In our final episode on PRGN's 2025 Influence Insights research, Rogério Artoni discusses the significance of cultural and social values in public relations, especially in the Latin American context, with a sharp focus on Brazil.

Download PRGN's whitepaper on insights from the 2025 global survey on Brand Influence.

Rogério highlights that understanding these values is crucial for effective communication and relationship-building in the region. He points out that the Brazilian market, which represents a staggering 40% of Latin America's GDP, requires a tailored approach in public relations strategies that resonate with local customs.

The conversation also touches on the dual importance of digital presence and traditional media trust among Brazilian audiences, underscoring a unique blend of modern and legacy communication methods. Overall, the episode emphasizes the need for brands to adapt their messaging to fit local cultures, ensuring they forge genuine connections with their target audiences.

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About the Guests

Rogério Artoni is Founding Partner and CEO of Race Communications in São Paulo, Brazil. Rogério is a journalist with an MBA in Corporate Communication. His experience includes areas ranging from education to finance, sports, tourism, and manufacturing. Rogério has extensive international experience and was named one of the world’s most influential PR professionals by PRWeek magazine in its 2016 and 2017 Global Power Book.

Bill Southard is founder and CEO of Southard Communications in New York. He also serves as Marketing Committee Chair for PRGN. Bill launched Southard Communications in 1994 and has since experienced consistent and considerable growth and today represents a broad range of clients across a myriad of industries. In his day-to-day role at the agency, Bill drives the creative process, provides ongoing strategic counsel and manages all crisis communications on behalf of agency clients. With more than 35 years of communications experience, Bill has counseled some of the country's leading Fortune 500 firms. Prior to founding Southard Communications, he was president of Earle Palmer Brown Public Relations and previous to that General Manager with Dorf & Stanton Communications.

About the Host

Dr. Adrian McIntyre is a cultural anthropologist, media personality, speaker, and strategic communications consultant for PR agencies and marketing firms. He's lived in over 30 countries and spent more than a decade in the Middle East and Africa as a researcher, journalist, communications adviser, media spokesperson, and storytelling consultant. He earned a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was a Fulbright scholar and National Science Foundation fellow. Adrian helps agency leaders strengthen their positioning, sharpen their messaging, boost their visibility, and win new clients by replacing impersonal, intrusive and ineffective marketing tactics with authentic human conversations.

PRGN Presents is brought to you by Public Relations Global Network, the world’s local public relations agency. Our executive producer is Adrian McIntyre. The show is produced by the team at Speed of Story, a B2B communications firm in Phoenix, AZ.

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From the Public Relations Global Network. This is PRGN Presents. I'm Adrian McIntyre.

And I'm Abbie Fink, President of HMA Public Relations in Phoenix, Arizona and a founding member of PRGN. With public relations leaders embedded into the fabric of the communities we serve, clients hire our agencies for the local knowledge, expertise and connections in markets spanning six continents across the world.

Our guests on this biweekly podcast series are all members of the Public Relations Global Network. They will discuss such topics as workplace culture, creative compensation and succession planning, the importance of sustainability and environmental, social and governance programs, crisis communications, and outside of the box thinking for growing your business.

For more information about PRGN and our members, please visit prgn.com. And now let's meet our guest for this episode.

Hi, I'm Bill Southard, the founder and CEO of Southard Communications. It's a firm that I founded 31 years ago. We're based in New York City. We do media relations, digital marketing, crisis communications, corporate counseling for a wide range of consumer and B2B clients. I'm also honored to be the chair of the MARCOM committee and had a fairly significant role in terms of spearheading this survey that we're going to speak about with Rogério and Adrian.

Hi, I'm Rogério Artoni. I'm the CEO of Race Communication, fantastic agency based in Brazil that does PR, public relation, internal communications, social media management, crisis communication management. Also we have like 60 employees here, two offices, and we are one of the biggest agencies, boutique agencies in Brazil and we are very happy to be here with our listeners from the PRGN podcast.

