At first glance, Vivo’s latest New Year campaign feels almost heretical. A telecommunications company encouraging people to use their phones less? In a category built on connectivity and usage, this could easily be dismissed as self-sabotage.
In reality, it is something far more interesting: a clear demonstration of how brands can grow by aligning with human truth rather than category logic.
Two years ago, just 16% of Brazilians said that reducing mobile phone use was part of their New Year’s resolutions. Today, that figure stands at 30%. Whether this represents a full behavioural shift or an aspiration, the signal is unmistakable: discomfort with digital dependency is moving into the mainstream. Vivo chose not to fight that tension, but to acknowledge it and that decision sits at the heart of the campaign’s effectiveness.
This reflects a core principle of brand growth: relevance is not claimed, it is earned.
Cultural relevance beats category logic
“É tempo de menos envio e mais entrega” (“It’s time for less sending and more presence”) reframes technology from an end in itself into a means of enabling human connection. This is not a rejection of the category, but a reframing of its role in people’s lives.
Decades of evidence from the IPA’s Effectiveness Databank show that creative quality and cultural resonance are among the strongest predictors of commercial success consistently outperforming purely rational or functional messaging. Daniel Kahneman’s work in Thinking, Fast and Slow provides the psychological explanation: most human decisions are driven by System 1 thinking: fast, intuitive and emotional. Advertising, as Kahneman himself noted, is fundamentally a System 1 business.
Vivo’s campaign works because it speaks directly to that intuitive layer. It doesn’t attempt to rationalise screen time or justify usage. It recognises a shared emotional tension and resolves it creatively.
Show, don’t tell
Of course, a technology brand advocating moderation could easily sound hypocritical. Vivo avoids this not through argument, but through execution.
By featuring long-standing brand ambassadors such as Gabriel Medina, Rayssa Leal and Denise Fraga in intimate, everyday moments of reconnection, the film shows rather than lectures. There is no moralising tone, no didactic messaging, just lived human experiences.
This approach aligns closely with Orlando Wood’s analysis in Look Out (IPA, 2022), which demonstrates that advertising rich in human expression, emotion and relationships consistently outperforms more abstract, message-heavy communication when it comes to sustaining attention and building memory.
Creativity as a growth multiplier
The campaign’s central creative idea of physically delivering oversized, illuminated text messages plays a crucial strategic role. It resolves the tension between digital and physical connection rather than ignoring it. Messages still matter, but presence matters more.
Vivo’s results support this. When tested through System1’s Test Your Ad Pro, the film achieved a 4.4-Star rating well above the Brazilian average of 2.7. The dominant associations: affection, reunion, family and happiness are exactly the kinds of emotional signals that System1, IPA and Effie data show to be strongly correlated with future market share growth.
Why this matters now
By aligning itself with a widespread desire for balance, Vivo expands its relevance rather than narrowing it. This is not a retreat from growth logic, it is a more sophisticated expression of it.
If the cultural questioning of hyper-connectivity continues (and all signs suggest it will) Vivo has already secured a legitimate and emotionally resonant position in that conversation.
This is creative effectiveness at its best: not selling louder, but meaning more and, ultimately, growing more.
“For Vivo, creating campaigns that encourage meaningful reflection and foster human connections is fundamental. Seeing ‘It’s time for less sending and more delivering’ highlighted by System1 confirms the strength of our narrative and the impact we seek to create in society.”
Sabrina Romero
Brand and Communications Director, Vivo
“Having this campaign recognised as Ad of the Month LATAM reinforces something we deeply believe in: strong campaigns are born when a brand chooses to connect with people in a genuine way. ‘It’s time for less sending and more delivering’ starts from a real insight into screen fatigue and transforms it into stories of presence, emotion and meaning — elements that build long-term memory and affinity. For Vivo, technology is a means, not an end. And for us, that is precisely what creativity is about: using communication to spark real encounters and connections that go beyond the message.”
Fabrício Pretto
Co-CCO, Africa Creative
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