well as the improvement of logistics and commercial intelligence and the promotion of exchange between different impact entrepreneurs in the Amazon. 

Each module has a partner company, which offers training – and also its services – to program participants. With a focus on retail, the B2B module is supported by location.and and aims to broaden the market vision, improve the commercial policy and strengthen the trade marketing plan and management. 

The B2C module is carried out in partnership with the Entrepreneurship with Impact Program, from Mercado Livre, and will help businesses to create a virtual store and implement the online sales strategy on the platform, communicate better with the final consumer, access the Mercado Livre ecosystem and participate in the virtual gondola 'Amazônia em Casa Floresta in Foot', inside the platform. 

The Logistics module is supported by Soulog Fulfillment, which aims to broaden the vision of the business's logistics chain, optimize logistics routes, develop joint logistics strategies that enable cost reduction, learn about the main tax issues that affect the transit of goods in the national territory and integrate commercial and logistics operations.

One of the most anticipated phases of the journey will be the face-to-face meeting that will take place in São Paulo, after program participants will exhibit their products in a shared booth at the Naturaltech fair, on June 13th and 14th. 

The focus of the event will be on measuring impact, where workshops will be held on the theme of the meeting and communication and visits to the implementing partners of the program (Soulog and Mercado Livre). 

call 2022

In April 2022, the program opened a call for companies or community-based organizations that work with products from Amazonian sociobiodiversity. The call reached 92 applications from 13 different states. Although below the expected number of registrations, the result was considered positive by the organizers, considering the post-pandemic scenario. 

Pará was the state with the highest number of registered initiatives, with 45 registered businesses; Amazonas and Rondônia also stood out, with 17 and 7 entries, respectively. Considering the business categories, the entries included 14 individual micro-entrepreneurs, 46 companies, 13 associations, 9 cooperatives and 10 enterprises that are still in the formalization phase. 

Among those selected are eight community enterprises and 12 new businesses, representing six Brazilian states: Amazonas, Pará, Rondônia, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Rio Grande do Sul. 

In addition to the winners of the 2022 call, the actions of the training program can also be accessed by member businesses that participated in previous editions, totaling more than 35 initiatives attended by the program. 

Discover the businesses and organizations supported on the movement's official website: amazoniaemcasa.org.br

about the program 

Created in 2020, the movement Amazon in Casa Floresta in Foot It is coordinated by the Institute for Conservation and Sustainable Development of the Amazon (Idesam), by AMAZ Acceleradora de Impacto and by Climate Ventures and aims to unlock market access for producers of Amazonian sociobiodiversity.

Its supporters are Mercado Livre, the largest e-commerce platform in Latin America, Fundo Vale, GIZ, CLUA, Instituto humanize and Instituto Clima e Sociedade.

The initiative seeks to bring together strategic actors and act collaboratively to overcome bottlenecks and increase sales and market access for these ventures to innovative and interesting forms of marketing.

Entrepreneurs, teams from AMAZ and FutureBrand SP – Photo: Zoid Creative

On the 11th and 12th of May, entrepreneurs accelerated by AMAZ were in São Paulo to participate in the AMAZ Branding Lab, promoted in partnership with FutureBrand SP.

Over two days, content, dynamics and tools were offered involving positioning, storytelling, visual and verbal identity, culture and digital. The entrepreneurs also had the opportunity to present their pitches to the FutureBrand SP team, which involved around 20 people in the process.

“This type of partnership is very important because we bring into the house these entrepreneurs who are making a difference, who are the brands of the future. It's nice to connect with them, understand what are these initiatives that are emerging in the market and make sure that our employees can have contact with them”, says Isabel Sobral, partner-director of FutureBrand SP.

“It is a training not only for entrepreneurs what happens here, but also for us. Our professionals prepare a lot for this type of workshop, they seek to understand which startups are these, which are the future unicorns of the Amazon, and they manage to bring this learning to our other customers. We strongly believe in this exchange, between the small and the large, which are increasingly coming together, creating these open innovation laboratories. It is of immense value”, he adds. 

For Thiago Campos, from Floresta S/A, “FutureBrand's expertise helps us to have clarity on what needs to be adjusted, and we hope that this will lead to a development that can really put all these tools that were presented into something concrete to apply in the our day to day.” 