Rogério, Brazil is significant and unique in the Latin American context in a variety of ways. So could you set the context for us as we get into talking about this insights survey? We need to understand where you're coming at this from and how it plays in your world. So could you give us a little bit of a thumbnail on your environment there?

Great, Adrian. Well, Brazil is like 40% of the GDP in Latin America. We are now more than 200 million people. So a lot of people lives here. And just to give an idea of our market, the communications market represent like $7.2 billion years. So this is the budget that the communication area have here in Brazil. And the agency's revenue represents something like $1 billion per year. So it's a big, big communications and public relations market in in Americas. And our workforce here just in agencies are something like 20,000 professionals.

So these are numbers that I take from Aberje (the Brazilian Association for Business Communication), which is our most important association here in Brazil. And with these numbers we can have like a calculation to give an idea for the listeners of the size of our market in Latin America.

So if we represent 40% of Latin America GDP, we can do like a calculation and we can imagine that all The Latin America PR and communications markets have like $15 billion per year as budget from the communications industry, the communications areas, and with more than 50,000 professionals working in these industries as agencies are professionals that serve the companies as communications professionals. So just to give an idea of Brazil and Latin America, so this is the side of our country and our, our market and Latin America in general.

One of the things we talked about with Andy See in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, is that it's almost ridiculous, even obscene, to make generalizations about the Asia Pacific market as if it's one thing. And clearly the same thing is true of the Americas and even more narrowly of South America.

So much is shared, but there are profound differences when it comes to communication. One of the things the survey points to is the importance of cultural and social values.

In fact, it's much higher in Latin America generally than it is globally. 83% say it's important in Latin America, only 68% globally.

So we don't want to be reductive and say all Latin America shares the same social and cultural values. From a Brazilian point of view, what is the significance of this finding? What does it mean in the Brazilian context to place a priority on cultural and social values?

Brazilians, for example, love to have social relations. You know, we love to have relations with the people. We love to have conversations. We spend a lot of times having conversations. So we, the social and the cultural values for us are extremely important because this is something that we bring in our culture, you know.

So if just to give an idea, when we go to a party here in Brazil, for example, we always have like the time to start the party, but we don't have the time that we will end the party, you know, so we spend hours and hours and hours having conversation. And after that party we go to other bar, to other place to continue this night. And sometimes we go to a bakery to have our breakfast together with the same people, you know, because we love to have this relationship with the people.

And for example, something very, very simple that we do here in Brazil and for, for a lot of people across the globe could be extremely strange. We love to hug the people.

So if I met you, Adrian, now, today in my office or in my house, I will give him a hug and maybe I kiss your face. Because this is something, something normal for us, you know, so we love this relationship. And I think, I don't, I don't study this. So I'm not specialized in people relationship. I'm specialized in public relations. But I can do like this parallel, you know, to say to you that this, this is why we from Brazil are this, this number are quite different from Brazil if we compare to the global. And of course this is something that I feel when I visit countries in Latin America because we are quite, we have like a quite similar culture.

For example, one of our, our clients are Curaçao, the island in Caribbean and they are the same, you know, if you go there, the people will hug you, will kiss you. If you go to Mexico, it's the same thing if you go to Peru. So in Latin America in general, this social relationship, it's very important.

So this is why these social values and cultural values are very important for us. And maybe this is why we have this difference. If we compare with our worldwide numbers.

Yeah, I love that. And I spent more than a decade in the Arab Middle East and I'm very familiar and comfortable with kissing men hello and goodbye on the cheek. Many of my North American colleagues I think are not so comfortable. It's a very different set of social norms.

But how does this translate into ... I love the picture you're painting. It makes me want to come down and visit for these all-night conversations that end up with sunrise and breakfast. It's great. But when you think about this through the professional lens, and when we think about brands specifically and how brands create a connection, an emotional connection, a story driven connection with their target audiences, what stands out from the survey?

