With offices in Lisbon and Luanda and commercial connections quickly established with Maputo, Born has closely followed the highs and lows of these markets, which now face similar challenges.

In Portugal, before Lisbon’s cosmopolitan boom, Europe’s attention was more focused on the Algarve.

Regular tourists became, first, homeowners and then investors, especially in the Golden Triangle, defined by Vilamoura, Quinta do Lago, and Vale do Lobo.

Born was invited to undertake the rebranding of Vale do Lobo in 2008, probably the most internationally recognised Portuguese resort, covering a vast area of 450 hectares with 1,500 properties owned by people from the UK, Scotland, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Germany.

At that time, Vale do Lobo was approaching its 50th anniversary, so the challenge involved engaging multiple stakeholders, both national and international, conducting an exhaustive analysis of all the brand’s touchpoints, and enjoying a week-long stay at this paradise resort in the Algarve.

Vale do Lobo is a “hot” market—not just in terms of the Algarve’s weather. The brand's value is truly timeless, supporting expansion plans and, more importantly, the volume of property transactions that take place there every year.

The project’s challenges can be divided into three levels:

• Creating a truly universal language that conveyed the exclusive values of the resort
• Linking the experience of living and investing in Vale do Lobo
• Creating a real and virtual system where the brand would maintain strong visibility, both in Portugal and worldwide

From this work, the concept of “Treasuring Life” was born, along with a global identity project that projected Vale do Lobo’s successful story into the future. It won an award by the Clube de Criativos de Portugal in 2009.

BragaParque and Residências do Martim Moniz: Capturing the Local Spirit

In 2011, Mundicenter challenged us to work on the rebranding of BragaParque.
After several expansion phases, reaching around 180 stores, this shopping center had become the main shopping destination in the Minho region.

Braga was preparing to become the European Youth Capital. With 85,000 young residents in a city of 180,000, plus 17,000 students from the University of Minho, the city was brimming with youthful energy.

This scenario, along with the personality of the BragaParque management team, led us to create the concept “Made of the Future” and develop an innovative brand project with multiple applications, reflecting the irreverence and innovation of the people of Braga.

The launch campaign included an activation component that challenged Tiago Bettencourt, Vhils, Storytailors, and Filipe Pinto Soares to question the future in an exhibition that extended beyond Braga, broadening the brand’s influence across the region.

In just three years, BragaParque’s visitor numbers rose from 8 million to 11.5 million, averaging over 30,400 daily entries.

Equally important was the opportunity to capture the city’s spirit, a shared heritage claimed by BragaParque and Born. The shopping center, which had been just a shopping destination, reinforced its role as an ambassador for the city and the identity of its inhabitants.

In this same spirit, the Residências do Martim Moniz project, also by Born, stands out.

Riding the Portuguese Waves

While Vale do Lobo and BragaParque focused on local and regional aspects, respectively, in 2014, Born was challenged by Turismo de Portugal to design a content strategy and activation that would support a new national promotion strategy based on Surf and Golf.
This marked a significant shift from the previous approach, which promoted the country as a whole.

Target segmentation allowed Turismo de Portugal to create more relevant content and disseminate it more effectively, particularly through digital channels.

Based on these premises, Born developed the platforms Portugal Golf Membership and Portuguese Waves. While Golf had a more limited audience, Surf offered broader possibilities, allowing for the use of different tools, from brand entertainment to promotional communication and even product development.
Under the Portuguese Waves banner, the “The McNamara Surf Trip” was born, a documentary featuring Garrett McNamara, the greatest ambassador of Nazaré’s giant waves. Capitalising on the surfer’s international media recognition, the project was launched during the 2014 edition of the national WCT stage in Peniche, reaching a global audience of around 315 million viewers (TV and internet).

In seven webisodes, the global surf circuit audience discovered the waves, beaches, restaurants, hotels, culture, traditions, and other unique features of our country.

Additionally, Born developed the “No Waves? Come Back for Free” campaign, which promised a free second trip to surfers who came to Portugal and didn’t catch waves.

“In waves they trust” was a phrase echoed by international media in an initiative that sought to deliver a simple yet impactful message: the Portuguese coast guarantees conditions so that no trip at any time of the year ruins a traveler’s plans.

It is estimated that the surf industry’s impact on the Portuguese economy reached around €400 million in 2014.

Real Estate Branding in the World’s Most Expensive City

Born began its activities in Luanda in 2008.
On one of our first trips, we climbed to the top of a building that would soon become one of the most vibrant in the Angolan capital.

From there, we could see the city’s immense scale, with new constructions rising everywhere, and the island in the distance, the preferred nightlife destination for expats and Angola’s middle and upper classes.

From that trip, the Sky Center was born, a brand that named a mixed-use complex—residential, business, and commercial—that soared into the city’s skyline, bringing a contemporary language rooted in the most significant real estate projects from Chicago or New York.

Sky Center’s first building was Torre Escom, whose launch event gathered the primary decision-makers of Angola’s real estate sector.

At the time, Luanda was ranked as the world’s most expensive city. Born handled the branding for the restaurant Oito Dezoito, owned by Jornal Sol, as well as the restaurant Oon-Dah and the bar Doo-Bahr, which quickly became Luanda’s nightlife hotspots.
The world’s most expensive city finally had an offer suited to a growing cosmopolitan population, meaning residents no longer had to travel abroad to experience international quality standards.

The Emergence of Angola’s New Middle Class

Angola’s growth during this period allowed Born to develop the identity of real estate projects like Acquaville or Villa Harmonia, with more inclusive communication codes and the promise of belonging to a new economic and social era.

This transformation also impacted other segments of the real estate market, with the development of new shopping center concepts, most notably the Avennida chain in Luanda.

Avennida brought together a new generation of stores in Angola (Zap Cinemas, Candando supermarkets, Wammo electronics stores, etc.), with three locations now operating in Luanda.

A New Real Estate Venture in Maputo

Meanwhile, on Africa’s eastern coast, Born developed a real estate branding project for Soicifide, which was launching its first project in Mozambique.

This was one of the 24 buildings constructed in 2014 in Maputo, targeting Mozambique’s upper-middle class.

After surveying best practices in this market and studying the competition, Born developed the naming and visual identity for Acraya Residence and handled the advertising campaign and all sales support materials.

With the expansion of the real estate offer in the Mozambican capital, new possibilities arose for families to experience “the joy of living in the city center.”

The Future in the Balance

The real estate markets in Portugal, Angola, and Mozambique are heavily exposed to foreign investment or the movement of people, both in the tourism and corporate sectors.

The full impact of COVID-19 is yet to be determined, but it will negatively affect the sector in the short term on varying scales.

In Portugal and Mozambique, it could slow down development, while in Angola it may worsen the situation in a sector already impacted by economic contraction, a declining expatriate population, and the impoverishment of the middle class.

Any investment, whether in buying or selling, will be scrutinised more carefully, so communication strategies will be crucial in generating trust among all stakeholders.

No matter how extraordinary the current situation may be, it is essential to contextualise it against past crises and present returns from a medium to long-term perspective.

Public and private entities, including banks, investment funds, real estate developers, construction companies, agencies, associations, and all relevant stakeholders, must come together to promote initiatives that will accelerate the sector’s recovery.