“We always need to improve our process, as we have a very diverse audience, ranging from the producer at the end of the chain to the final consumer, including partners and investors. It is very important to have these inspirations with these great professionals”, evaluates Jânio Rosa, from Inocas.

Alexsandro Vanin, from BRCarbon, agrees with Jânio and highlights the importance of the workshop to exercise solutions to the difficulty, often, of communicating, in an engaging and human way, themes that are complex and abstract.

“Now, with our heads boiling, we have the challenge of building a development plan for the startups, with the assistance of the FutureBrand SP team, which is sensational. We have no words to sum up how much knowledge and motivation they transferred to the development of our startups”, evaluates AMAZ CEO Mariano Cenamo.

Check out the atmosphere of the Lab:

Related matter:

Isabel Sobral, FutureBrand SP/Zoid Creative

Impact businesses need to effectively communicate the positive, social and/or environmental impacts that are part of their purpose. Branding, narratives, verbal and visual identity, tone of voice, all of this counts in the contact with the different audiences with which these businesses dialogue.

FutureBrand SP, specialized in creating future-proof brands, has been partnering with civil society organizations and impact businesses in the last decade in order to translate the impact these institutions generate into communication. 

Among these organizations are AMAZ itself, Idesam, Climate Ventures and some Amazonian businesses, such as Café Apuí, Seringô, Na'kau and 100% Amazônia. According to Isabel Sobral, managing partner of FutureBrand SP, working with this type of institution brings knowledge about important topics such as climate change, agroforestry systems, regenerative economy, carbon market, and also depth in different chains such as fashion, livestock , palm oil and cocoa. 

“Each project becomes a kind of specialization in a subject. And how can we talk about future-proof brands if we don't understand these topics? Our purpose is to create brands that are future-proof and, in my opinion, there will only be a future for us, human beings, if brands really care and act in relation to the impact they generate, minimizing the negative effects, amplifying the positive ones. and establishing regenerative models in their businesses. It's a major paradigm shift that is underway, and the new generations have everything they need to connect to it and make a difference,” says Isabel.

In May, the partnership between FutureBrand SP and AMAZ promoted the AMAZ Branding Lab, a workshop on communication for businesses in acceleration this year 2022. On the occasion, Isabel talked to us about brands of the future, impact and communication businesses, the beginning of the relationship with the accelerator and consumer trends.

How did Future Brand come together, responsible for the branding of so many great brands and with presence in the market, with impact businesses and civil society organizations? What motivates this relationship?

Isabel Sobral (IS): On a personal level, since I was little, I have always been very connected with environmental issues, I think that this sustainability thing comes from the cradle, because of the way our parents and grandparents teach us to respect and honor nature and give us opportunities to live experiences related to it. And, growing up and living in a country as unequal as Brazil, I was also connecting to social issues. At the same time, I came to work at FutureBrand (FB), a consultancy that actually works with large companies, which generate huge impacts, both positive and negative.

I had been here for about seven years at FB when I felt my greatest disquiet, that crisis of the search for a greater purpose. I thought about leaving, going to work at a place full of purpose, a B company or something. On the other hand, I also saw that in few places I would have such easy access to top corporate leaders as working here. And it is precisely this leadership that hires us as a consultancy to show the best path and strategy for their brands for the future. Ready! I had the knife and the cheese in my hand.  

It was necessary to combine with the rest of the company and bring the theme to the table. Starting to talk about sustainability and climate change here was not something quickly understood by everyone, it simply seemed that these themes did not fit within the branding, when in fact branding is intrinsically linked to reputation, which in turn is linked to the way the brand stands. behaves towards society, how it generates value for its stakeholders, what are their socio-environmental practices and so on. It was necessary to bring the theme, raise awareness, and that's how we started to get closer to this ecosystem of innovation for impact.

The first major milestone was the partnership with Climate Ventures, already in the year of its foundation. We really wanted to do something together and, from this desire, came the idea of making a Comunicathon, which ended up becoming an event for more than 100 people where we brought together talks by representatives of Coca-Cola, Nespresso, Itaú and Social Docs and brought internal talks on topics as Circular Economy in Design and Storytelling for Sustainability. We got closer to the ecosystem, I was invited to the Innovation Lab in Manaus, when I met Idesam and Mariano [director of new business at Idesam and CEO at AMAZ]. 