When you look specifically, for example, at some of the results in the Latin American or specifically Brazilian context as opposed to the rest of the world, what are some of the tactical implications of these cultural differences?

Yes, every time that we work with an international company that come to Brazil to do PR or internal communication or something like that, we always say to them that we need to tropicalize the content, you know, so we need to change, we have to change the way that we communicate.

We have to adapt to our, our stakeholders, our, our target audiences, the way that we speak, the, the way that we communicate because the people here needs this close communication, you know, so if you do a communicate, for example, just to give an other, other idea, the way that we create a press release, for example, it depends on the journalist that I'm sending this press release. I need to change the way that I will approach this guide, you know, so if it's a person that I have a little bit of connection, I will change everything. So I will do, like a very personal way. Maybe I will call him before, you know, so we need this connection in a in a way that we feel that it's like a person from my family that is talking to me, you know, so this is. This is.

This is a great point when we work with a company from abroad and we need to change the way that we communicate here every time that we. We are doing for an international company, because our audiences here are. Are very. How can I say?

Very, very worried about the way that we communicate. You know, so this could be in a positive angle or also in a negative angle, also in crisis. We need to change the way. We need to speak in a very softly way. So this is very, very important for us.

And maybe this is why Brazil, it's one of the biggest countries inside of Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, so we have a huge audience there. The higher numbers that we have inside of this network, because we love this. We have this passion to connect with the people.

So this is something very, very important for us to adapt the way that we talk, because the people here love to have this close relationship with brands, with companies, with professionals. So this is the impact to communicate here in Brazil.

I want to call your attention to a couple of points from the survey results and ask your thoughts about them. They're in line with what you're saying. 92% of Latin American brands, the survey says, focus on digital presence. This is much higher than the global average at 78%. So that's inline with what you're saying.

Interestingly enough, though, there's also strong trust in traditional media, what we might call legacy media. 87% in Latin American markets versus 66% global. Do you think that is because there are certain things that have diminished trust in social media?

For example, in the United States, where there's clearly been a lot of focus on manipulation and disinformation and things of that nature, or how else would you explain the fact that the Latin American brands are focusing on digital and traditional at the same time? One is not replacing the other. You have both at a very high level.

Yes, I think the people in general here in Brazil changed the way that they see the traditional media, you know, because of the fake news. This. It was these fake news. The fake news had a Huge impact here in Brazil.

So the people had, we had like a tsunamis of fake news here through the networks and the people understood that we need to check the information. We need to. To trust in traditional media, in the mainstream media to, to. To check the information.

So it, this is from the side of the general people, the, the general audience, you know, from the side of the brands. We have. The brands worry about the awareness that they have.

So they still there, still work with public relations, still working with traditional media. They are very worried about an interview with a newspaper for example.

Also if the newspaper have like 10% of the, the numbers of publication that they have every day, you know than 10 years ago. And they are still giving importance to a podcast or new new media. So the mainstream media are very important for the brands but also to have a disconnection directly with the consumer. Especially the people. The companies that are B2C they need to be in the platforms as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and sometimes also in LinkedIn to do employer brand and stuff like that. So this is why we have this impact here and I think this is why also we have this difference between Brazil and other countries and global when we compare these numbers in this investigation.

Bill, I'd love to get your thoughts about that because this is directly connected to your, your lane, your wheelhouse, your specialty at Southard Communications. This digital first and E commerce focused kind of communication from where you sit and your perspective.

And you've overseen the survey and rollout and result gathering and analysis. So I know you've got survey results on the brain.

Grateful you're still here to talk about it with us after, after we've, we've put you through the ringer on this but what are your thoughts about what Rogério is saying in Latin America? What do you think about the place of this kind of digital first, e-commerce related sort of development? Are you seeing the global implication of that for brands you represent trying to break into Latin American markets? Is there any synergies at all, anything you want to point out?

