Eco Moliterno is a Brazilian advertising executive and the Chief Creative Executive Officer of Accenture Interactive for Latin America.

“Gambiarra”  is an untranslatable word for the Brazilian style of fixing technology – think of the TV show Macgyver. It’s jury-rigged, but it works. It’s not always the best way, but it is the Brazilian way. Here’s how that applies to the world with a FIX:

• Future
• Interactive
• eXperience

Innovation is not just new things – it’s also about finding ways of doing new things with old technology. Local solutions can become glocal – global local solutions.

Fix 1: Internet in Colombia

Colombia is discovering remote parts of its countries with no internet connection. Think about that. No internet. No smartphone. They’re using legacy phones. Myline brought Google Assistant to traditional phones – by calling a regular local number, the user can call up for the answer to a question.

 

Fix 2: Deaf-Blind in India

An 108 year old language, morse code, applied to the mobile, is a potential solution to communicating with the profoundly deaf-blind. Mobile phone vibrations can be used via short and long vibrations to communicate messages to the deaf-blind — and they can communicate back with long and short taps.

Fix 3: Outdoors in Peru

How do you deal with terrible pollution in traffic jams on the way to the beach? The Pan-American highway is the most travelled road in Peru’s summer. Sodimac Homecentres “hijacked the highway” with a VR experience that encouraged people to explore using Google cardboard to enhance the experience – so that the beach stopped being the only place you could head to to have fun with your car.

Fix 4: gas weight in Ecuador

Mabe, an energy supplier, conceived of a gasscale that people can put their gas bottles on, and which lets them know via a mobile notification when their gas bottle was nearly empty, allowing them to get a new one before they ran out. It drove sales and meant that customers had a better experience – because the scales were free. In a country where most people get their energy for cooking via gas bottles, that matters.

Fix 5: Loans in Brazil

In the midst of an economic crisis, things are difficult in the country. They’re electing a new president. one candidate from the left, has been arrested. One from the right, wants to give everyone guns – the Trump of the Tropics. he was attacked by a knife man – and he’s in hospital.

Santander needed to be humanised in this country, to feel like they were side-by-side with their customers. This led to You Are Not A Loan. They redesigned the auto finance experience from scratch, giving more autonomy and flexibility for dealers to create financing online in 25 minutes. The credit approvals rates went up from 30% to 60%, making Santander the number one lender. So they rolled the approach out to all the lending they did.

It’s not just about the advertising or marketing anymore – it’s about solving people’s day-to-day problems with interactive experiences.