We started doing projects for different brands, each one paid what they could, the important thing was to connect and find ways to help and make the projects viable. Our team learned about the topic and became an expert. A value-creating relationship where everyone wins. Then came the pandemic and we changed the event to an online workshop format, in 2020 we partnered with PPA, via the Acceleration Program, and with Climate ventures again. And in 2021 AMAZ was born, baptized by us and which took shape with this captivating identity.

How many cases of this type does FutureBrand SP already have in its portfolio?

IS: We have a long history of projects linked to institutes, foundations and civil society organizations, such as Instituto Ayrton Senna, Fundação Lehman and AACD, for example, but we did not have in our portfolio impact cases linked to small and medium-sized companies such as startups accelerated by AMAZ. But since 2019, based on our work with Climate Ventures, we have worked with companies and organizations such as Boomera, Stattus 4, Confluentes, Seringô, Fundo Vale, Na'kau, Positive Ventures, Mombora, Café Apuí, Idesam, 100% Amazônia, Agropalma , etc. And with our big clients too, we help create sustainability platforms like Re. by Nestlé and the Cria! from Riachuelo, for example. And we have several other cases in progress.

Is there a difference between creating for a big brand, with a big projection in the market, and for impact businesses and CSOs?

IS: There's enough. The processes are more agile, the governance much simpler and without hierarchies, there is a huge opening for what we have to propose. It is a more collaborative process, not least because we choose methodologies that provide greater interaction. The big customer wants to see the delivery ready and doesn't have time to get so involved in the process. The climate is usually very nice in these projects for impact businesses and organizations that work in this ecosystem, the teams feel very engaged and motivated. And the creative freedom we have ends up expanding our possibilities of winning prizes with these cases, as we won with AMAZ and Mombora, for example.

For Future, what does this type of relationship add as an experience?

IS: It brings knowledge on very important topics such as climate change, agroforestry systems, regenerative economy, ESG, circular economy, carbon market, as well as depth in different value chains such as fashion, livestock, milk, palm oil and cocoa. . Each project becomes a kind of specialization in a subject. And how can we talk about future-proof brands if we don't understand these topics?

How did you approach AMAZ and create the accelerator ID?

IS: We had already done projects for Idesam, Café Apuí and Fundo Vale. All successful. It was natural to be considered as an option to develop AMAZ's branding. It was a delicious project, which flowed very well, in my view, with extremely correct bets on the choice of name and identity.

Future has been our partner for some time, what has it offered to the AMAZ portfolio businesses and how do you rate this connection?

IS: It really seems like a decade of partnership, but it's only three years. In addition to the workshops, we have many meetings, sometimes a new idea or a new challenge comes up, and I believe that, in our exchanges, we can help by bringing insights, or introducing partners. Last year we plugged AMAZ into a partner of ours (the defunct Decode, which is now part of our FutureBrand ecosystem) and they made very interesting deliveries of social listening and performance in the digital environment for the startups from AMAZ.

Are purposeful businesses, which aim to generate social and/or environmental impacts, the future of brands? How do you see consumer behavior in relation to this and the ESG wave?

 IS: Our purpose is to create brands that are future-proof and, in my opinion, there will only be a future for us, human beings, if brands really care and act in relation to the impact they generate, minimizing the negative effects, amplifying the positive ones. and establishing regenerative models in their businesses. It's a big paradigm shift that's under way, and the new generations have everything to connect to it and make a difference. And I really hope they do.

The consumer itself does not even know what ESG is, many are still in their infancy to understand what sustainability is, but there is a new awareness. I remember about 10 years ago I heard about veganism, and at that time a vegan person was practically an ET. Nowadays it's the most normal thing, it shows how many things are changing in behavior. 

Rampant consumerism is also in check. It became tacky to be a super consumerist. Detachment, thrift store clothes, now that kind of thing is cool.

These are changes that we are really seeing, maybe still a little niche, but that will gain scale. The number of customers and prospects that are emerging with this agenda only grows. A sign of good changes to come.