When Government Learned to Meme
Reimagining public communication for Santa Maria City Hall - turning a stiff, ignored government account into a social media presence people from across Brazil actually wanted to follow.
Role
Art Director
Client: Prefeitura de Santa Maria
Agency: Agência CENTRO
Format: Instagram · Facebook
Awards: 3 industry recognitions
The Challenge
A government that nobody listened to
Before Agência CENTRO took over, Santa Maria's official social media presence was exactly what you'd expect from a city government: formal, stiff, and completely ignored. The content followed a rigid institutional template - announcements announced, services listed, dates commemorated - but the city's residents had long stopped paying attention.
The Approach
Using the internet's language to reach people
During the pandemic, with the population's morale low and trust in institutions fragile, the conventional institutional tone wasn't just ineffective - it was actively counterproductive. We needed a different approach.
We started experimenting with memes and internet culture to communicate COVID-19 guidelines. The goal wasn't to be funny for the sake of it - it was to meet people where they already were, speak in their register, and make them stop scrolling.
Phase 01 — Pandemic Communication
Meeting people during the hardest moments
The first posts to break the mold came during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Humor and empathy replaced bureaucratic language - and people responded.
2020 - Pandemic emergency communication. Started using memes and humor to communicate COVID-19 safety guidelines. Posts began reaching beyond Santa Maria - people from across Brazil started engaging and sharing.
2021 - Expanding the playbook. The format expanded to public works announcements, service notices, and civic campaigns.
2022 - Award-winning campaigns. The "Calourada" back-to-school campaign earned two industry awards. A federal Ouvidoria campaign won a third.
Impact
Pioneers in a movement that spread nationwide
Santa Maria became one of the first municipal governments in Brazil to adopt meme-based, internet-native communication as a deliberate strategy.
The engagement shift was immediate: content that had been ignored for years was suddenly being shared, commented on, and discussed. More importantly, residents began to feel a genuine connection with the city's communication.
The biggest signal: people from outside Santa Maria - other cities, other states - started following and engaging with the account. A local government account had become genuinely interesting to strangers.
0 likes · 4 views · May 22, 2026
Reinvented social media for Santa Maria City Hall using memes to increase engagement.