Yeah, and you know, and I've spoken about this, the landscape here in the US has changed, particularly from a retail perspective, right? So in the old days, not too many years ago, you know, you'd introduce a brand and you try to get into Walmart, you try to get into Target, you try to get on shelf. Right now almost every single new brand that we're launching, it's all direct to consumer, right?

It's through their e-commerce Shopify site or through Amazon. And the expectations that brands have have changed.PR, which used to be about awareness, credibility, right. Thought leadership. The brands here now are looking to us and saying, okay, if I'm going to invest X amount of money, I want to see a more direct correlation to online sales.

And truthfully, you know, there is not as much of a direct correlation to online sales for PR campaigns as there are, say, for digital marketing campaigns if you're doing meta advertising, et cetera. So you're seeing the agencies like ours and others are seeing this increased pressure. I think it's going to increase around the world as well.

They're seeing this increased pressure. So all of all the agencies need to change the way they think about going about supporting clients. Now, I have said this numerous times.

The thing that concerns me the most, okay, is the whole concept of PR being an incredibly valuable tactic to build your brand credibility, build your brand image. Right? To build a brand which doesn't happen overnight.

And if you diminish the impact and the importance of that in return for short term sales, are you going to be a brand that's going to be able to survive over the course of long term or are you going to be, you know, a flash in the pan for a year or two years or three years, but you really haven't.

And that's been what I've been talking about for a very long time because it is a concern in terms of how brands are looking and in the US And I think everybody around the world knows this. You know, we've always been a country of instant gratification and that's never been more evident than it is in my opinion today.

People want to see, brands want to see results, you know, tomorrow, next week, next month. And, you know, they can measure it.

If you're doing E Commerce, you can measure, you know, how many, how many eyeballs you've gotten, how many people went to the site, how many bought, bought the product, et cetera. So I think that's what we're seeing here. I think that'll increase because I think that's not going to change.

And I do think based upon some of the conversations that we've had with some of the PRGN partners around the world and to Rogério's point, that that's going to continue.

The one, the one other thing I just want to add on, because I think this is the reason why this survey is so important, is every country is different, right? And this is the reason PRGN is in existence because we're doing a lot of cross border work.

Like, you know, Rogério and I talked not too long ago about a client that needed support here in the U.S. right. And the issue is how you may support a product in Brazil isn't the same as it is in the US and vice versa. Right.

So I think the survey does highlight some of the areas that support why you should let the agency in that home country develop and execute the campaign that they know is going to work in that country because they know the audiences, they know the culture, they know the media, they know the split between traditional and digital. And I think that is one of the reasons we did the survey and I think the results are kind of bearing that out.

Rogério, there is a big focus in your work as well as many, many of the PRGN members on helping global brands essentially localize their communication, their campaigns, their messaging, their advertising, all of the things. And you've spoken today to the importance of that. Really, really making the message match the market. What about flipping this the other direction?

What is the role of Latin American brands or what could be the role of of Latin American brands and agencies like Race in taking their local strengths to compete on the world stage? What do you see there in terms of possibilities, opportunities, but also challenges?

Well, good question, Adrian, because we, we are now facing in Brazil. The ESG also is still important for us, you know, is still an important point for us and brands.

We have like huge companies here in Brazil that export to a lot of countries and we can see the, the way that they are working hard to show to other countries that we are, our country is still worried about esg. For example, we, we have companies that export like food. You know, we have huge brands here that is for export food.

And it's important to show to other countries that we are worried about this.

But also it's important to show to to other countries and adapt the way that we communicate here to other countries that we are doing everything, every little thing in the right way.

For example, companies that work produce food to to countries in Arabian world, you know, so we have way to produce food in a very specific rule for that religion, for example. So we are very worried about this.

But also we need to show to these countries that we are a Brazilian company that is worried about the the esg, the environmental environmental impact in our, on our world.

So this is something that we can we feel here when we work with to a company here in Brazil, to abroad and also companies as for example luxury companies that wants to show the Brazilian tropical way of life. You know, for customers in Europe, for example, you know, so we need to show this, but not.

So how can I say we have like a kitsch step that we don't cross. You know, we don't, we, we can't cross this, this, this step because could be like kitchen, could be like ugly.

The story and the layout, the key visual of the things, you know.

So this is a very important point when we communicate companies from here to outside, but also technology, it's other, the third, third point because nobody feels that Brazil is a country that produce technology. But if we, if we look around, we will see, for example, Embraer, that is a huge airplane company.

The third biggest airplane companies in the world are from Brazil. And I'm sure that you guys travel in a Embraer airplane a lot of times. And so we have also very good technology.

But it's difficult to show this to, to other countries because the people think that technology comes just from, from countries as United States, for example, or I don't know, France or Japan, you know, so we have this reputation connect with some countries and we, we think, for example, in Italy we can say design. No. So people have this connection with this, these countries. But also this is important for us.

So adapt to the way that we communicate, adapt to the way the information that we send and always proof level like we need. We always have a lot like proof points to show to the people.

Hey guys, this is, this is what we are doing now, what we are doing here in Brazil and how we do so. This is important.

So this is part of the, not just the tactical point of communicate, but also part of the strategic way that we will do the plans for our clients here in Brazil.

Rogério, when you looked at the survey results, there's a lot to process obviously and analyze and think about what is your top takeaway in terms of the opportunity you see in your market? What are you most excited about or what is most actionable here in your opinion?

For me, it's the difference between Brazil and globally. The importance that the people here, the communications people give to the ESG and the trust in traditional media, you know, the ESG, the social values of. Of course, that is, it's very impact for us. So this is the most important thing that we could take for this investigation that we had.

And we are also working with some, some specific clients in Brazil to show to them that they need to change more the way that they are communication here in Brazil, because they still want to do communication in Brazil as they do in other countries. You know, so this survey help us also in the way that we are doing strategies inside of the company.

You run well established, relatively large agency with a solid reputation and you're doing great work. When you look to the future and the local talent you'll need to hire to deliver on the ambitions that you're talking about, what are the specific skill sets you're looking for now that maybe they were different from when you started in this business.

But what makes someone, you know, whether they're a recent university graduate or someone coming from industry and they're coming to work for you, what are you now looking for through the lens of what, what the market wants in the candidates who come to you?

Had a huge conversation with my business partner today just about this topic, Adrian, because for us now in the industry, we have employees in. We have almost 60 employees, most of them are based here in São Paulo.

And we, we always looking for people that of course knows how to do communication, knows how to do a good press release or social media post or something like that. This is something that is easy to do.

You know, the, the very important point for us is relationship is the, the soft skills because this is something that is very, very difficult to learn and to teach. And the, the, the tactical things are easy to teach and are easy to learn.

As I say to my business partner, if the monkey could cycle, someone can do anything, you know, so it's easy to do something, something tactical is easy. The most important point is relationship because sometimes we will have like employee have a very important conversation with the CEO of huge company as Volkswagen for example, that are our clients in Brazil. So they need to be prepared to have this conversation. Not from the point of view, the technical point of view, but of course the strategic things, the soft skills.

Two final points. One, the importance of employees as critical brand ambassadors. I think sometimes that's underappreciated.

And the other takeaway from the survey is that as much as there's been a shift, particularly given digital and influencers, et cetera, the survey showed that many companies still want guidance and insight and strategy.

And I think that's where firms like Race and firms like Southard and everybody in the PRGN network can really contribute to the future success of our clients. And also I'd just like to call out and thank Rogério and his team. They actually did almost the graphics for Influence Insights, helped develop the logo and the brand. As this is an annual survey moving forward. So I want to thank Rogério and his team for that.

You're welcome, Bill. It's always a pleasure to do something with PRGN. It's always a pleasure. Thank you.

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